Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/250/2/
Timestamp: 2019-04-26 02:13:34+00:00

Document:
Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 250 › American Fire Ins. Co. v. King Lumber & Mfg. Co.
A fire insurance company transacting business in a state other than that of its incorporation is bound, in respect of such business, by the laws of the state where the business is transacted. P. 250 U. S. 9.
of the brokers, a different company was substituted before the loss occurred. A law of Florida in existence throughout the transactions made any person who solicits insurance or procures applications therefor the agent of the insurer, anything in the application or policy to the contrary notwithstanding, and made one who receives or receipts for money from the insured to be transmitted to the insurer the agent of the latter "to all intents and purposes." Held that, as applied to the case so as to charge the company with the brokers' knowledge and effect a waiver of the warranty, the Florida law did not deny full faith and credit to the laws of Pennsylvania, or violate the privileges and immunities, due process, or equal protection clauses of the Fourteenth Amendment. Id. New York Life Insurance Co. v. Head, 234 U. S. 149, and Mutual Life Insurance Co. v. Hilton-Green, 241 U. S. 613, distinguished.
In the interest of justice, the Court may decide the merits without passing on a motion to dismiss that depends on a disputed proposition involving the merits. P. 250 U. S. 14.
The court, in passing upon the demurrer, being of the view that § 2765 of the General Statutes of Florida (infra) was applicable, rendered judgment accordingly for the lumber company on the policies for the sum of $2,298.16, with interest at 8% from February 16, 1913, and the sum of $300 as a reasonable attorney's fee. The supreme court of the state affirmed the judgment.
The insurance company, however, insists that the policies constituted the contracts between it and the lumber company, and that they were not subject to subsequent variation, and Lumber Underwriters v. Rife, 237 U. S. 605, is cited. The case is not apposite. There was an attempt in that case to vary the written words of a contract by a concurrent parol agreement; in other words, and to quote those of the case, to establish "by parol proof that, at the very moment the policy was delivered," one of its provisions was waived. It was not decided that there could not be a subsequent waiver of a provision of a policy, nor that the convention of the parties could not be made subject to a law of the state.
A motion to dismiss is made on the ground that the federal questions raised were not passed upon by the courts of the state, but that the courts rested their decision on the fact that the contracts were made in Florida, rather than in Pennsylvania. That, however, was a disputed proposition, and the motion so far involved the merits of the case that we have considered, under such circumstances, justice would be better served by going into the merits. Beaumont v. Prieto, 249 U. S. 554.
* A corporation is not a citizen within the meaning of the provision of the Constitution which secures the privileges and immunities of citizens against state legislation. Orient Ins. Co. v. Daggs, 172 U. S. 557, 172 U. S. 561.

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