Melville Fuller

“ A corporation has the same right to the protection of the laws as a natural citizen, and the same right to appeal to all the courts of the country. The rights of an individual are not superior, in this respect, to that of a corporation. The state of Wisconsin can regulate its own corporations and the affairs of its own citizens, in subordination, however, to the Constitution of the United States. ”

“ They do not stand equal before the law. They do not receive its equal protection. All this is obvious from a mere inspection of the statute.' Referring to the 14th Amendment of the Constitution, the court said: 'The rights and securities guaranteed to persons by that instrument cannot be disregarded in respect to these artificial entities called corporations any more than they can be in respect to the individuals who are the equitable owners of the property belonging to such corporations. ”

“ A state has no more power to deny to corporations the equal protection of the law than it has to individual citizens.' Again: 'Neither can it be sustained as a proper means of enforcing the payment of small debts and preventing any unnecessary litigation in respect to them, because it does not impose the penalty in all cases where the amount in controversy is within the limit named in the statute. ”

“ The legislature evidently intended to distinguish between life and health insurance companies engaged in business for profit (and we are not called on to refine as to the distribution of such profits) and lodges and associations of a mutual benefit or benevolent character, having in mind also the necessity of the prompt payment of the insurance money in very many cases, in order to provide the means of living of which the beneficiaries had been deprived by the death of the insured. ”

“ The two statutes are alike in this, that the defendant company or corporation, whether a railroad corporation or a life or health insurance company, even if successful in an action brought against it, could not recover special attorneys' fees or special damages against its adversary. Thus the defendant company in a suit brought under either statute is not permitted to appear in court upon terms of equality with the party suing it, and is subjected to special burdens not imposed upon other companies or other corporations refusing to pay money demanded of them. ”

“ If litigation terminates adversely to them they are mulcted in the attorneys' fees of the successful plaintiff; if it terminates in their favor they recover no attorneys' fees. It is no sufficient answer to say that they are punished only when adjudged to be in the wrong. They do not enter the courts upon equal terms. They must pay attorneys' fees if wrong; they do not recover any if right; while their adversaries recover if right and pay nothing if wrong. ”

“ Reasonable inquiry is frequently a prerequisite to the inference of death from disappearance, as well as other effort, but no inquiry or effort was made here after discovery of the camp, because the belief of death and lapse of time rendered it useless. Whether that belief was well founded was for the jury, but that there was such belief was a relevant fact. ”

“ This was not a criminal case, and it was not necessary that the death should be proven beyond a reasonable doubt. The party on whose side the weight of evidence preponderated was entitled to the verdict. Proof to a 'moral certainty' is an equivalent phrase with 'beyond a reasonable doubt.' Gray, Ch. J., Com. v. Costley, 118 Mass. 1. In civil cases it is sufficient if the evidence on the whole agrees with and supports the hypothesis that it is adduced to prove, but in criminal cases it must exclude every other hypothesis but that of the guilt of the party. ”

“ Unless the legislature may arbitrarily select one corporation or one class of corporations, one individual or one class of individuals, and visit a penalty upon them which is not imposed upon others guilty of like delinquency, this statute cannot be sustained. ”

“ The court also instructed the jury as follows: 'If from the evidence in this case you should come to the conclusion that Hunter has been continuously absent since December 3d, 1896, without being heard from by his relatives and friends, it should have due weight with you in arriving at your verdict.' 'Absence alone cannot establish the death of Hunter, for the law presumes an individual shown to be alive and in health at the time of his disappearance continues to live. ”

“ The requirement of an agreement like this from their own corporations would be brutum fulmen, because they possess no such right under the Constitution of the United States. A foreign citizen, whether natural or corporate, in this respect possesses a right not pertaining to one of her own citizens. ”

“ If, in any case, they do not, within a specified time, pay the amount demanded of them, no matter what may be the reason for its refusal to pay, and if they do not succeed in their defense, they must pay not only the principal sum, with ordinary interest, but, in addition, 12 per cent damages onon the amount of the principal, and all reasonable attorneys' fees for the prosecution and collection of the loss. ”

“ The act singles out a certain class of debtors and punishes them, when for like delinquencies it punishes no others. They are not treated as other debtors, or equally with other debtors. They cannot appeal to the courts as other litigants under like conditions and with like protection. ”