Court Opinion

ID: 7946178
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-08 23:20:40.990443+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:33:56.156793
License: Public Domain

Ostrander, J.
I concur in the opinion of the Chief Justice, except in the conclusion which he reaches with respect to the right of the plaintiff to recover for goods sold in violation of Act No. 206, Pub. Acts 1901, as amended by Act No. 34, Pub. Acts 1903 (later amended by Act No. 310, Pub. Acts 1907). These contracts were not enforceable, not because they were absolutely void, but because they were prohibited, and because the legislature had said they should not be enforced except upon a condition which the plaintiff has never performed. They were void so far as the right of the corporation to enforce them is concerned. Clay, etc., Ins. Co. v. Manufacturing Co., 31 Mich. 346; Showen v. J. L. Owens Co., 158 Mich. 321 (122 N. W. 640, 133 Am. St. Rep. 376); Kuennan v. Fidelity & Guaranty Co., 159 Mich. 122 (123 N. W. 799). They were prohibited when made and are now. They were not enforceable by the offending corporation when made and are not now, unless, as the Chief Justice finds, the act of 1907, which affects only contracts thereafter made, by omitting the provision for enforce*406ment upon condition and supplying something in its place, has validated them. In terms the act of 1907 is clearly not a curative act with respect to existing but prohibited contracts. The act contains no repealing clause. And the denial of the right to enforce contracts contained in the acts of 1901 and 1903 is not a penalty. Each act expressly provides a penalty for its violation, and these penal provisions were considered in People v. Steel Co., 150 Mich. 563 (114 N. W. 350). Treating the disability to enforce as a penalty, there is no reason for saying that it was removed by an amendment, prospective in its operation, which denies the right of nonconforming corporations to make a valid contract in the State.
The court below was in error in permitting a recovery for any goods sold in violation of the statute, and the judgment must be reversed, with the right to a new trial.
Moore, MoAlvay, Blair, and Stone, JJ., concurred with Ostrander, J.