United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Henry L. Doherty & Co. v. Goodman, 294 U.S. 623 (1935)

Henry L. Doherty & Co. v. Goodman

No. 469

Argued February 11, 1935

Decided April 1, 1935

294 U.S. 623

Syllabus

A statute of Iowa (Code, § 11079) provides that, where an office is maintained for the transaction of any business in a county other than that in which the principal resides, service of process in any action arising out of the conduct of such office may be made on any agent or clerk there employed. The statute was construed as authorizing a personal judgment against a nonresident individual who, though never personally within the State, established an office within the State for dealing in securities, a business subjected to special regulation by the State, the service of process having been made upon one who was manager of the office both at the time the contract out of which the suit arose was executed and at the time of the service. Held, as so applied, the statute does not violate any right guaranteed by the Federal Constitution. Art. IV, § 2; Fourteenth Amendment, § 1. P. 294 U. S. 628.

218 Iowa 529, 255 N.W. 667, affirmed.

Appeal from the affirmance of a judgment entered after the overruling of a special plea to the jurisdiction, in an action for damages arising from a sale of stock.

Page 294 U. S. 625