Elms v. Southern Power Co.

• Decision Date: 05 October 1907
• Parties: ELMS v. SOUTHERN POWER CO.
• Court: South Carolina Supreme Court

58 S.E. 809

78 S.C. 323

ELMS v. SOUTHERN POWER CO.

Supreme Court of South Carolina

October 5, 1907

Appeal from Circuit Court, Lancaster County; C. G. Dantzler, Judge.

Action by John W. Elms against the Southern Power Company. From an order transferring the cause to another county, plaintiff appeals. Reversed.

J Harry Foster, for appellant.

Morrison & Whitlock, Russell G. Lucas, and W. C. Hough, for respondent.

JONES J.

This appeal is from an order of Judge Dantzler transferring the cause for trial to Chester county on the ground that the court of common pleas for Lancaster county had no jurisdiction to try the same. The action was commenced in the common pleas for Lancaster county to recover damages for personal injuries alleged to have resulted to plaintiff in Chester county from the concurrent negligence of the defendant Southern Power Company and James P. Rosemon. Service was made on defendants in Chester county, and defendants appeared and made joint answer to the merits. The case was docketed for trial in Lancaster county and continued for one term. At next term the defendant made a motion that the action be transferred for trial to Chester county, and if that request be refused, to transfer to Greenville county upon showing by affidavit that defendant Rosemon was a resident of Greenville county and that defendant Southern Power Company was a domestic corporation, having complied with chapter 44 of the Civil Code of 1902.

There is no evidence that the defendant company maintains an agent and conducts its corporate business in Lancaster, but, on the contrary, it appears that it maintains an agent and conducts its business in Chester county where the injury occurred and the service was made. Section 1793, Civ. Code 1902, provides "When a foreign corporation complies with the provisions of this chapter, it shall ipso facto become a domestic corporation. It may sue and be sued in the courts of this state, and shall be subjected to the jurisdiction of this state as fully as if it were originally created under the laws of the state of South Carolina." If, for the purposes of this action, the defendant Southern Power Company must be treated as a domestic corporation, then upon the showing made Chester county is the proper place for trial as to that defendant. In the absence of a statute confining residence to a particular county, a domestic corporation is resident in any county in the state where it maintains an agent and conducts its corporate business, and under section 146, Code Proc. 1902, must be sued in the county where it resides. McGrath v. Insurance Co., 74 S.C. 70, 54 S.E. 218; Nixon & Danforth v. Insurance Co., 74 S.C 439, 54 S.E. 657. On the other hand, if the defendant company must be treated as a foreign corporation in this action, the plaintiff, under section 423 of the Code of Civil Procedure of 1902, may elect in which county to sue, and the appearance and answer of defendant in the court of common pleas for Lancaster county, where the suit was brought, would give that court complete jurisdiction. We are of the opinion...