The Pensacola journal. (Pensacola, Fla.) 1898-1985, 1911-06-14

has been issued to It under the prov1s-
ions of this act, such corporation shall
within thirty days thereafter, file q
duly authenticated copy Of the amend
| ment in the office of the secretary OF
state, who shall issue to the corpora
ton a certificate Of the fling; but II
the amendment Is one increasing the
| capital stock, he shall not deliver the
certificate until he shall have received
from the corporation for the use OF
| the state sum equal to that when
such corporation would have been re-
uafred to pay II It had been q corpora
ton increasing it's capital stock under
the laws of this state. II any such
| corporation shall fail to file any
amendment and to make the payment
aforesaid within the said thirty days,
/ its permit shall be deemed to be re-
1 voked unfit the provisions OF this sec
| ton shall be complied with. The Zee
of the secretary of state for granting
| the certificate shall be two dollars
| Sec. 4. Every contract made by or
on behalf Of any foreign corporation
affecting its liability or relating to
property within the state before 1t
shall have complied with the prOvIs-
/ ions of this act shall be void On Its
behalf and on behalf of its assigns,
shall be enforcible against 1t or them.
sec. 5. This act shall be deemed to
4
| associations, foreign insurance COM
panies, foreign surety companies, and
all other foreign corporations which
now are or hereafter may be required
to obtain other certificates Of authority
to transact business in this state, and
to impose an additional requirement
upon them, as well as to all other for
eign corporations except those which
are excepted by it's terms from the
operation Of this act.
Sec. 6. This act shall not apply
to any foreign corporation whatever,
transacting business in this state at
the time this act shall take effect:
provided, that any such foreign cor
poration hereafter increasing its CAPT.
tai stock shall comply with the pro-
visions of section 8 in relation thereto.
Sec. Z. A foreign corporation is
defined to be a corporation incorpor-
ated by or under the laws Of any other
state or territory, or Of any other coun-
try.
which shall violate the provisions OF
sections 1 or 3 shall, upon conviction,
be fined not more than one thousand
dollars for the first offense, and not
more than five thousand dollars Of
each subsequent offense, and any OFF,
Ger or agent Of any foreign corporation
who shall violate the provisions of sec
lions 1 or shall, upon conviction, be
punished by a fine of not more than
two thousand dollars or by inprison-
ment not exceeding six months, or by
both such fine and Imprisonment"
At the time these foreign insurance
companies came into this state, there
was no law by which it was intimated,
or even suggested, that they would be
subject to any laws passed in the flu
ture which would impose discrimina7
frNV-x Tnuf ion nj
and in favor of domestic companies
doing the same nature of business and
under the very same conditions.
The very minute a foreign life insur-
ance company insured the life of any
one or more persons, it acquired a con-
tinuing right to collect the annual
premiums due in accordance with the
provisions of it's policies. 1t cannot
be claimed that upon the termination
of it's annual license tax that the said
corporation was again admitted. From
the very nature of it's business, upon
being admitted to do business under
the laws of the state, and having done
business, 1t acquired vested rights. 1t
then became entitled to the equal pro-
lection of the laws which, according
to the United States supreme court,
means "subjection to equal laws apply
ing alike to all in the same situation"
or, according to the supreme court
of Florida hereinbefore quoted. the
power of the legislature should not be
so exercised as to deny to any person
the equal protection of the laws" The
section of this proposed act denies
to such companies the equal protection
of the laws and would therefore be
held unconstitutional, null -|and void.
1t would require three or four years
for such to be determined by the
supreme court of the United States.
The state could not afford to be with
out the use of the money derived from
such licenses. Such licenses are paid
at the beginning of each year. For
the year 1911 there has already been
paid to the state treasurer $114,662.27,
of which $11, S12.56 was paid by such
domestic companies and $102,849
was paid by such foreign companies
The amount paid by all Of such COM
panies for 1910 was $98,947.30. showing
of 1910 of $15,704.97. If such an in
crease was to continue for the next
two years, to the converting of the
next legislature the amount received
by the state from such licenses would
aggregate over $3.50, 100000. The state
cannot afford to run the risk of having
such an ammount tied up in a law
suit, especially when it has all to lase
and nothing to gain by such. Should
it take three or four years to decide
the suit. any one can determine for
himself how much would be involved
over $500, 100000.
With the vetoing of this bill, the
revenue act of 1907 remains in force.
1t has been claimed by some of the
advocates of this bill that 1t will in
crease by many thousands of dollars
the revenue derived under the act of
1907. / have had prepared and placed
in the deadly parallel column" the
items of revenue derived from the two