Court Opinion

ID: 9789828
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-31 01:42:25.713475+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T15:34:09.629988
License: Public Domain

ASHBURN, J., Concurring.
Upon the predicate that the “minimum contacts” doctrine supplies the definition of “doing business” under the law of California, I concur in the judgment. I do so with reluctance because of the belief that j judicial pronouncements have, in disregard of the legislative prerogative, overridden the terms of the local statute.
“Statutory authority is a necessary basis for service upon a foreign corporation. (Jameson v. Simonds Saw Co., 2 Cal.App. 582, 584 [84 P. 289]; Perkins v. Benguet Consol. Min. Co., 342 U.S. 437, 440, 446 [72 S.Ct. 413, 96 L.Ed. 485].) And where the Legislature has provided for jurisdiction over a foreign corporation based upon something more than the minimum of due process (as that concept changes with the attrition of the years) it is not for the courts to set up some new and different standard.” (Confidential, Inc. v. Superior Court, 157 Cal.App.2d 75, 80 [320 P.2d 546].)
The codes are to be construed as a single statute. (Armenta v. Churchill, 42 Cal.2d 448, 455 [267 P.2d 303]; In re Porterfield, 28 Cal.2d 91, 100 [168 P.2d 706, 167 A.L.R. 675].) This, of course, applies to the relationship between the Code of Civil Procedure and the Corporations Code. Section 411, Code of Civil Procedure, says: “The summons must be served by delivering a copy thereof as follows: ... 2. If the suit is against a foreign corporation . . . doing business in this State; in the manner provided by Sections 6500 to 6504, *221inclusive, of the Corporations Code.” The section presupposes a right to service upon a foreign corporation doing business here and incorporates by reference sections 6500 to 6504, inclusive, of the Corporations Code. The language of section 65041 plainly withholds the right to serve a foreign corporation which has departed from the state, except in actions arising out of intrastate business transacted here. That the right to serve foreign corporations while doing business in California is likewise limited appears from further consideration of the Corporations Code.
Sections 6500 to 6504 (incorporated by reference into Code Civ. Proc., § 411, subd. 2), are found in part 11 of that code. Section 6200 thereof says: “The definitions and general provisions set forth in this chapter govern the construction of this part.” Section 6203: “ ‘Transact intrastate business’ means entering into repeated and successive transactions of its business in this State, other than interstate or foreign commerce.” Section 6300: “This part does not apply to corporations engaged solely in interstate or foreign commerce.” Plainly, the right to serve foreign corporations is limited to those engaged in intrastate business (repeated and successive transactions in California), and does not include those engaged solely in interstate or foreign commerce.
In the “process of evolution,” mentioned in recent decisions, the courts have expanded the concept of doing business to square with the repeatedly changing content of due process until California has committed itself to the proposition that any set of facts which would sustain service of summons as due process would also spell doing business within the state. Henry R. Jahn & Son v. Superior Court, 49 Cal.2d 855, 858 [323 P.2d 473], says: “The statute authorizes service of process on foreign corporations that are ‘doing business in this State.’ That term is a descriptive one that the courts have equated with such minimum contacts with the state ‘that the maintenance of the suit does not offend “traditional notions of fair play and substantial justice.” ’ (International Shoe Co. v. Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 316 [66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95, 161 A.L.R. 1057].) Whatever limitation *222it imposes is equivalent to that of the due process clause. ‘ “ [D]oing business” within the meaning of section 411 of the Code of Civil Procedure is synonymous with the power of the state to subject foreign corporations to local process.’ ” Feeling myself bound by the Jahn and similar decisions, I concur in the judgment at bar.
Petitioner’s application for a hearing by the Supreme Court was denied July 2, 1958.

 Corp. Code, § 6504: “A foreign corporation which has transacted intrastate business in this State and has thereafter withdrawn from business in this State may be served with process in the manner provided in this chapter in any action brought in this State arising out of such business, whether or not it has ever complied with the requirements of Chapter 3 of this part.”