Cincinnati Mutual Health Assurance Co. v. Rosenthal

Citations

• 55 Ill. 85

Syllabus

<p>1. Foreign corporations—powers of the States to prescribe conditions. It is competent for the several States of the Union to prescribe the conditions upon which an insurance company, or other corporation created in another State, may transact business within their borders. Corporations are not citizens of the State in which they were created, within the meaning of the federal constitution, so as to exempt them from the operation of such conditions.</p> <p>2. Nor is this power of the States to impose conditions upon foreign corporations, at all affected by the permission given in their charters to do business in other States thau that of their creation. The boundary of each State is the territorial limit of its legislative power.</p> <p>3. Same—their contracts declared to he unlawful, ewe void. Under the act of 1855, it is unlawful for any insurance company incorporated in another State, to transact any business of insurance in this State, without first procuring a certificate of authority from the auditor of State, such certificate to be based upon a statement to be made by the company, the character of which is prescribed in the act.</p> <p>4. So where an insurance company, incorporated in another State, undertook to transact business of insurance in this State, without having complied with the conditions of the act of 1855, receiving from a party assured his promissory note for stock in the company and for premium, the contract being unlawful under the statute, the note was held to be absolutely void in the hands of the company, and this, notwithstanding the statute imposed a penalty upon the company for doing business in this State in violation of its provisions.</p> <p>5. Quaere, whether the holder of a policy of insurance, issued in this State by a foreign corporation which had not complied with the conditions of the act of 1855, would have his remedy against the company in case of loss.</p>