Webster v. Oregon Short Line Railway

• Decision Date: 12 December 1898
• Citation: 55 P. 661,6 Idaho 312
• Parties: WEBSTER v. OREGON SHORT LINE RAILWAY
• Court: Idaho Supreme Court

55 P. 661

6 Idaho 312

WEBSTER v. OREGON SHORT LINE RAILWAY

Supreme Court of Idaho

December 12, 1898

FOREIGN CORPORATION-DESIGNATED AGENT-VENUE OF ACTIONS IN JUSTICE'S COURT.-By complying with the requirements of law as to the appointment of an agent upon whom process may be served, a foreign corporation doing business in Idaho requires the same rights, but no greater than those of a citizen, so far as the venue of actions against it are concerned.

SAME-JURISDICTION.-Under the provisions of section 4639 of the Revised Statutes, a foreign corporation doing business in this state may be sued in a justice's court in the precinct in which an injury to property occurs, to recover damages for such injury although such precinct may be in a county other than the one in which its principal place of business is, and its duly designated agent to receive process for it resides.

(Syllabus by the court.)

APPEAL from District Court, Bear Lake County.

Order affirmed. Cause remanded. Costs of this appeal awarded to the respondent.

P. L Williams and Joseph H. Blair, for Appellant.

The defendant below, having complied with the provisions of section 2653 of the Revised Statutes of Idaho as approved by the decision of this court in the case of Easley v. New Zealand Ins. Co., 4 Idaho 205, 38 P. 405, was of the opinion, and is now, that the county in which the action was commenced was not the proper county for the trial thereof and that under the provisions of section 4124 of the Revised Statutes of Idaho it might, by filing a demurrer and an affidavit of merits at the time of appearing, also demand in writing that the trial be had in the proper county. (Heald v. Hendy, 65 Cal. 321, 4 P. 27; Williams v. Keller, 6 Nev. 141; Buck v. Eureka, 97 Cal. 135, 31 P. 845.)

T. L Glenn, for Respondent, cites no authorities upon the point decided.

QUARLES, J. Sullivan, C. J. and Huston, J., concur.

OPINION

QUARLES, J.

This action was commenced by the plaintiff in the justice's court in and for Montpelier, in Bear Lake county, before G. C. Hillier, J. P., to recover damages for the negligent killing of three head of horses, in the sum of $ 100. The defendant demurred to the complaint, and filed with its demurrer an affidavit of merits, in which affidavit it is also made to appear that the defendant is a foreign corporation doing business in this state, having its principal place of business in this state, in Bannock county, and that it has, by writing filed with the Secretary of State of the state of Idaho and also with the clerk of the district court of said Bannock county, designated Joseph H. Blair, a person residing in the city of Pocatello, in said Bannock county, as its agent upon whom service of process issued by authority of, or under any law of, this state may be served; and also a demand in writing for a change of venue of said action from said Bear Lake county to said Bannock county. Said demand was denied by the justice's court, whereupon the defendant objected and protested against said court proceeding further in the action; but the court overruled the said demurrer, and, the defendant failing to answer, the evidence was heard, and judgment made and entered in favor of the plaintiff for $ 100 damages, and costs taxed at twenty-four dollars and fifty cents. From this judgment the defendant appealed to the district court in and for Bear Lake county, in which court defendant, on said affidavit and demand, renewed its motion for a change of venue, which motion was denied; and from the...