Commonwealth v. Eclipse Hay Press Co.

• Decision Date: 19 September 1907
• Citation: 104 S.W. 224
• Parties: COMMONWEALTH v. ECLIPSE HAY PRESS CO.
• Court: Kentucky Court of Appeals

104 S.W. 224

COMMONWEALTH v. ECLIPSE HAY PRESS CO.

Court of Appeals of Kentucky.

September 19, 1907

Appeal from Circuit Court, Carlisle County.

"Not to be officially reported."

N. B. Hays, Atty. Gen., Chas. H. Morris, and W. H. Hester, for appellant.

Wickliffe & Wiley, for appellee.

BARKER, J.

This is a proceeding instituted by the commonwealth to recover of the appellee the penalty denounced by section 571, Ky. St. 1903, against foreign corporations carrying on business in this state without filing with the Secretary of State a statement showing the location of its office or offices in this state and the name or names of its agent or agents thereat upon whom process may be served. The appellee is a corporation created by the laws of Missouri, and is engaged in the business of manufacturing and selling hay presses. The evidence shows that the only business it conducted in Kentucky was to employ agents here to solicit orders, which were forwarded to appellee at Kansas City, Mo., for approval by the principal. If the order was approved, the presses were shipped from Missouri to the consumer, or to the agent for the consumer.

Upon the trial of the case on the law and facts submitted to the circuit judge, a judgment was rendered dismissing the petition of the commonwealth. Clearly this judgment is correct. The business done by appellee was interstate commerce, and it is now too well settled to be questioned that a state may not impose regulations upon interstate commerce; this being, under the Constitution of the United States, exclusively within the province of Congress. Commonwealth v. Hogan, McMorrow & Tieke Co., 74 S.W. 737, 25 Ky. Law Rep. 41; Commonwealth v. Baldwin, 96 S.W. 914, 29 Ky. Law Rep. 1075.

Judgment affirmed.