Kansas City Structural Steel Co. v. Arkansas, 269 U.S. 148 (1925)

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Kansas City Structural Steel Company v.

Arkansas for Use and Benefit of Ashley County
No. 54

Submitted October 15, 1925
Decided November 16, 1925
269 U.S. 148

ERROR TO THE SUPREME COURT

OF THE STATE OF ARKANSAS

Syllabus

1. As to what constitutes doing business in a state within the meaning of its laws imposing preliminary conditions on foreign corporations, this Court accepts the decision of the state supreme court. P. 150.

2. But the questions whether a foreign corporation’s business was interstate and whether the local enactments as applied were therefore repugnant to the Commerce Clause will be determined by this Court for itself. Id.

3. Without first obtaining permission to do business in Arkansas, a Missouri corporation successfully bid for the construction of an Arkansas bridge; executed the contract in Arkansas; executed a bond; sublet all the work except the steel superstructure to a Kansas firm; shipped structural materials from Missouri to itself in Arkansas; delivered them there to the subcontractor which used them in its part of the work, and proceeded with the manufacture in Missouri of materials to be used by itself on the superstructure. Held that these activities, viewed collectively, and with special reference to the local delivery of materials, were partly intrastate in character, and that infliction of a penalty for noncompliance with the Arkansas corporation law was not repugnant to the Commerce Clause of the Constitution. P. 151.

161 Ark. 483 affirmed.

Error to a judgment of the Supreme Court of Arkansas sustaining a penalty for violation of the state statutes requiring foreign corporations to comply with certain conditions before doing local business.