Hodges v. Home Ins. Co. of N. Y.

• Decision Date: 11 October 1950
• Docket Number: No. 19,19
• Citation: 232 N.C. 475,61 S.E.2d 372
• Parties: HODGES, v. HOME INS. CO. OF NEW YORK. HODGES v. GRANITE STATE FIRE INS. CO., PORTSMOUTH, N. H. HODGES v. CONNECTICUT FIRE INS. CO., HARTFORD, CONN. HODGES v. NEW HAMPSHIRE FIRE INS. CO. OF MANCHESTER, N. H.
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court

Page 372

61 S.E.2d 372

232 N.C. 475

HODGES, v. HOME INS. CO. OF NEW YORK.

HODGES v. GRANITE STATE FIRE INS. CO., PORTSMOUTH, N. H.

HODGES v. CONNECTICUT FIRE INS. CO., HARTFORD, CONN.

HODGES v. NEW HAMPSHIRE FIRE INS. CO. OF MANCHESTER, N. H.

No. 19

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Oct. 11, 1950

Carter & Carter, Washington, D. D. Topping, Belhaven, for plaintiff.

Rodman & Rodman, Washington, for defendants.

WINBORNE, Justice.

On Defendants' Appeal: The question here is whether the commissioner of insurance of North Carolina is authorized to accept or waive service of summons in an action against a foreign insurance company doing business in this State. The statute, Article 17 of Chapter 58 of the General Statutes, indicates a negative answer.

Substituted service of process was unknown to common law, but depends upon statutory authorization. And a strict compliance with the provisions of such statute must be shown in order to support a judgment based on such substituted service. The inquiry must be as to whether the requisites of the statute have been complied with, and such compliance must appear on the record. 42 Am.Jur. 55, Process, Section 66. Indeed, in Propst v. Hughes Trucking Co., 223 N.C. 490, 27 S.E.2d 152, this Court in treating the subject of substituted service of process on nonresident operators of motor vehicles on the public highways of this State, G.S. § 1-105, applied the rule of strict compliance.

The statute provides that foreign insurance companies, upon complying with the conditions set forth therein, applicable to them, may be admitted to transact business in this State, etc. G.S. § 58-149, as amended by 1945 Session Laws of North Carolina, Chapter 384.

The statute also provides that such insurance company may be admitted and authorized when it, among other things, '(3) By a duly executed instrument filed in his office constitutes and appoints the commissioner and his successor its true and lawful attorney, upon whom all lawful processes in any action or legal proceeding against it may be served, and therein agrees that any lawful process against it which may be served upon such attorney shall be of the same force and validity as if served on the company * * *. ' G.S. § 58-150, as amended by 1945 Session Laws of N. C., Chapter 384, Sec. 1.

And the statute requires that 'The service of legal process upon any insurance * * * company, admitted and authorized to do business in this state under the provisions of this chapter, shall be made by leaving the same in the hands or office of the commissioner of insurance, and no service upon a company that is licensed to do business in this state is valid unless made upon the commissioner of insurance, the general agent for service, or some officer of the company', and that 'as a condition precedent to a valid service of process and of the duty of the commissioner in the premises, the plaintiff...