State ex rel. Baker River & Shuiksan Railroad v. Nichols

Citations

• 51 Wash. 619
• 99 P. 876
• 1909 Wash. LEXIS 1241

Syllabus

<p>Corporations — Foreign—Right to do Business — Comity. No principal of comity is involved in the right of a foreign corporation to file articles of incorporation in this state pursuant to the laws of this state; since comity is a rule of expediency based upon the law or decisions of other states, rather than our own.</p> <p>Same — Filing Articles — Duplication of Names — Statutes — Construction. Laws 1903 entitled an act to prevent the duplication of corporate entitlements, which provides that “no corporation shall take the name of another heretofore organized under the laws of this state nor of any foreign corporation having complied with the laws of this state,” applies alike to domestic and foreign corporations, although the first paragraph relates only to domestic corporations; and articles of a foreign corporation cannot be filed if the name is the same as that of any domestic corporation; especially in view of Const., art. 12, § 7, providing that no foreign corporation shall be permitted to do business within the state on more favorable conditions than are prescribed for similar domestic corporations (Rudkin, J., dissenting).</p> <p>Same — Mandamus. Mandamus will not issue to compel the secretary of state to file improper articles of incorporation, duplicating corporate names, and leave the aggrieved party to its remedy in equity; since the courts will not require the doing of a vain or illegal act, and the public is concerned in maintaining a distinction between corporate names.</p>