Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/339/643/
Timestamp: 2019-04-25 09:49:00+00:00

Document:
In a proceeding under § 6 of the Virginia "Blue Sky Law," the State Corporation Commission ordered an Association, located in Nebraska and engaged in the mail order health insurance business, and its treasurer (appellants here) to cease and desist from further offerings or sales of certificates of insurance to Virginia residents until the Association had complied with the Act by furnishing information as to its financial condition, consenting to suit against it by service of process on the Secretary of the Commonwealth, and obtaining a permit. Notice of the proceeding was served on appellants by registered mail, as authorized by § 6 when other forms of service are unavailable. They appeared specially, challenged the jurisdiction of the State, and moved to quash the service of summons. On recommendations from Virginia members, the Association for many years had been issuing insurance certificates to residents of Virginia, and it had approximately 800 members there. It had caused claims for losses to be investigated, and the Virginia courts were open to it for the enforcement of obligations of certificate holders.
1. The State has power to issue a cease and desist order to enforce at least the requirement that the Association consent to suit against it by service of process on the Secretary of the Commonwealth. Pp. 339 U. S. 646-647.
2. The contacts and ties of appellants with Virginia residents, together with that State's interest in faithful observance of the certificate obligations, justify subjecting appellants to cease and desist proceedings under § 6. Pp. 339 U. S. 647-648.
3. Virginia's subjection of the Association to the jurisdiction of the State Commission in a § 6 proceeding is consistent with fair play and substantial justice, and is not offensive to the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment. P. 339 U. S. 649.
desist order under § 6 is not vitiated by the fact that business activities carried on outside of the State are affected. P. 339 U. S. 650.
5. Service of process on appellants by registered mail did not violate the requirements of due process. Pp. 339 U. S. 650-651.
188 Va. 877, 51 S.E.2d 263, affirmed.
An order of the Virginia Corporation Commission requiring appellants to cease and desist from offering and issuing, without a permit, certificates of insurance to residents of the State, was affirmed by the Supreme Court of Appeals. 188 Va. 877, 51 S.E.2d 263. On appeal to this Court, affirmed, p. 339 U. S. 651.
"because the offering is by advertisement and/or solicitation through periodicals, mail, telephone, telegraph, radio, or other means of communication from beyond the limits of the State. . . ."
The highest court of Virginia rejected contentions that this section violates constitutional requirements of due process, and the case is properly here on appeal under 28 U.S.C. § 1257(2).
"the sole purpose of objecting to the alleged jurisdiction of the Virginia and of its State Corporation Commission, and of moving to set aside and quash service of summons. . . ."
assessments at the Omaha office. The funds so collected are used for operating expenses and sick benefits to members. The Association has no paid agents; its new members are usually obtained through the unpaid activities of those already members, who are encouraged to recommend the Association to friends and submit their names to the home office. The appellant Pratt in Omaha mails solicitations to these prospects. He encloses blank applications which, if signed and returned to the home office with the required fee, usually result in election of applicants as members. Certificates are then mailed, subject to return within 10 days "if not satisfactory." Travelers has solicited Virginia members in this manner since 1904, and has caused many sick benefit claims to be investigated. When these proceedings were instituted, it had approximately 800 Virginia members.
"through medium of any advertisement from within or from without the state, and/or through the mails or otherwise, by intra- or interstate communication, . . . unless and until"
it obtained authority in accordance with the "Blue Sky Law." This order was affirmed by the Virginia Court of Appeals. 188 Va. 877, 882, 51 S.E.2d 263, 271.
"to the extent that it provides that individual and corporate residents of other states shall not come into the State for the purpose of doing business there without first submitting to the regulatory authority of the State."
Virginia has no power to reach them in cease and desist proceedings to enforce any part of its regulatory law. We cannot agree with this general due process objection, for we think the state has power to issue a "cease and desist order" enforcing at least that regulatory provision requiring the Association to accept service of process by Virginia claimants on the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
Appellants' chief reliance for the due process contention is on Minnesota Commercial Men's Assn. v. Benn, 261 U. S. 140. There, a Minnesota association obtained members in Montana by the same mail solicitation process used by Travelers to get Virginia members. The certificates issued to Montana members also reserved the right to investigate claims, although the Court pointed out that Benn's claim had not been investigated. This Court held that, since the contracts were "executed and to be performed" in Minnesota, the Association was not "doing business" in Montana, and therefore could not be sued in Montana courts unless "consent" to Montana suits could be implied. The Court found the circumstances under which the insurance transactions took place insufficient to support such an implication.
But where business activities reach out beyond one state and create continuing relationships and obligations with citizens of another state, courts need not resort to a fictional "consent" in order to sustain the jurisdiction of regulatory agencies in the latter state. And, in considering what constitutes "doing business" sufficiently to justify regulation in the state where the effects of the "business" are felt, the narrow grounds relied on by the Court in the Benn case cannot be deemed controlling.
Measured by the principles of the Osborn, Hoopeston, and International Shoe cases, the contacts and ties of appellants with Virginia residents, together with that state's interest in faithful observance of the certificate obligations, justify subjecting appellants to cease and desist proceedings under § 6. The Association did not engage in mere isolated or short-lived transactions. Its insurance certificates, systematically and widely delivered in Virginia following solicitation based on recommendations of Virginians, create continuing obligations between the Association and each of the many certificate holders in the state. Appellants have caused claims for losses to be investigated, and the Virginia courts were available to them in seeking to enforce obligations created by the group of certificates. See International Shoe Co. v. Washington, supra, at 326 U. S. 320.
claims are seldom so large that Virginia policyholders could afford the expense and trouble of a Nebraska law suit. In addition, suits on alleged losses can be more conveniently tried in Virginia, where witnesses would most likely live and where claims for losses would presumably be investigated. Such factors have been given great weight in applying the doctrine of forum non conveniens. See Gulf Oil Corp. v. Gilbert, 330 U. S. 501, 330 U. S. 508. And prior decisions of this Court have referred to the unwisdom, unfairness, and injustice of permitting policyholders to seek redress only in some distant state where the insurer is incorporated. [Footnote 3] The Due Process Clause does not forbid a state to protect its citizens from such injustice.
There is, of course, one method by which claimants could recover from appellants in Virginia courts without the aid of substituted service of process: certificate holders in Virginia could all be garnished to the extent of their obligations to the Association. See Huron Holding Corporation v. Lincoln Mine Operating Co., 312 U. S. 183, 312 U. S. 193. While such an indirect procedure would undeniably be more troublesome to claimants than the plan adopted by the state in its "Blue Sky Law," it would clearly be even more harassing to the Association and its Virginia members. Metaphysical concepts of "implied consent" and "presence" in a state should not be solidified into a constitutional barrier against Virginia's simple, direct, and fair plan for service of process on the Secretary of the Commonwealth.
We hold that Virginia's subjection of this Association to the jurisdiction of that state's Corporation Commission in a § 6 proceeding is consistent with "fair play and substantial justice," and is not offensive to the Due Process Clause.
Appellants also contend that § 6 as here applied violates due process because the Commission order attempts to "destroy or impair" their right to make contracts in Nebraska with Virginia residents. Insofar as this contention can be raised in a special appearance merely to contest jurisdiction, it is essentially the same as the due process issue discussed above. For reasons just given, Virginia has power to subject Travelers to the jurisdiction of its Corporation Commission, and its cease and desist provisions designed to accomplish this purpose "cannot be attacked merely because they affect business activities which are carried on outside the state." Hoopeston Canning Co. v. Cullen, supra, at 318 U. S. 320-321. See also Osborn v. Ozlin, 310 U. S. 53, 310 U. S. 62. These two opinions make clear that Allgeyer v. Louisiana, 165 U. S. 578, requires no different result.
Appellants concede that, in the Osborn and Hoopeston cases, we sustained state laws providing protective standards for policyholders in those states, even though compliance with those standards by the insurance companies could have repercussions on similar out-of-state contracts. It is argued, however, that those cases are distinguishable because they both involved companies which were "licensed to do business in the state of the forum and were actually doing business within the state. . . ." But, while Hoopeston Canning Co. had done business in New York under an old law, it brought the case here to challenge certain provisions of a new licensing law with which it had to comply if it was to do business there in the future. Thus, it was seeking the same kind of relief that appellants seek here, and for the same general purpose. What we there said as to New York's power is equally applicable to Virginia's power here.
It is also suggested that service of process on appellants by registered mail does not meet due process requirements.
What we have said answers this contention insofar as it alleges a lack of state jurisdiction because appellants were served outside Virginia. If service by mail is challenged as not providing adequate and reasonable notice, the contention has been answered by International Shoe Co. v. Washington, supra, at 326 U. S. 320-321. See also Mullane v. Central Hanover Bank, 339 U. S. 306.
Pennsylvania Lumbermen's Mutual Fire Ins. Co. v. Meyer, 197 U. S. 407, 197 U. S. 418-419; Connecticut Mutual Life Ins. Co. v. Spratley, 172 U. S. 602, 172 U. S. 619; cf. International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U. S. 310, 326 U. S. 319.
One federal question suggested in the appellants' statement of jurisdiction was that § 6, as interpreted by the state court, infringed federal control of the mails delegated to Congress by Art. I, § 8(7) of the United States Constitution. But appellants' brief on submission of the case does not include this question in the "specifications of errors relied upon," and does not even mention that constitutional clause.
"publicity . . . to the public through the press or otherwise as the commission may, in its discretion, determine to be advisable for the reasonable information and protection of the public."
Since the formula adopted by the Court is adequate to dispose of this case, I have joined in the opinion. But I feel that the type of problem presented requires a more selective treatment. Hence, my separate opinion.
Virginia's Blue Sky Law [Footnote 2/1] is a comprehensive scheme for the protection of the state's investors. Securities can be offered for sale in the state only after the issuer obtains a permit. [Footnote 2/2] To get it, the applicant must supply detailed information about its solvency, its earning record, and the nature of the securities. [Footnote 2/3] Promoters may be required to supply a bond. [Footnote 2/4] Applicants must appoint an agent, the Secretary of the Commonwealth, to receive service of process. [Footnote 2/5] Only after proof of their good character and financial responsibility are security salesmen licensed. [Footnote 2/6] After issuance, the state Corporation Commission is authorized again to investigate the issuer with an eye to possible revocation of its permit. [Footnote 2/7] These are the high points of the comprehensive regulation which Virginia seeks to apply to appellants.
That the business of insurance is interstate commerce is established by United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Assn., 322 U. S. 533. Any doubts about the power of a state to exclude an interstate insurance company which refuses to comply with its regulatory laws were dispelled by the passage of the McCarran Act. 59 Stat. 33, 15 U.S.C. §§ 1011-1015. See Robertson v. California, 328 U. S. 440, 328 U. S. 461-462.
The requirements of due process do not, in my opinion, preclude the extension of Virginia's regulatory scheme to appellant. I put to one side the case where a policyholder seeks to sue the out of state company in Virginia.
His ability to sue is not necessarily the measure of Virginia's power to regulate, as the Court said in Old Wayne Mut. Life Assn. v. McDonough, 204 U. S. 8, 204 U. S. 21. It is the nature of the state's action that determines the kind or degree of activity in the state necessary for satisfying the requirements of due process. What is necessary to sustain a tax or to maintain a suit by a creditor, see Old Wayne Life Assn. v. McDonough, supra; Provident Savings Life Assn. Society v. Kentucky, 239 U. S. 103, 239 U. S. 114-116; Issacs, An Analysis of Doing Business, 25 Col.L.Rev. 1018, 1024, is not, in my view, determinative when the state seeks to regulate solicitation within its borders.
business for it within the state. Then it is beyond the reach of process. In the present case, however, that is only the formal arrangement. The actual arrangement shows a method of soliciting business within Virginia as active, continuous, and methodical as it would be if regular agents or solicitors were employed. Cf. Hoopeston Canning Co. v. Cullen, 318 U. S. 313.
"that the association relies almost exclusively on these activities of its Virginia members to bring about an expansion of its Virginia business."
the corporate project entails the use of one or more people in the state for the solicitation of business, in my view, it does no violence to the traditional concept of due process to allow the state to provide protective measures governing that solicitation. That is all that is done here.
I cannot agree that this appeal is premature. Virginia has placed an injunction on appellants, an injunction which may have numerous consequences, e.g., contempt proceedings. There is an existing controversy -- real and vital to appellants.
By § 3(a)(8), insurance policies issued by a corporation subject to the supervision of specified state agencies are exempt from this federal regulation. Section 18 provides that the Act does not affect the jurisdiction of any state agency over a security or a person.
". . . some casual or even single acts done within the borders of the sovereignty may confer power to acquire jurisdiction of the person, provided there is also reasonable provision for giving notice of the suit in accordance with minimal due process requirements."
"Respondents rely on the fact that their contacts with citizens of Virginia are by mail, that they are not doing business in Virginia, and that they do not enter Virginia either personally or by agents. In setting up this defense, they lose sight of the nature of this action. They are not charged with doing business in Virginia, but with offering and advertising for sale and promoting the sale of insurance contracts in Virginia by mail, and the action is to foreclose them from these activities. Whether the action will suffice to actually stop them is beside the point. It will suffice to put them on notice of pertinent laws of Virginia, to give them an opportunity to be heard and the state an opportunity to determine the facts, and, if, after hearing, a cease and desist order is issued, the Commission will then be authorized to give such publicity to the order as it sees fit for the 'information and protection of the public.'"
"No word found in or inference derived from Section 6 aforesaid may properly, in our judgment, be said to impose penalties upon the respondents. . . ."
securities of the respondent do not bear the stamp of the state's approval, and are being presented to the public without regard to the regulatory laws enacted to protect them. Section 6, supra, imposes no penalties, exacts no direct toll from those against whom its orders proceed. . . ."
The question of substituted service on the Secretary of the Commonwealth is not here in any aspect. As far as appears, service in this manner is not authorized by the Virginia statutes except where the nonresident has opened and is conducting a place of business within the State. Michie's Va.Code, 1942, § 3848(55)a. Up to this date, Virginia has not claimed the power to require appellants, who do business in Virginia only by mail, to appoint the Secretary of the Commonwealth as their agent for service of process, nor have the courts of Virginia rendered judgment in a suit where service was made in that manner. I do not understand, therefore, what possible application the Court's reference to substituted service on the Secretary of the Commonwealth could have in this case. I would answer the question of due process when Virginia has attempted to apply its process to appellants in a proceeding that has consequences of a nature which entitle a person to the protection of the Due Process Clause. See Parker v. Los Angeles County, 338 U. S. 327. I would therefore dismiss the appeal.
it can constitutionally be considered as automatically accomplishing that result. An in personam judgment cannot be based upon service by registered letter on a nonresident corporation or a natural person neither of whom has ever been within the Virginia. Pennoyer v. Neff, 95 U. S. 714; Old Wayne Mutual Life Assn. v. McDonough, 204 U. S. 8, 204 U. S. 22-23. If that may not be done directly, it may not be done indirectly. Certainly such service cannot be justified where its purpose is to make substituted service legal in the future. These nonresidents cannot be brought in through service by registered mail and compelled to designate the Secretary of the Commonwealth as their agent for service of process so that thereafter service may be effected upon such nonresidents by serving the Secretary. So to hold would allow the State to pull itself up by its own bootstraps.
Service by registered mail is said by the majority to be sufficient where the corporation has "minimum contacts" with the state of the forum. How many "contacts" a corporation or person must have before being subjected to suit we are not informed. Here, all of appellants' contacts with the residents of Virginia were by mail. No agent of appellant corporation has entered the State, nor has the individual appellant. The contracts were made wholly in Nebraska. Under these circumstances, I would hold that appellants were never "present" in Virginia.
"For the terms 'present' or 'presence' are used merely to symbolize those activities of the corporation's agent within the state which courts will deem to be sufficient to satisfy the demands of due process."
International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U. S. 310, 326 U. S. 316-317.
must be "activities of the corporation's agent within the state." There were such contacts by agents within the State in that case. Service was made, in addition to notice by registered letter, by personal service within the State upon one of those agents. Service on an agent within the jurisdiction would seem to me indispensable to a judgment against a corporation. It would seem to be an a fortiori proposition that judgment could not be obtained against a natural person who was not available for personal service.
We are not dealing here with the power of Virginia to regulate the transaction of insurance business with its citizens, as was the case in Osborn v. Ozlin, 310 U. S. 53, and Hoopeston Canning Co. v. Cullen, 318 U. S. 313. In the case at bar, we are concerned only with how Virginia may enforce such power as it has. No question of the sufficiency of service was involved in either the Osborn or the Hoopeston cases, both of which were brought against some officer of a state. The question in those cases was whether the State had power, and not whether, having the power, it had also acquired jurisdiction of a defendant against whom a judgment could be rendered enforcing that power.

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