James Clark McReynolds

“ The appellant Francis asserts he is denied equal protection because agents of mutual insurance companies may be licensed even though their compensation consists of a salary rather than commissions. The answer sets up that mutual insurance companies are organized on a different basis from stock companies, do business in a wholly different way and sustain an altogether different relation to their policy-holders than do stock companies. ”

“ Despite the broad range of the state's discretion, it has a limit which must be maintained if the constitutional safeguard is not to be overthrown. Discriminations are not to be supported by mere fanciful conjecture. ”

“ Georgia Laws, 1935, p. 140:
'No licensed fire or casualty insurance company or company writing fidelity or surety bonds, shall write or issue any policy or indemnity contract on any risk in this State except through a resident agent licensed by the Insurance Commissioner: Provided * * * The words 'resident agent' as used in this section are deemed to mean resident agents engaged in the solicitation of such business from the public generally and shall not include any salaried employee of any insurance company doing business in this State ”

“ There are approximately twenty-five hundred mutual fire and casualty institutions operating throughout the United States the vast majority of which concentrate their operations locally within one or more counties or within a single state. 'These companies rarely compete with agency represented stock companies and there has been no apparent inclination on their part to alter the scope of activity or plan of operation. ”

“ They cannot stand as reasonable if they offend the plain standards of common sense. In this instance, the appellant company had been licensed to do business in the state and was entitled to equal protection in conducting that business. ”

“ The trial court ruled 'that said act, in discriminating against stock companies and the agents thereof, and in favor of mutual companies and the agents thereof, sets up an arbitrary classification bearing no reasonable relationship to the subject-matter of the legislation, and is discriminatory, depriving both petitioner, The Hartford Steam Boiler Inspection & Insurance Company, as an insurance company, and petitioner, W. M. Francis, as an individual, of their constitutional rights.' Accordingly, it directed that mandamus issue. ”