Opinion ID: 1420473
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: W.Va.Code 31-1-6(f) [1976] provides:

Text: As used in part one [§§ 31-1-1 to 31-1-5] and part two [§§ 31-1-6 to 31-1-76] of this article, corporation or domestic corporation means a business corporation or a nonprofit corporation, subject to the provisions of this article, except a foreign corporation. Therefore, the dissolution provisions of the West Virginia Code, W.Va.Code 31-1-40, et seq. [1974] (including W.Va.Code 31-1-41) apply only to corporations that are incorporated in West Virginia, not to corporations that are incorporated elsewhere. However, there is no clear Code provision that defines the meaning of corporation as used in W.Va.Code 31-1-134 [1974]. [2] At first blush, this section might appear to allow the courts of West Virginia to dissolve foreign corporations. Mr. Young argues that the phrase if there be no such office in this State in W.Va.Code 31-1-134 [1974] means that the legislature intended to grant West Virginia courts the power to dissolve out-of-state corporations. However, the purpose of that phrase is just the opposite. That phrase is designed to permit stockholders in a West Virginia corporation to sue for winding up of that corporation in West Virginia courts, even if the West Virginia corporation has its principal place of business elsewhere; the purpose is not to permit West Virginia courts to dissolve corporations incorporated in other states that do business in West Virginia. Furthermore: A statute should be so read and applied as to make it accord with the spirit, purposes and objects of the general system of law of which it is intended to form a part: it being presumed that the legislators who drafted and passed it were familiar with all existing law applicable to the subject matter, whether constitutional, statutory or common, and intended the statute to harmonize completely with the same and aid in the effectuation of the general purpose and design thereof, if its terms are consistent therewith.' Syl. pt. 5, State v. Snyder, 64 W.Va. 659, 63 S.E. 385 (1908). Syl. pt. 1, State ex rel. Simpkins v. Harvey, 172 W.Va. 312, 305 S.E.2d 268 (1983). Full Faith and Credit shall be given in each State to the public Acts, Records, and judicial Proceedings of every other State, U.S. Const., Art. IV. The Full Faith and Credit clause of the U.S. Constitution requires each state to respect the sovereign acts of the other states. The creation and dissolution of a corporation is one such act: Since a corporation is a creature of the state by which it is chartered, the right to dissolve the corporation without its consent belongs exclusively to the state. The existence of a corporation cannot be terminated except by some act of the sovereign power by which it was created. Accordingly, the courts of one state do not have the power to dissolve a corporation created by the laws of another state. 19 Am.Jur.2d Corporations § 2734 (1986) ( citing, State v. Dyer, 145 Tex. 586, 200 S.W.2d 813 (1947); Leventhal v. Atlantic Finance Corp., 316 Mass. 194, 55 N.E.2d 20, 154 A.L.R. 260 (1944); Smith v. Atlantic Properties, Inc., 12 Mass.App. 201, 422 N.E.2d 798 (1981)). Accord, Spurlock v. Santa Fe Pacific R. Co., 143 Ariz. 469, 694 P.2d 299, cert. denied, 472 U.S. 1032, 105 S.Ct. 3513, 87 L.Ed.2d 642 (1985) (No court can declare a forfeiture of franchise or a dissolution of a corporation except the courts of the jurisdiction which created it. [citation omitted]). See also, Guthrie, Annotation, Dissolving or Winding up Affairs of Corporation Domiciled in Another State, 19 A.L.R.3d 1279 (1968). In order to interpret W. Va.Code 31-1-134 [1974] consistently with the U.S. Constitution and with the common law, we must conclude that the legislature did not intend to authorize the courts of the State of West Virginia to order the dissolution of a corporation that is incorporated in another state. Thus, we conclude that the term corporation as used in W.Va.Code 31-1-134 [1974] with regard to dissolution, must refer only to domestic corporations. The answer to the certified question is, therefore, that West Virginia Circuit Courts do not have jurisdiction to dissolve foreign corporations under either W.Va. Code 31-1-41 or 31-1-134 [1974].