State Board of Insurance v. Todd Shipyards Corporation/Opinion of the Court

When we held in United States v. South-Eastern Underwriters Ass'n, 322 U.S. 533, 64 S.Ct. 1162, 88 L.Ed. 1440, that the modern business of insurance was 'interstate commerce,' we put it in a category which Congress could regulate and which, if our prior decisions controlled, could not in some respects be regulated by the States, even in absence of federal regulation. See Frankfurter, The Commerce Clause (1937); Rutledge, A Declaration of Legal Faith (1947).

Congress promptly passed the McCarran-Ferguson Act, 59 Stat. 33, 15 U.S.C. § 1011, 15 U.S.C.A. § 1011, which provided that the regulation and taxation of insurance should be left to the States, without restriction by reason of the Commerce Clause. Subsequently, by force of the McCarran-Ferguson Act, we upheld the continued taxation and regulation by the States of interstate insurance transactions. Prudential Ins. Co. v. Benjamin, 328 U.S. 408, 66 S.Ct. 1142, 90 L.Ed. 1342.

Prior to the South-Eastern Underwriters decision, we had given broad scope to local regulation of the insurance business. Osborn v. Ozlin, 310 U.S. 53, 60 S.Ct. 758, 84 L.Ed. 1074; Hoopeston Canning Co. v. Cullen, 318 U.S. 313, 63 S.Ct. 602, 87 L.Ed. 777. The Osborn case upheld a Virginia requirement that insurance companies authorized to do business in that State must write policies through resident agents. The Hoopeston case, while it involved the making of out-of-state insurance contracts, also involved servicing of policies in New York, the regulating State.

Here, unlike the Osborn and Hoopeston cases, the insurance companies carry on no activities within the State of Texas. Of course, the insured does business in Texas and the property insured is located there. It is earnestly argued that, unless the philosophy of the Osborn and Hoopeston decisions is to be restricted, the present Texas tax on premiums paid out-of-state on out-of-state contracts should be sustained. We are urged to follow the approach of the Osborn and Hoopeston decisions, look to the aspects of the insurance transactions taken as a whole, and decide that there aer sufficient contacts with Texas to justify this tax under the requirements of due process.

Were the Osborn and Hoopeston cases and the bare bones of the McCarran-Ferguson Act our only criteria for decision, we would have presented the question whether three prior decisions-Allgeyer v. Louisiana, 165 U.S. 578, 17 S.Ct. 427, 41 L.Ed. 832; St. Louis Cotton Compress Co. v. Arkansas, 260 U.S. 346, 43 S.Ct. 125, 67 L.Ed. 297; Connecticut General Life Ins. Co. v. Johnson, 303 U.S. 77, 58 S.Ct. 436, 82 L.Ed. 673-have continuing vitality. The first two were distinguished in the Osborn (310 U.S., at 66-67, 60 S.Ct. at 763) and Hoopeston (318 U.S., at 318-319, 63 S.Ct. at 605-606) cases. The Allgeyer case held that Louisiana by reason of the Due Process Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment could not make it a misdemeanor to effect insurance on Louisiana risks with an insurance company not licensed to do business in Louisiana, where the insured through use of the mails contracted in New York for the policy. The St. Louis Cotton Compress case held invalid under the Due Process Clause an Arkansas tax on the premiums paid for a policy on Arkansas risks, made with an out-of-state company having no office or agents in Arkansas. The Connecticut General Life Insurance case held invalid under the Due Process Clause a California tax on premiums paid in Connecticut by one insurance company to another for reinsurance of life insurance policies written in California on California residents, even though both insurance companies were authorized to do business in California. The Court stated:

'All that appellant did in effecting the reinsurance was done     without the state and for its transaction no privilege or      license by California was needful. The tax cannot be     sustained either as laid on property, business done, or      transactions carried on within the state, or as a tax on a      privilege granted by the state.' 303 U.S., at 82, 58 S.Ct. at     439.

The Texas Court of Civil Appeals, 340 S.W.2d 339, and the Texas Supreme Court, feeling bound by these decisions, held the tax on premiums unconstitutional, 162 Tex. 8, 343 S.W.2d 241. We granted certiorari, 368 U.S. 810, 82 S.Ct. 40, 7 L.Ed.2d 20.

The insurance transactions involved in the present litigation take place entirely outside Texas. The insurance, which is principally insurance against loss or liability arising from damage to property, is negotiated and paid for outside Texas. The policies are issued outside Texas. All losses arising under the policies are adjusted and paid outside Texas. The insurers are not licensed to do business in Texas, have no office or place of business in Texas, do not solicit business in Texas, have no agents in Texas, and do not investigate risks or claims in Texas.

The insured is not a domiciliary of Texas but a New York corporation doing business in Texas. Losses under the policies are payable not to Texas residents but to the insured at its principal office in New York City. The only connection between Texas and the insurance transactions is the fact that the property covered by the insurance is physically located in Texas.

We need not decide de novo whether the results (and the reasons given) in the Allgeyer, St. Louis Cotton Compress, and Connecticut General Life Insurance decisions are sound and acceptable. For we have in the history of the McCarran-Ferguson Act an explicit. unequivocal statement that the Act was so designed as not to displace those three decisions. The House Report stated:

'It is not the intention of Congress in the enactment of this     legislation to clothe the States with any power to regulate      or tax the business of insurance beyond that which they had      been held to possess prior to the decision of the United      States Supreme Court in the Southeastern Underwriters      Association case. Briefly, your committee is of the opinion     that we should provide for the continued regulation and      taxation of insurance by the States, subject always, however,      to the limitations set out in the controlling decisions of      the United States Supreme Court, as, for instance, in      Allgeyer v. Louisiana (165 U.S. 578 (,17 S.Ct. 427, 41 L.Ed. 832)), St. Louis Cotton Compress Co. v. Arkansas (260 U.S.     346 (,43 S.Ct. 125, 67 L.Ed. 297)), and Connecticut General     (Life) Insurance Co. v. Johnson (303 U.S. 77, (,58 S.Ct. 436,     82 L.Ed. 673)), which hold, inter alia, that a State does not     have power to tax contracts of insurance or reinsurance      entered into outside its jurisdiction by individuals or      corporations resident or domiciled therein covering risks within the State or to      regulate such transactions in any way.' H.R.Rep. No. 143,     79th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 3, U.S.Code Cong. Service 1945, p.     670.

Senator McCarran, after reading the foregoing part of the House Report during the Senate debate, stated, ' * *  * we give to the States no more powers than those they previously had, and we take none from time.' 91 Cong.Rec. 1442.

So, while Congress provided in 15 U.S.C. § 1012(a), 15 U.S.C.A. § 1012(a), that the insurance business 'shall be subject to the laws of the several States which relate to the regulation or taxation of such business,' it indicated without ambiguity that such state 'regulation or taxation' should be kept within the limits set by the Allgeyer, St. Louis Cotton Compress, and Connecticut General Life Insurance decisions.

The power of Congress to grant protection to interstate commerce against state regulation or taxation (Bethlehem Steel Co. v. New York State Labor Relations Board, 330 U.S. 767, 775-776, 67 S.Ct. 1026, 1031, 91 L.Ed. 1234; Rice v. Sante Fe Elevator Corp., 331 U.S. 218, 235-236, 67 S.Ct. 1146, 1154-1155, 91 L.Ed. 1447) or to withhold it (In re Rahrer, 140 U.S. 545, 560 et seq., 11 S.Ct. 865, 868, 35 L.Ed. 572; Prudential Ins. Co. v. Benjamin, supra) is so complete that its ideas of policy should prevail.

Congress, of course, does not have the final say as to what constitutes due process under the Fourteenth Amendment. And while Congress has authority by § 5 of that Amendment to enforce its provisions (Ex parte Virginia, 100 U.S. 339, 25 L.Ed. 676; Monroe v. Pape, 365 U.S. 167, 81 S.Ct. 473, 5 L.Ed.2d 492), the McCarran-Ferguson Act does not purport to do so. We have, of course, freedom to change our decisions on the constitutionality of laws. Smith v. Allwright, 321 U.S. 649, 665, 64 S.Ct. 757, 765, 88 L.Ed. 987. But the policy announced by Congress in the McCarran-Ferguson Act was one on which the industry had reason to rely since 1897, when the Allgeyer decision was announced; and we are advised by an amicus brief how severe the impact would be on small insurance companies should the old rule be changed. When, therefore, Congress has posited a regime of state regulation on the continuing validity of specific prior decisions (see Federal Trade Comm. v. Travelers Health Ass'n, 362 U.S. 293, 301-302, 80 S.Ct. 717, 721-722, 4 L.Ed.2d 724), we should be loath to change them.

We have accepted the status quo in comparable situations. After this Court held in Southern Pacific Co. v. Jensen, 244 U.S. 205, 37 S.Ct. 524, 61 L.Ed. 1086, that a State could not provide compensation to stevedores doing maritime work, Congress enacted the Longshoremen's Act. See S.Rep. No. 973, 69th Cong., 1st Sess., p. 16; H.R.Rep. No. 1767, 69th Cong., 2d Sess., p. 20. In Davis v. Department of Labor, 317 U.S. 249, 63 S.Ct. 225, 87 L.Ed. 246, we took note of the passage of laws which 'accepted the Jensen line of demarcation between state and federal jurisdiction' (id., at 256, 63 S.Ct. at 229), which line we also accepted in spite of the fact that the Jensen case had become in the eyes of some a derelict in the stream of the law.

In Toolson v. New York Yankees, Inc., 346 U.S. 356, 357, 74 S.Ct. 78, 98 L.Ed. 64, we refused to re-examine a prior decision holding baseball not to be covered by the antitrust laws, stating that '(t)he business has thus been left for thirty years to develop, on the understanding that it was not subject to existing antitrust legislation.' In that case Congress had remained silent, not changing the law. Here Congress tailored the new regulations for the insurance business with specific reference to our prior decisions. Since these earlier decisions are part of the arch on which the new structure rests, we rrefrain from disturbing them lest we change the design that Congress fashioned.

Affirmed.

Mr. Justice FRANKFURTER took no part in the decision of this case.

Mr. Justice WHITE took no part in the consideration or decision of this case.

Mr. Justice BLACK, dissenting.