Union Cent. Life Ins. Co. v. Durfee

• Decision Date: 10 November 1896
• Citation: 45 N.E. 441,164 Ill. 186
• Parties: UNION CENT. LIFE INS. CO. v. DURFEE.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

164 Ill. 186

45 N.E. 441

UNION CENT. LIFE INS. CO.

v.DURFEE.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

Nov. 10, 1896.

Appeal from circuit court, Sangamon county; Jacob Fouke, Judge.

Action by Union Central Life Insurance Company against Bradford K. Durfee, insurance superintendent, to recover taxes paid under protest. From a judgment in favor of defendant, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Hamilton & Fullenwider, for appellant.

M. T. Moloney, Atty, Gen., T. Y. Scofield, and M. L. Newell, for appellee.

CRAIG, J.

This was an action brought by Union Central Life Insurance Company against Bradford K. Durfee, insurancesuperintendent of the state, to recover back the sum of $5,427.43, paid under protest. The parties entered into a stipulation in writing, in which the facts were all agreed upon, and a trial was had before the court without a jury, resulting in a judgment in favor of the defendant. The facts are as follows:

The plaintiff, the Union Central Life Insurance Company, is a corporation organized and doing business under the laws of the state of Ohio, and is engaged entirely and exclusively in the life insurance business. That Heretofore, and for several years, the said plaintiff has been doing a life insurance business in the state of Illinois, having been regularly admitted to do said business in said state of Illinois, as is required by the statutes of the state of Illinois, and that it has heretofore complied with all the laws of the state of Illinois reglating the business of life insurance as done by such foreign life insurance company as is the plaintiff. That during the year 1895, and for several years prior thereto, it had established agencies and transacted life insurance business within the said state of Illinois, and had fully complied with all the laws of said state regulating such business of life insurance, and had a proper and lawful certificate of authority to do such life insurance business in said state of Illinois. That the plaintiff, in the month of January, 1896, filed with the defendant, as superintendent of insurance of the state of Illinois, its annual statement, as required by said superintendent of insutance, showing, among other things, the gross amount of the premiums received by the plaintiff in the said state of Illinois during the year 1895, and that such report was satisfactory to said insurance superintendent, and that such statement of the amount of the premiums received by said company was filed with the said insurance superintendent in compliance with the statutes of the state of Illinois. That the amount of the premiums so received in gross by the plaintiff for the year 1895 was $217,097.10. That the defendant, as insurance superintendent of the state of Illinois, received said report and statement, and approved the same, and thereupon assessed against the plaintiff 2 1/2 per cent. of said gross amount of the premiums so received by the plaintiff as a tax on the same, claiming the right to assess such tax against the plaintiff under the statutes of the state of Illinois, hereinafter refered to and set forth; and that said defendant, as such insurance superintendent, presented to the plaintiff a bill for 2 1/2 per cent. tax on the said sum of $217,097.10 gross premiums received by the plaintiff in Illinois in the year 1895, which tax amounted to the sm of $5,427.43, which sum of money the insurance superintendent, the defendant in this cause, demanded of the plaintiff under penalty of revoking the license of the plaintiff to do life insurance business in the state of Illinois, for nonpayment of said tax, as is provided by the laws of the state of Illinois in such cases. That after such demand so made by the defendant as such insurance commissioner, the plaintiff did, on the 17th day of April, 1896, protest against the payment of the said sum of money as a tax upon its gross receipts as aforesaid, and denied the validity of such tax, and denied the right of said defendant, as such insurance superintendent, to force the collection of the same from the plaintiff as such tax under any laws of the state of Illinois; and, after so protesting and denying the validity of said tax and the law under which said insurance superintendent claimed the right to impose and collect such tax, and the right of said defendant, as such insurance commissioner, to collect and receive the same from the plaintiff, the plaintiff made payment of the said sum of $5,427.43, the amount of said taxes as aforesaid, to the said Bradford K. Durfee, under protest, and under and in pursuance of the following stipulation:

‘It is hereby stipulated and agreed between B. K. Durfee, insurance superintendent of the state of Illinois, and the Union Central Life Insurance Company, of the state of Ohio, that said company shall pay to the said B. K. Durfee, under protest, the sum of $5,427.43, being the amount claimed by said insurance superintendent as due from said company for taxes for the year 1895, being two and one-half per cent. upon gross business or premiums received by said company upon its business transacted in said state of Illinois during the year 1895, under section 20 of the general insurance law of said state, passed and approved by the legislature thereof March 26, 1869; said sum of money to be held by said B. K. Durfee to abide the result of an action to be brought by said company against him to recover back said sum, and to test the validity of the law; it being understood and agreed between the parties hereto that said action shall be prosecuted without unreasonable delay to final judgment in the supreme court of said state of Illinois, and both parties shall abide said judgment. April 17th, 1896. That the said defendant claims authority, as insurance superintendent of the state of Illinois, to assess and collect said tax of two and one-half per cent. upon the gross receipts of the plaintiff in the state of Illinois for the year 1895 under and by virtue of the laws of the state of Illinois and the laws of the state of Ohio, and more particularly under the following statutes of the state of Illinois: ‘(Reciprocity.) Sec. 20. Whenever the existing or future laws of any other state of the United States shall require of life insurance companies incorporated by or organized under the laws of this state, and having agencies in such other state, or of the agents thereof, any deposit of securities in such state for the protection of policy holders, or otherwise, or any payment for taxes, fines, penalties, certificates of authority, license fees, or otherwise, greater than the amount required for such purposes from similar companies of other states by the then existing laws of this state, then and in every such case, all life insurance companiesof such states establishing, or having heretofore established, an agency or agencies in this state, shall be and are hereby required to make the same deposit, for a like purpose, with the state...