State ex rel. Coleman v. Western Union Telegraph Co.

Citations

• 75 Kan. 609
• 90 P. 299
• 1907 Kan. LEXIS 110

Syllabus

<p>SYLLABUS BY THE COURT.</p> <p>1. Foreign Corporations — Conditions Imposed by the State— Police Power. The act of the legislature of 1898, commonly known as the Bush act (Laws 1898, eh. 10), requiring foreign corporations to comply with certain conditions, including the payment of charter fees computed upon the amount of their authorized capital stock, for the privilege of exercising their franchises within the state, was enacted primarily to protect the people of the state from imposition, deception, fraud and wrong arising from the abuse of corporate privileges and the mismanagement of corporate affairs, and is a measure which the state had authority to adopt under the police power which has been reserved to it.</p> <p>2. - Charter Pee. The requirement of the law that a charter fee be paid fixes one of the conditions precedent to the granting of permission to a foreign corporation to do business within the state. It levies no tax upon property or franchises, is not an attémpt to extend the taxing power of the state to subjects outside of its jurisdiction, and does not affect the character of the act as a police regulation, although it may produce some revenue.</p> <p>3. - Conditions Imposed Apply Only to Domestic Business. The provision of the Bush act that “any corporation organized under the laws of any other state, territory or foreign country and seeking to do business in this state” (Laws 1898, ch. 10, § 2) shall perform the conditions precedent required of it before obtaining permission to do business in this state is to be interpreted in subordination to the provisions of the constitution of the United States, and as intended to apply to subjects within the lawful jurisdiction of the legislature; and so interpreted the law has no application to interstate commerce carried on by foreign corporations, or to business transacted for the federal government, and foreign corporations may engage in such commerce and transact such business in this state without o