Edward Douglass White

“ In the supreme court to which the case was taken after a hearing in a division thereof the judgment below was affirmed on an opinion which expressly held that the policy of insurance was a Missouri contract, controlled by the Missouri law, and that, by the operation and effect of that law, the loan agreement made in the state of New York, and the settlement effected in that state in accordance with that agreement, conformably to the laws of New York, was controlled by the Missouri statute and was void. ”

“ In March, 1894, Richard G. Head, a citizen and resident of New Mexico, being temporarily in Kansas City, Missouri, made application at a branch office of the New York Life Insurance Company for two policies of insurance for $10,000 each on his own life, for the benefit of his minor son, Richard G. Head, Jr. The application stated the residence of Head in New Mexico, and it was stipulated that the policy applied for when issued should be considered as having been issued in New York, and be treated as a New York contract. ”

“ A distinction which brings the contention right back to the primordial conception upon which alone it would be possible to sanction the doctrine contended for, that is, that because a state has power to regulate its domestic concerns, therefore it has the right to control the domestic concerns of other states. ”

“ It rests upon the ground that, as the court below sustained its ruling by reference to a line of state decisions, a leading one of which had been affirmed by this court (New York L. Ins. Co. v. Cravens, 178 U.S. 389, 44 L. ed. 1116, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 962) prior to the decision below, therefore, as the basis for jurisdiction had been demonstrated to be unfounded by a decision of this court announced prior to the time the writ of error was prosecuted, there was no substantial ground upon which to base the suing out of the writ, and it must be dismissed. ”

“ These statutes are declaratory of the public policy of this state, and inhibit the doing of the business of insurance in this state by any corporation contrary to their regulations by annulling all the stipulations which offend the provisions of the statutes. Horton v. New York L. Ins. Co. 151 Mo. 604, 52 S. W. 356; Smith v. Mutual Ben. L. Ins. Co. 173 Mo. 329, 72 S. W. 935; Burridge v. New York L. Ins. Co. 211 Mo. 158, 109 S. W. 560; Cravens v. New York L. Ins. Co. 148 Mo. 583, 53 L.R.A. 305, 71 Am. St. Rep. 628, 50 S. W. 519; New York L. Ins. Co. ”