Morris Co v. Skandinavia Ins Co
| Decision Date | 13 May 1929 |
| Docket Number | No. 450,450 |
| Parties | MORRIS & CO. et al. v. SKANDINAVIA INS. CO |
| Court | U.S. Supreme Court |
Messrs. Garner Wynn Green, of Jackson, Miss., John M. Lee, of Chicago, Ill., and Marcellus Green, of Jackson, Miss., for petitioners.
Messrs. Oscar R. Houston, of New York City, and Palmer Pillans, of Mobile, Ala., for respondent.
In April, 1925, petitioner filed its declaration in the circuit court of Harris county, Mississippi, in an action to recover $50,000 from respondent, a Danish corporation, on an insurance policy. Thereupon the sheriff served a summons upon the state insurance commissioner, and the clerk of the court mailed a copy addressed to respondent at its home office in Copenhagen. There being diversity of citizenship, respondent removed the case to the United States District Court for the Southern District of Mississippi, and filed a motion to quash and plea to the jurisdiction on the ground that respondent was not doing business in the state and had not authorized or consented to such service. Issue was joined, there was a trial at which much evidence was heard, the District Court found for respondent, held the service invalid, sustained the plea, and dismissed the case. The Circuit Court of Appeals affirmed. 27 F.(2d) 329.
Petitioner was incorporated under the laws of Louisiana and engaged in the business of packing and shipping meats in the United States and other countries. Respondent was incorporated in Denmark and engaged in the insurance business. Neither of the parties was a resident or citizen of Mississippi; and, as found by both courts, respondent was not doing business in that State. In 1918 at Buenos Aires, Argentina, respondent issued to petitioner the policy on which this action was brought. It covered a shipment of beef belonging to petitioner in a vessel at Montevideo, Uruguay, to be carried to Havana, Cuba. The declaration alleged a total loss and prayed judgment for the full amount of the policy.
In March, 1923, respondent, conformably to section 5864, Hemingway's Code 1927, appointed the state insurance commissioner its attorney upon whom process might be served. The authorization states that service upon him shall be deemed to be valid personal service upon the company, and that such authority shall continue 'so long as any liability of the company remains outstanding' in Mississippi, whether incurred before or after such appointment. And respondent, in accordance with the same section,1 appointed a resident of the state for trans- action of the business of reinsurance therein. It also annually reported such business and paid a license fee. Sections 5866, 5877, 5888. It made a deposit with an officer of the state of New York for the security of its policy holders in the United States and so complied with Mississippi Law. Section 5868.
Respondent's business in the United States was confined to reinsurance, and all such contracts were made in New York City. Some of the reinsured risks covered property in Mississippi, and that made the above-mentioned appointments necessary in order to comply with the laws of the state. Section 5865.
Reinsurance involves no transaction or privity between the reinsurer and those originally assured. The lower courts rightly held that the making of the reinsurance compacts in New York between respondent and insurers of property in Mississippi was not the doing of business in that state. And, as its consent to be sued there cannot be implied from any transactions within the state, there is no jurisdiction, unless respondent's authorization in respect of service is broad enough to extend to this case. Philadelphia & R. R. Co. v. McKibbin, 243 U. S. 264, 37 S. Ct. 280, 61 L. Ed. 710.
The policy sued on was issued and the loss occurred in South America. The importation of such controversies would not serve any interest of Mississippi. The purpose of state statutes requiring the appointment by for- eign corporations of agents upon whom process may be served is primarily to subject them to the jurisdiction of local courts in controversies growing out of transactions within the state. Old Wayne Mut. Life Ass'n v. McDonough, 204 U. S. 8, 18, 21, 27 S. Ct. 236, 51 L. Ed. 345; Simon v. Southern Railway Co., 236 U. S. 115, 130, 35 S. Ct. 255, 59 L. Ed. 492; Mitchell Furniture Co. v. Selden Breck Co., 257 U. S. 213, 215, 42 S. Ct. 84, 66 L. Ed....
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