This writ of error is prosecuted to review a judgment of the court of appeals of the state of New York, modifying a judgment of the supreme court of that state. The judgment of the court of appeals was remitted to and made the judgment of the latter court.
The action was brought by Hunter, whom we shall call plaintiff, against the insurance company, which we shall refer to as defendant, upon five judgments obtained in the state of North Carolina, recovered by one Emrick Wadsworth, a citizen of North Carolina, and owned by plaintiff. The judgments were recovered upon policies of insurance issued by defendant, one of which was issued to a citizen of North Carolina while defendant was doing business there, the others to citizens of New York and New Jersey. They were assigned to Wadsworth long after defendant had attempted to remove move from North Carolina. Judgment was rendered for their full amount with interest and costs, to wit, the sum of $9,965, by direction of the appellate division of the court, to which the case was submitted upon an agreed statement of facts. The court of appeals reduced the same by the amount of the four judgments recovered on the policies issued in New York and New Jersey. The Federal question presented is whether due faith and credit was refused to the judgments, in violation of the Constitution of the United States.
The judgments were obtained by default, after service made upon the insurance commissioner of the state. The decision of the case turns upon the validity of the service.
The defendant is a life insurance company, organized under the laws of New York. Prior to March 13, 1899, it was duly admitted to do business in the state of North Carolina, it complying with the laws of the state successively passed, which required insurance companies to appoint agenst upon whom service of process could be made.
On March 6, 1899, the legislature passed a law known as the Willard law. The law prescribed that no foreign insurance company should do business in the state until it had, by a duly executed instrument, filed in the office of the secretary of state, constituted and appointed the insurance commissioner its true and lawful attorney, upon whom all lawful process in any action or legal proceedings might be served, and agreed that such service should have the same force and validity as if served on the company, and that 'the authority thereof' of' should 'continue in force irrevocable so long as any liability of the company' should 'remain outstanding in this commonwealth.' Chapter 54 of the Laws of 1899.
On or about the 13th of Arril, defendant executed the power of attorney required, and thereupon a license was issued to it to do business, as provided by law, under which it did business in the state for a time.
The legislature which passed the Willard law passed also a law called the Craig act, by which it was provided that any foreign insurance company desiring to do business in the state after June 1 then ensuing must become a domestic corporation of the state. There were severe penalties prescribed for the violation of the act. The company was subjected to a penalty of $200 a day for every day it 'continued to operate or do business without having complied with the requirements of the act,' and it was deprived of the right of suing in the state courts, or to enter into any new contracts, or enforce those it had made. In addition to the penalty of $200, it was subjected to a penalty of $500 for each day that it did business after the 1st day of June, 1899, 'without first becoming a domestic corporation.'