Swing v. Brister

Citations

• 87 Miss. 516
• 40 So. 146

Syllabus

<p>1. Insurance. Foreign company. Business. What constitutes. Code 1880, § 1073. Laws 1890, ch. 4, p. 15.</p> <p>The bringing of a suit in this state by a trustee for the creditors of a foreign mutual fire insurance company to collect assessments imposed on members by the judgment of a court of a sister state is not the transacting of insurance business in this state, within the meaning of Code 1880, § 1073, Laws 1890, ch. 4, p. 15, prescribing the conditions on which foreign insurance companies may do business in this state. Cowan v. London, etc., Corporation, 73 Miss. 321, distinguished.</p> <p>2. Same. Policy of fire inswance. Construction. Situs of contract.</p> <p>Where a citizen of this state, through brokers residing in another state, applied to a foreign insurance company, having no agent in this state, for a policy of fire insurance on property in this state, and the same was written out of this state at the domicile of the foreign company, the contract is not a Mississippi contract, and is not void because the insurer had not complied with the statutes of this state. Code 1880, § 1073, Laws 1890, ch. 4, p. 15, prescribing conditions upon which foreign insurance companies may do business in this state.</p> <p>3. Same. Suits. Constitutional law. Fourteenth amendment United States constitution.</p> <p>A foreign insurance company, which has never transacted an insurance business in this state, may sue in the courts here for the collection of a premium on a contract of insurance made by a citizen of this state at the domicile of the company, although the property insured be in this state and the company had not complied with the statutes of this state prescribing the conditions under which foreign insurance companies may do business in this state, since to construe the statutes as denying such right would be to render them unconstitutional, as violative of the fourteenth amendment to the constitution of the United States with respect to due process of law.</p>