the plea. On defendant's application, a writ of certiorari was issued out of this court, and the record is before us for review. The return of the circuit judge in part is as follows:

"I further show and return to said writ that at the time of the hearing and argument upon the plea to the jurisdiction in said cause, and upon the petition for the dissolution of the writ of attachment in said cause, it appeared from the pleadings and affidavits, all of which are attached hereto, and I found therefrom as a matter of fact that at the time of the commencement of said suit and the serIvice of the writ of attachment therein the said defendant company had goods and property in said county and State for sale in the regular course of its business; that one Benjamin F. Long, upon whom the said writ was personally served, as shown by the return thereto, was a resident of the city of Grand Rapids, in said county, and was acting generally as the agent and representative of the said defendant company in the sale of its goods and the handling of its business in said county and State, and that at the time of the service of said writ the said defendant company was, and for a considerable period of time had been, through its said agent and otherwise, doing business generally with the citizens of said county and State in the sale of its products, and had merchandise and property, consisting of bean threshers manufactured by it, in said county and State, for the purpose of carrying on its said business therein.

"I thereupon held that the court by the service of said writ acquired and had jurisdiction in said cause, as shown by the orders duly made and filed therein."

Two principal questions are presented for our consideration by the briefs of counsel:

First. Did the court acquire jurisdiction over the defendant, a foreign corporation, the cause of action having accrued outside of the State?

Second. Is the amount of the indebtedness or damages as stated in the declaration so uncertain, speculative, and conjectural as to exclude the remedy by attachment?

First. Since there was no method for suing a corporation at common law outside of its home jurisdiction, it is argued that the right to maintain the present action must

depend upon statutory authority. Defendant contends that such authority can be found only in section 10442, 3 Comp. Laws, which provides as follows:

"(10442) SECTION 1. The People of the State of Michigan enact, That suits may be commenced at law or in equity in the circuit court for any county of this State where the plaintiff resides or service of process may be had and suits at law, before justices of the peace in such county; and in cases where the plaintiff is a nonresident in any county of the State, against any corporation not organized under the laws of this State in all cases where the cause of action accrues within the State of Michigan, by service of a summons, declaration or chancery subpoena within the State of Michigan, upon any officer or agent of the corporation, or upon the conductor of any railroad train, or upon the master of any vessel belonging to or in the service of the corporation against which the cause of action has accrued: Provided, That in all cases, except before justices of the peace, no judgment shall be rendered for sixty days after the commencement of suit, and the plaintiff shall, within thirty days after commencement of suit, send notice by registered letter to the corporation defendant at its home office."

Counsel for plaintiff argue that section 10442, 3 Comp. Laws, should be construed as applying only to foreign corporations engaged in interstate commerce transactions within the State, and not to foreign corporations doing business in the State through resident agents and really domiciled in a business sense within the State. It is further contended that the provisions of section 10468, 3 Comp. Laws, are applicable to foreign corporations actually doing business in this State as well as to domestic corporations. Defendant insists that this latter contention is disposed of by our previous decisions. Grand Trunk R. Co. v. Wayne Circuit Judge, 106 Mich. 248 (64 N. W. 17), and cases cited therein. We do not regard these decisions, however, as necessarily disposing of the question under consideration. In People v. Hawkins, 106 Mich. 479 (64 N. W. 736), decided soon after the decision in Grand Trunk R. Co. v. Wayne Circuit Judge,

supra, it was held that the section of the act relating to the incorporation of manufacturing and mercantile associations, which provided that foreign corporations organized for any of the purposes of the act, upon recording their articles of association and appointing a resident agent for service of process, might carry on business in this State and enjoy all the rights and privileges and be subject to all the restrictions and liabilities of corporations existing under said act, did not prohibit foreign corporations from doing business in this State until they had complied with such conditions or invalidate their contracts. As said by Justice Gray in Barrow Steamship Co. v. Kane, 170 U. S. 100 (18 Sup. Ct. 526):

"The constant tendency of judicial decisions in modern times has been in the direction of putting corporations upon the same footing as natural persons in regard to the jurisdiction of suits by or against them."

See, also, Reeves v. Railway Co., 121 Ga. 561 (49 S. E. 674, 70 L. R. A. 513). We think this tendency is reflected in our statutes upon this subject enacted since the decision in 106 Mich. 248 (64 N. W. 17).

By Act No. 206, Pub. Acts 1901, the terms and conditions on which foreign corporations might be admitted to do business in Michigan were prescribed, and, among other things, they were required to appoint an agent in this State to accept service of process, and failure to comply with the provisions of the act subjected the offending corporation to heavy penalties. Upon compliance with the provisions of the act, the corporation was authorized to carry on its business for the time set forth in its charter or articles of association, unless longer than contemplated by the laws of this State. This act (section 1) was amended in 1903 (Act No. 34, Pub. Acts 1903) and at the regular and special sessions of 1907 (Act No. 310, Pub. Acts 1907; Act No. 3, Ex. Sess. 1907). By the amendatory act passed at the regular session of 1907, it was made unlawful for any foreign corporation to transact its business in this State

"Until it shall have procured from the secretary of State of this State a certificate of authority for that purpose."

Among other things necessary to the procurement of such certificate, it must file evidence of the appointment of an agent in this State to accept service of process on behalf of the corporation. The certificate of authority authorizes the corporation to carry on its business in this State for the period of its corporate existenco, but not to exceed 30 years.

"And the secretary of State shall in the certificate which he issues state under what act such corporation is to carry on business in this State and such corporation shall have all the powers, rights, and privileges, and be subject to all the restrictions, requirements, and duties granted to or imposed upon corporations organized under such act."

By section 6 a failure to comply with the act invalidates all contracts. By section 7 it is made unlawful for any person to act as agent for an unauthorized company and any person violating this provision is made guilty of a misdemeanor. By section 5 of the amendatory act passed at the special session of 1907 failure to comply with the provisions of the act subjects the corporation to a penalty of not less than $100 nor more than $1,000 per month. Section 10 reads as follows:

'SEC. 10. No such corporation having appointed an agent to accept service of process shall have power to revoke or annul such appointment until it shall have filled (filed) notice of appointment of some other person in this State as such agent. Service of process may also be made upon any officer or agent of such corporation in this State, or service may be made upon the secretary of State, who shall immediately notify the corporation thus served, by mailing notice thereof and a copy of such process to its address. There shall be paid to the secretary of State at the time of such service a fee of five dollars, which sum may be taxed as costs to the plaintiff in case he prevails in the proceeding."

Section 13, Act No. 232, Pub. Acts 1903, being the act

to revise and consolidate the laws providing for the incorporation of manufacturing and mercantile companies, etc., reads as follows:

"SEC. 13. Every corporation organized or existing under this act shall have power to have succession by its corporate name for the period limited in its charter, or by this act; to sue and be sued in any court of law or equity, with the same rights and obligations as a natural person; to make and use a common seal and alter the same at pleasure; to ordain and establish by-laws for the government and regulations of its affairs, and to alter and repeal the same; to elect all necessary officers and to appoint and employ such agents as the business may require.'

The effect of the statutes regulating the transaction of local business in this State by foreign corporations is to make such corporations, as to such business, domestic corporations organized under the act specified in the certificate of the secretary of State entitled to and subject to the same remedies as such corporations in the courts of this State. We are of the opinion, therefore, that section 10442, 3 Comp. Laws, should be limited in its application to foreign corporations transacting interstate commerce business in this State. Barrow Steamship Co. v. Kane, supra. The court found, and the evidence warranted the finding, that the defendant through its agent was transacting local business in the State, and the fact that such business upon the showing made was unlawful should not relieve the defendant, but it should bo held to assent to the same remedies which would have attached if it had done the business lawfully. It is estopped to set up in its defense the unlawfulness of its transactions. Ehrman v. Insurance Co., 1 Fed. 471; Hagerman v. Empire Slate Co., 97 Pa. 534; Sparks v. Accident Ass'n, 100 Iowa, 458 (69 N. W. 678); La Fayette Ins. Co. v. French, 18 How. (U. S.) 404. Under our attachment statutes, also, service of the writ upon defendant's resident agent conferred jurisdiction in personam. Comp. Laws, §§ 10474, 10555, 10556, 10559, 10560, 10571,

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