Case ID: ohio-law-abs_6/html/0015-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "DAY, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

STATE ex JOHNSON & HIGGINS CO. v. SAFFORD, Supt. of Ins. STATE ex MARSH & McLENNAN CO. v. SAFFORD, Supt. of Ins.
    Ohio Supreme Court.
    Nos. 20769 and 20770.
    Decided Dec. 28, 1927.
    In Mandamus.
    Demurrer sustained.
    313. CORPORATIONS — 647. Insurance.
    1. In furtherance of Justice, fiction of corporate entity may be disregarded.
    2. Where statutes forbids issuing insurance agent’s license unless applicant be resident of State and supferintendent of insurance has denied license to domestic insurance corporation, majority of whose capital stock is owned by holder of foreign insurance broker’s license upon ground that fiction of domestic corporate entity is sought to be used as means of circumventing statute, writ of mandamus seeking to compel superintendent to issue such license will be denied.
   DAY, J.

1. In the furtherance of justice, the fiction of a corporate entity may be disregarded where the corporation is so controlled and its affairs so conducted as to make it merely an instrumentality for the purpose of evading and circumventing a state law.

2. Where a statute forbids the issuing; of an' insurance agent’s license unless the applicant be a resident of the state, and the super- ^ intendent of insurance, pursuant to adminis-1 trative precedent and in the exercise of a sound discretion, has denied a license to a domestic insurance corporation, the majority of whose capital stock is owned by the holder of a foreign insurance broker’s license, upon the ground that the fiction of the domestic corporate entity is sought to be used as a means of circumventing the statute by such holder of a foreign insurance broker’s license, a writ of mandamus seeking to compel the superintendent of insurance to issue such license will be denied.

(Marshall, CJ., . Allen, Kinkade, Robinson, Jones and Matthias, JJ., concur.)