Professional News.

Hon. James S. Davenport, Oklahoma's ex Congressman, has resumed the practice of the law at Vinita, and is not only getting back his old practice but securing much that is new. His short term in the Congress of the United States did not spoil him nor was it long enough to cause him to forget the details of practice. His broader contact with the world, learning and legal ability, together with his courteous disposition will always secure him a good lucrative practice.

Hon. R. L. Williams, ex-Chief Justice, has returned from a pleasant visit to the home of his childhood in old Alabama. The judge will resume his duties on the Supreme bench with renewed vigor.

Hunt & Hunt is the style of a new law firm in Wagoner Oklahoma. Hon. W. T. Hunt, the senior member is one of the best known lawyers of eastern Oklahoma, and the junior member is his son an apt youngman with the possibilities of a bright future before him.

Hon. A. J. McCarty, a graduate of Yale Law School has opened a law office in Oklahoma City. He is also a graduate of Lake Forest University and comes to our State well recommended by those who know him well.

Moody & Meyer, is the style of the new law firm of the city of Claremore. Mr. Moody formerly of Blackwell, but for sometime a successful practitioner in Claremore. Mr. Meyer has been in active practice 7 years in Newkirk. Both members of the firm have had considerable experience at the bar and are gentlemen of character.

Judge John B. Turner, of the Oklahoma Supreme Court, has just returned from a delightful vacation trip to the state of Tennessee.

Hon. Paul F. Mackey, a prominent lawyer of Vinita, is seriously sick of typhoid fever at his home, in that city.

Hon. W. T. Drake, County Judge of Wagoner county is one that will long be remembered in the judicial history of his county-in fact some of his friends out of regard for his integrity have dubbed him "The Protector of the Indian," not of reproach, but one that shows the respect in which he is held for honor and integrity. As one lawyer expressed it: "Woe be to the white man, guardian of an Indian, whose report of the ward's funds looks crooked to Judge Drake."

We are glad to hear such remarks on the official record of Judge Drake, for we have always found him the gentleman that he looks.

HUMOR.

So you are going to marry that insignificant little cad? Why, you once said you would never marry a man less than six feet tall. Oh, I know, papa; but I decided to take off 20 per cent for cash.

"Gentlemen of the jury," said counsel in an agricultural case, "there were thirty six hogs in that lot-36. I want you to remember that number-thirty six hogsjust three times the number that are in this jury box.

Did ye get damages for being in the railway accedint, Pat?"

"Sure; fifty dallars for me and fifty for the missus." "The missus? I did not hear she was hurt." "She wasn't, but when we were down, I had the presence o' mind to fetch her one on the head with me foot.

In one the earliest trials before a colored jury in Texas, the twelve gentlemen were told by the judge to retire and "find the verdict." They went to the jury-room and the sound of opening and shutting of doors, and other sounds of unusual commotion were heard. At last they filed into the courtroom when the foreman announced: "Jedge, we hab looked eberywhar, for dat verdict, but it ain't nowhar in dat blessed room."

THE

OKLAHOMA

LAW JOURNAL

VOL. 8.

EDITED AND PUBLISHED MONTHLY BY

D. H. FERNANDES, GUTHRIE, OKLAHOMA.

STATE CONTROL OVER

FOREIGN CORPORATIONS.

By Hon. Gustave A. Erixon, of the

Guthrie, Oklahoma, Bar.

The Second Legislature of the state of Oklahoma enacted a law known as Senate Bill No. 199, for the purpose of regulating foreign corporations. This law becomes effective on June 22, 1909, and provides that every foreign corporation shall appoint an agent for service, and that the agent shall be a citizen of the state of Oklahoma and shall reside at the State Capital. The law also provides that every foreign corporation shall file a certified copy of its articles of incorporation, with the Secretary of State, and shall pay a fee of 1-10 of 1 per cent. of its capitalization, together with $3.00 for recording the appointment and certified copy.

Section 2 of Senate Bill No. 199, provides that, "If any such foreign corporation shall fail to comply with the provisions of this Act, all its contracts with citizens of this State, entered into after the approval of this Act, shall be void as to the corporation and no court of this State shall enforce the same in favor of the corporation."

It is a well-established rule of law that each State has the sovereign power to enact laws regulating the business of foreign corporations within its borders. A State has not only the right to prescribe rules for the admission of foreign corporation but may exclude them altogether.

Murfree on Foreign Corporations, Page 3, says, It is within the power of the local sovereign either to exclude foreign corporations altogether, from doing business within its jurisdiction, or it may prescribe regulations under which they may be admitted." In further support of this rule we beg to cite the following authorities: Runyan vs. Coster, 14 Pet. 129; Willams vs. Creswell, 51 Miss., 817; Newburg Petroleum Co. vs. Weare 27 Ohio St., 343; King vs. Nat. M. & E. Co., 4 Mont., 1; Canada Southern R. Co vs Gebhart, 109 U.S. 527; Paul vs. Virginia, 8 Wall., 168.

For the purposes of the respective jurisdictions, the States of the Union are foreign to each other, and a corporation created by one of them must be regarded, as to its transactions within the limits of the others, as a foreign corporation, and is dependent for its rights and privileges upon the rule of comity." See, Murfree on Foreign Corporations, Page 6. This eminent authority on page 3 further says: "Comity, however, as the word implies, is a matter of grace rather than of right."

Some of our foreign corporation clients have taken the position that they are doing business in Oklahoma under the Interstate Commerce Act, and that they cannot be required to comply with Senate Bill 199 because they believe that this law is in conflict with the Interstate Commerce Act. This position is erroneous. As we have already shown, state has the inherent right to enact laws regulating corporations within its borders, and until a corporation has strictly complied with all the statutory requirements in the state in which it seeks admission, it has no right to maintain any action at law in any of the courts of that state and its contracts cannot be enforced.

"The mere fact that the business, in which the foreign company is engaged, consists to a great degree of interstate commerce, does not affect the power of the state to regulate and tax that portion of it which is conducted exclusively within its jurisdiction." See Pacific Express Co. vs. Seibert, 142, U. S. 339. "A foreign corporation by sending its agents into another state becomes amenable to its laws and subject to the jurisdiction of its

courts." See Buie vs. Chicago, etc., R. Co., 95 Tex.51, "Although the license is frequently made the means of levying a tax on the foreign company, its primary purposes is the protection of the public by the regulation of the business in which the company is engaged, and there is nothing inconsistent in the levy of other taxes in addition to the license." See Murfree on Foreign Corporation, page 56.

One of the frequent regulations to which foreign cor. poration are subjected is a provision that, before undertaking to do business within the state, it shall file with the secretary of State or other proper state officer a copy of its charter or certificate of incorporation duly authenticated. The purpose of this enactment evidently is to prevent sham organization from another jurisdiction from usurping the corporate privilege and franchise with in the state and to afford persons dealing with a foreign company the means of ascertaining the nature and character of its organization, the amount of its capital. to what extent paid up, and the liability of its stockholders; in other words, to make practicable for him to ascertain those facts concerning the legal status of the foreign company, or which he would be presumed to have notice in dealing with a domestic corporation. Until a foreign corporation has fully complied with the laws of the state relative to admission, it has no legal existence in that state. See Bank vs. Page, 6 Oregon, page 431-436. "A foreign company coming into the state to do business must not only qualify itself under the statute, but it must keep itself qualified. Where the license or authority to do business is renewed each year and is subject to revocation upon specified contingencies, a company which fails to have its authority renewed, or which submits to a revocation of it, loses thereby its power to contract."

See Murfree on Foreign Cororations, page 78.

It is competent for the state, by specified legislation, to withhold from the foreign company the power to maintain suits in its courts. In support of this rule we beg to cite the following authorities: 2 Rev. St. N. Y.,