State ex rel. Missouri Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. King

• Decision Date: 31 July 1869
• Citation: State ex rel. Missouri Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. King, 44 Mo. 283 (Mo. 1869)
• Parties: STATE ex rel. MISSOURI MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Petitioner, v. WYLLIS KING, Superintendent of the Insurance Department of Missouri, Respondent.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

44 Mo. 283

STATE ex rel. MISSOURI MUTUAL LIFE INSURANCE COMPANY, Petitioner,

v.WYLLIS KING, Superintendent of the Insurance Department of Missouri, Respondent.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

July Term, 1869.

Petition for mandamus.

Ewing & Holliday, and Moss & Sherzer, for relator.

Hitchcock & Lubke, for respondent.

WAGNER, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

The relator, a corporation organized under the laws of this State, in compliance with an act for the incorporation and regulation of life assurance companies, approved March 10, 1869, tendered to the respondent, who is superintendent of the insurance department, $100,000, in notes secured by deeds of trust on unencumbered real estate worth at least double the amount loaned.Included in this amount was a note of one Rufus Ford for $6,750, secured by a deed of trust on unencumbered real estate situated in the State of Illinois.The respondent refused to receive this security of Ford, and refused to give the proper certificate of deposit, and a certificate authorizing the relator to transact business, for the reason, solely, that the real estate was situated in Illinois, and that, under the law, he had no authority to receive notes or bonds that were secured by deeds of trust on real estate lying elsewhere than in the State of Missouri.This is the only question presented, viz: whether, under the law relating to insurance, the notes and bonds to be deposited with the superintendent must be secured on unencumbered real estate situated within our own territorial limits; or whether the property, providing that it is unencumbered, may be situated elsewhere.

The law on which this contest arises is the nineteenth section of the act for the incorporation and regulation of life assurance companies.(Sess. Acts 1869, p. 32.)Among other things, that section provides that “no joint-stock or stock and mutual company formed under the provisions of this act, or of any general or special law of this State, for any purpose mentioned in the first section of this act, shall commence or hereafter continue to do business or issue policies unless upon an actual capital of at least $100,000; nor shall any such company commence or hereafter continue to do any business unless the full amount of capital stock named in its charter or articles of association shall have been in good faith subscribed, nor until such company shall have at least $100,000 of its capital paid in and invested in stocks or bonds of the State of Missouri, or in treasury notes or stocks of the United States, or in notes or bonds secured by mortgages or deeds of trust on unencumbered real estate worth at least double the amount loaned thereon,” etc.

It must be conceded that the law is indefinite as to any designation in regard to where the land shall...