Opinion ID: 2615683
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 2

Heading: The Idaho Business

Text: Elwert's so-called Idaho business was operated with his rooming house as a base and consisted primarily of soliciting orders by personal calls upon former customers of Tualatin Valley Nurseries living in Idaho and Utah, and possibly some others. He used  the partnership-owned Lincoln in his travels and sometimes a partnership pickup for making his deliveries. He took no nursery stock or supplies with him when he went to Idaho. At no time did he maintain a lot or yard in Idaho where such stock could be stored or exhibited prior to sale. Orders were taken on the order blanks of Tualatin Valley Nurseries, and some of the orders were thereafter filled directly by the Sherwood plant and others filled by Elwert after picking up stock at his plant in Oregon for delivery directly to customers solicited in Idaho. He claims to have filled some orders for nursery stock not then available at his Sherwood plant from stock which he purchased directly from other nurserymen in Washington and Oregon. Many of his customers solicited while he was in Idaho paid their accounts through the Sherwood office. Others paid him. His Oregon tax accountant, called as a witness for the defendant and who was also the auditor for the Tualatin nursery and in the latter capacity examined the books at the plant each month, did not know that Elwert claimed to have a separate business in Idaho. He stated that no separate record of the Idaho business was kept. At no time was Elwert licensed under the laws of Idaho to do business as a nurseryman in that state. So far as the record discloses, Elwert did not make a visible capital investment in the state of Idaho in the interest of his alleged separate business there, except in the sum of $20 under what we deem unusual circumstances and damaging to his pretentions of good faith. We have already referred to the recess taken in the trial of the Idaho case in order to supply evidence which might overcome the court's indicated doubt concerning the sufficiency of the proof on the allegation of domicil.  During the week which intervened between the first and final hearings in the Idaho suit, Elwert attempted to place himself in a position to represent to the court there, as he thereafter did, that he had acquired a parcel of real property in Idaho upon which to store and exhibit nursery stock. The deal he relied upon for that deception he accomplished by making a $20 earnest money payment on the purchase price of $250 for a vacant town lot situated on the outskirts of the city of Boise. After the divorce decree was granted, he forfeited the down payment, alleging an imperfect title as the reason therefor. At no time was the lot used in any manner in the furtherance of nursery sales. We are of the opinion that Elwert did not establish a separate business in Idaho or even an activity that had the surface appearance of a separate business. This conclusion finds further support in what is hereinafter said under the headline of Taxes and Licenses. We think it is not without significance that the defendant chose one of the least active seasons in the nursery business as the moment to establish his short period of jurisdictional domicil in Idaho. The testimony is that March and April are the peak and busiest months for Tualatin Valley Nurseries.