German Alliance Insurance v. Hale

Citations

• 219 U.S. 307
• 31 S. Ct. 246
• 55 L. Ed. 229
• 1911 U.S. LEXIS 1638

Syllabus

<p>The business of fire insurance is of an extensive and peculiar character, concerning a large number of people; and it is within-the police power of the State to adopt such regulations as will protect the public against the evils arising from combinations of those engaged in such business, and to substitute competition for monopoly; and regulations which have a real substantial relation to that end and are not essentially arbitrary do not deprive the insurance companies of their ' property without due process of law.</p> <p>All corporations, associations and individuals, within its jurisdiction, are subject to such regulations in respect of their relative rights and duties as the State may, in the exercise of its police power and in harmony with its own and the Federal Constitution, prescribe for the public convenience and the general good; and the State may also prescribe, within such limits, the particular means of enforcing such regulations.</p> <p>Although the means devised by the state legislature for the enforcement of its police regulations may not be the best that can be de- , vised, this court cannot declare them illegal if the enactment is within the power of the State. ■</p> <p>A State is not bound to go to the full extent of its power in legislatirg against an evil from which it seeks to protect the public.</p> <p>A statute which applies equally to all of the same class and under like conditions does not deny equal' protection of the’law.</p> <p>A statute that applies to all insurance companies which unite with others in fixing rates to be charged by each constituent member of the combination does, not .deny equal protection of the law to the companies so uniting. The classification is neither unreasonable nor arbitrary, but has a reasonable and just relation to the evil which the legislation seeks to prevent.-</p> <p>Where defendant takes no exception to action of the trial court in sus-: taining demurrer to one of his pleas, but goes to trial on the