doing business

Within statutes on service of process on foreign corporations, means equivalent to carrying on, conducting or managing business.

A foreign corporation is "doing business", making it amenable to process within state, if it does business therein in such a manner as to warrant the inference that it is present there. Or that it has subjected itself to the jurisdiction and laws in which the service is made. The doing of business is the exercise in the state of some of the ordinary functions for which the corporation was organized.

What constitutes "doing business" depends on the facts in each particular case. The general rule is that the business need only have certain "minimum contacts" with the state to make it amenable to process in that state. International Shoe Co. v. State of Washington, 326 U.S. 310, 66 S.Ct. 154, 90 L.Ed. 95.

And, such contacts may be as minimal as selling a single insurance contract. McGee v. International Life Insurance Co., 355 U.S. 220, 78 S.Ct. 199, 2 L.Ed.2d 223; Hanson v. Denckla, 357 U.S. 235, 78 S.Ct. 1228, 2 L.Ed.2d 1283.

See also long arm statutes

- minimal contacts.

The determination as to what constitutes "doing business" may differ as to whether the term is being used with reference to amenability to service of process or to taxation, and also may vary in definition from state to state