Northwestern Masonic Aid Ass'n v. Waddill

• Decision Date: 03 April 1897
• Parties: NORTHWESTERN MASONIC AID ASS'N v. WADDILL.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

40 S.W. 648

138 Mo. 628

NORTHWESTERN MASONIC AID ASS'N v. WADDILL.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

April 3, 1897.

INSURANCE — TAXATION — ASSESSMENT COMPANIES — CONSTITUTIONAL LAW.

1. Sess. Acts 1895, p. 198, § 2, amending Rev. St. c. 89 (General Insurance Law) art. 6, § 5958, and providing for a tax on "premiums" received by foreign insurance companies on business done in Missouri, does not apply to companies doing business on the "assessment plan," under chapter 89, art. 3, which provides (section 5869) that companies doing business under its provisions shall not be subject to any of the requirements of the general insurance law, except as provided in such article.

2. Rev. St. c. 89, art. 3 (enacted after the balance of the insurance law), regulating "assessment" companies, and exempting them from all provisions of chapter 89, regulating "premium" life insurance companies, makes a natural and reasonable classification of the insurance business; and hence a tax on "premium" companies alone is not in conflict with Const. art. 10, § 3, requiring taxes to be "uniform upon the same class of subjects."

In banc. Appeal from St. Louis circuit court; L. B. Vallient, Judge.

Action by injunction by the Northwestern Masonic Aid Association against James R. Waddill, superintendent of the insurance department. There was a decree granting injunction

on the overruling of a demurrer to the petition, and defendant appeals. Affirmed.

E. C. Crow, Atty. Gen., and S. B. Jeffries, for appellant. W. C. & J. C. Jones, Boyle, Priest & Lehman, and Wm. Law, Jr., for respondent.

BRACE, J.

This is an action by injunction, instituted in the circuit court of the city of St. Louis, to restrain the defendant, superintendent of the insurance department of the state of Missouri, from assessing and levying a tax of 2 per cent. upon premiums received by plaintiff, a corporation under the laws of the state of Illinois, doing business in the state of Missouri, on the assessment plan, and from canceling its license to do business, because of its failure to pay such tax, in which nine other foreign corporations of like character are joined in the petition, and for whom the same relief is prayed as for all other corporations of the same character similarly situated. To the petition, the superintendent of insurance interposed a demurrer, which was overruled. He declined to plead further, and, from the decree granting injunction as prayed for, he appeals.

1. The defendant claims the right to assess and levy the tax in question by virtue of the provisions of an act of the general assembly approved March 20, 1895, entitled "An act to repeal sections 5958, 5959, 5961, 5962, 5967 and 5968 of article 6, chapter 89, and sections 5963, 5964, and 5966 of said article and chapter, as amended by an act approved April 3rd, 1891, entitled `Taxation of Insurance Companies,' and to enact (6) new sections in lieu thereof." Sess. Acts 1895, p. 198.

Sections 1 and 2 of that act read as follows:

"Section 1. That sections 5958, 5959, 5961, 5962, 5967 and 5968 of article 6, chapter 89, Revised Statutes 1889, and sections 5963, 5964, and 5966 of said article and chapter as amended by an act approved Apl. 3, 1891, be and the same is hereby, repealed, and the following new sections enacted in lieu thereof, to be designated as sections 5958, 5959, 5961, 5962, 5967 and 5968.

"Sec. 2 (Sec. 5958). Every insurance company or association not organized under the laws of this state shall as hereinafter provided, annually pay a tax upon the premiums received, whether in cash or notes, in this state or on account of business done in this state, at a rate of two per cent. per annum, in lieu of all other taxes, except as in this article otherwise provided, which amount of taxes shall be assessed and collected as hereinafter provided."

It is claimed that the power to levy and collect the tax in question in the manner provided in the subsequent sections is by this section 2 (5958) conferred upon the defendant. In order to properly appreciate the force and meaning of the terms of this section, it is necessary to read them in connection with the other provisions of the general insurance law, of which by this legislation they became a part. By article 3 of that law, entitled "Insurance Companies on the Assessment Plan," such companies are defined, their organization provided for, the terms prescribed upon which foreign corporations of that character shall be permitted to do business in this state; and by section 5869 of that article it is provided "that nothing herein contained shall subject any corporation doing business under this article to any other provisions or requirements of the general insurance laws of this state, except as distinctly herein set forth."

The plaintiff and the companies named in the petition are insurance companies on the assessment plan, as defined in this article, and, under it, doing business in this state. To hold that moneys received by them as "assessments," under this plan, are "premiums," within the meaning of section 2 (5958), which is now one of the "provisions or requirements of the general insurance laws of this state," would not only be to confound terms, and disregard the well-defined distinction made...