Layden v. Endowment Rank K. P. Of The World. Supreme Court Of North Carolina

• Decision Date: 07 June 1901
• Citation: 39 S.E. 47,128 N.C. 546
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: LAYDEN. v. ENDOWMENT RANK K. P. OF THE WORLD. Supreme Court of North Carolina.

39 S.E. 47

128 N.C. 546

LAYDEN.

v.ENDOWMENT RANK K. P. OF THE WORLD. Supreme Court of North Carolina.

Supreme Court of North Carolina.

June 7, 1901.

ENDOWMENT RANK K. P. OF THE WORLD.

REMOVAL OF CAUSES—CORPORATIONS—FOREIGN AND DOMESTIC.

1. Where, by act of congress, a body is thereby incorporated "in the District of Columbia" to exercise all the powers incidental "to fraternal and benevolent corporations within the District of Columbia, " it is a corporation created for local purposes, and as such has no inherent right to do business in a state in violation of the state statutes.

2. Pub. Laws 1899, c. 62, § 1, provides that every foreign insurance company desiring to do business in North Carolina shall become a domestic corporation by filing with the secretary of state copies of its charters and bylaws. Section 3 provides that on compliance with the act such corporation shall immediately become a corporation of the state, and may sue and be sued in the state courts. Held, that a body incorporated by act of congress as a fraternal and benevolent corporation in the District of Columbia, on compliance with such state law, becomes a domestic corporation, and not a mere licensee to do business in the state.

3. A fraternal and benevolent foreign corporation which had become a domestic corporation by compliance with Pub. Laws 1899, providing the manner in which foreign corporations may become domestic corporations, when sued in the state court by a citizen of North Carolina as a domestic corporation on a cause of action which discloses no federal question, cannot remove the cause to the United States circuit court.

Appeal from superior court, Davidson county; Bryan, Judge.

Action by Minnie C. Layden against the Endowment Rank of the Knights of Pythias of the World. From an order refusing to remove the cause to the United States circuit court, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

The following Is the statemenfof the case on appeal: This was a civil action returnable to fall term of the superior court of Davidson county held on the first Monday in September, 1900, H. R. Bryan, judge presiding, for the recovery of $3,000 upon an insurance policy issued by defendant company on the life of T. L. Layden, plaintiff's intestate. In apt time, namely, before defendant's time for answering had expired, the defendant company, by its attorneys, moved to remove this action into the circuit court of the United States in and for the Fourth district of Western North Carolina, and presented a petition and bond, copies of which are herewith attached, and made a part of this case on appeal. The motion for removal was made upon the ground that the defendant company was, at the beginning of this action and at the time of the filing of the said petition, a nonresident of the state of North Carolina, and that the plaintiff was at the said time a resident of the said state, and uponthe further ground that it was a corporation organized by act of the congress of the United States, and hence that the controversy arose under the constitution and laws of the United States (28 Stat. 96, c. 119) approved June 29, 1894. This motion was resisted by plaintiff upon the ground that the defendant company was a corporation under the laws of the state of North Carolina, having theretofore amended her complaint by leave of court, setting forth this fact, which complaint was not verified. This motion his honor refused, upon the ground that the defendant had become a domestic corporation under the act known as the "Craige Act"; and from this order refusing to order the removal of this cause into the circuit court of the United States defendant excepted, and appealed to the supreme court. It appears that in apt time the defendant filed the following petition for removal, together with the bond required by law: "Comes the defendant, Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias, sued herein as the Endowment Rank Knights of Pythias, and shows to the court: That this suit is brought by the plaintiffs to recover the sum of $3,000 upon a certificate of membership in the Endowment Rank Knights of Pythias, issued by the defendant, in which said certificate were named the said plaintiffs as beneficiaries, and is wholly of a civil nature; that the matter and amount in dispute in said suit exceeds, exclusive of interest and costs, the sum or value of $2,000, all of which will more fully appear by the complaint in said suit, filed July 5, 1900, which is hereby referred to, and made a part hereof; that the said suit is one arising under the laws of the United States; that the said Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias is, and was at the time of the commencement of said suit, a nonresident of this state, and a corporation organized and existing under the act of congress, to wit, the act approved May 5, 1870, entitled 'An act to provide for the creation of corporations in the District of Columbia by general law' (16 Stat. 98), and the amendments thereto, and an act was passed, 'An act to incorporate the Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias, ' approved June 29, 1894 (28 Stat 96, c. 119); that the said certificate was so issued by the defendant under and by virthe of authority derived from and under said acts of congress, and that the same, and acts done under and in pursuance thereof, are involved in this action; that the plaintiff, at the time of the commencement of this action, was, and still is, a resident and citizen of the state of North Carolina; that the time within which the said Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias is required by the laws of the state of North Carolina, and the rules and practice of said court, to answer or plead to said complaint in said suit, has not yet expired; that said Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias makes and files herewith a bond in the sum of $500, with good and sufficient surety, for its entering into the circuit court of the United States in and for the Fourth district of Western North Carolina on the first day of its next session a copy of the record in this suit, and for paying all costs that may be awarded by said circuit court, if it shall hold that this suit was wrongfully or improperly removed thereto. Wherefore the Supreme Lodge Knights of Pythias prays this court to proceed no further herein, except to accept this petition and bond, and to make an order requiring said defendant to enter and file a copy of the record herein in said circuit court of the United States, as required by law."

The complaint is as follows: "The plaintiffs, complaining of defendants, allege: (1) That in the year 1894, at and in the county and state aforesaid [Davidson county, N. C.], T. F. Layden, deceased, of Lexington, N. C, took of the defendants a duly-executed policy of insurance (No. 49, 165), whereby they agreed to pay the sum of $3,000 at his death to 'Minnie C. Layden, his wife, and surviving children, ' and said T. F. Layden paid all the premiums and dues regularly for a period of six years, and up to his death, and fully complied with all the conditions of said policy. (2) That the plaintiff, Minnie C. Layden, was the wife therein referred to, and E. H. Layden, for whom Minnie C. Layden, his mother, is guardian, is the only child, surviving, or otherwise, of said T. F. Layden, insured. (3) That said T. F. Layden died in Lexington, N. C, on the 15th day of January, 1900, while in good standing, and due notice and proof of death were made to the defendants, insurers, on blanks provided by them as the policy required. (4) That the defendants refused, and still refuse, to pay the beneficiaries herein recited the $3,000 due on and by said policy on the 15th day of January, 1900, and said amount is still due and unpaid to plaintiffs. Wherefore the plaintiffs demand judgment against the defendants: (1) For the sum of $3,000, with interest from the 15th day of January, 1900, till paid; (2) for such other and further relief as the plaintiffs may be entitled to in law and equity; (3) for the costs of this action." The amendment to the complaint is in the following words: "(11) That the defendant company herein sued, and against whom this plaintiff asks relief, is a corporation duly formed under and by authority of the laws of the state of North Carolina, doing business in said state as an insurance company."

Walser & Walser, for appellant.

S. E. Williams, for appellee.

DOUGLAS, J. (after stating the facts) The point directly presented to us is whether a corporation originally organized under the laws of the United States, but which has become a domestic corporation of this stateunder the provisions of chapter 62 of the Public Laws of 1899, can remove a cause Into the circuit court of the United States when expressly sued as a domestic corporation. That such a corporation, originally organized under the laws of another state, cannot do so, is settled in the recent case of Debnam v. Telegraph Co., 126 N. C. 831, 36 S. E. 269, which is adopted as a part of this opinion. Whether the present defendant comes within the operation of that decision is the question before us. We think it does. We are not prepared to say that the United States are on a level in all respects with the states, which are considered as foreign jurisdictions. The national government, while a distinct sovereignty, is not a foreign state, because it is composed of all the states, and is equally at home in all of...