Acken v. Coughlin

92 N.Y.S. 700
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMarch 10, 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 92 N.Y.S. 700 (Acken v. Coughlin) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Acken v. Coughlin, 92 N.Y.S. 700 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1905).

Opinion

INGEAHAM, J.

This action was brought by the plaintiff, as a director of the defendant the Coughlin-Sandford Switch Company, under section 1781 of the Code of Civil Procedure, to compel the defendant Coughlin to account for his official conduct as a director and president of the corporation, in the management and disposition of the funds and property committed to his charge, and to compel him to pay to the corporation the money and the value of the property which he has acquired to himself, or lost or wasted by a violation of his duty. This action can be maintained in the courts of this state by a director of a foreign corporation. Miller v. Quincy, 179 N. Y. 294, 72 N. E. 116. The defendant is a corporation organized under the laws of the state of West Virginia. Section 1787 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides for granting an injunction restraining a corporation, and its trustees, directors, managers, and other officers, from collecting or receiving any debt or demand, and from paying out or in any way transferring or delivering to any person any money, property, or effects of the corporation, during the pendency of the action, except by express permission of the court. Section 1788 provides that in such an action the court may at any stage thereof appoint one or more receivers of the property of the corporation. The section then defines the power of a temporary receiver, and section 1789 provides that the court may confer upon such receiver the power and authority, and subject him to the duties and liabilities of a permanent receiver. These last sections apply generally to actions brought under the provisions of section 1781 of the Code, to actions brought to dissolve a corporation, and actions by a judgment creditor for sequestration.

It is evident that there is a distinction between the power of the Supreme Court of the state of New York to interfere with the affairs of a domestic and of a foreign corporation. The limitations of the power of the courts of this state over foreign corporations are discussed by this court in Hallenborg v. Greene, 66 App. Div. 590, 73 N. Y. Supp. 403. Mr. Justice Laughlin, writing the opinion of the court, says:

“The orders and decrees of a court have no extraterritorial effect or force. They can only be enforced directly against property within the state, or in personam against individuals or officers of corporations found within the jurisdiction of the court, and thereby affect property without the state. When a judgment against a foreign corporation would not be effectual without the aid of the courts of a foreign country or of a sister state, and it may contravene the public policy of the foreign jurisdiction, or rest upon the construction of a foreign statute, the interpretation of which is not free from doubt—as where the subject-matter of the litigation and the judgment would relate strictly to the internal affairs and management of the foreign corporation—the court should decline jurisdiction, because such questions are of local administration, and should be relegated to the courts of the state or country under the laws of which the corporation was organized. * * * The proper tribunal to appoint a general receiver, and to grant such a sweeping injunction order, practically restraining the exercise of the ordinary business of the corporation and the exercise by it of its charter powers, is a court of general jurisdiction in the territory of Arizona. * * * If the court in Arizona should appoint a receiver, its order would not operate upon the fund belonging to the Cobre Company now in this state. On tile case as presented, that fund is now in jeopardy, and liable to be lost to the creditors and stockholders of the Cobre Company through collusion, fraud, and mismanagement on the part of its directors. In such a case a court of equity has inherent [702]*702power, at the suit of a stockholder, to appoint a receiver of the fund to preserve it until the final judgment, which shall direct what disposition shall be made thereof in accordance with the rules and practice in courts of equity, and the rights of all the parties interested, as they shall then appear.”

Thus, while the courts of this state, at the suit of an officer, director, stockholder, or creditor of a foreign corporation, have jurisdiction to compel the officers or directors of the corporation over whom jurisdiction has been acquired,by the service of process to account to the corporation for property of the corporation in their hands, or which they have misapplied, a court of this state has no authority to appoint a general receiver of the corporation, and, to enjoin it from exercising the powers granted by a sister state or a foreign government. Its judgment can affect only property in this state, which, of course, includes property of the corporation in the possession of its officers or agents who are in this state, and over whom the court has acquired jurisdiction. The individual defendant, having been served with process in this state, is subject to the jurisdiction of the court. The court is justified, in a proper case, in enjoining him from disposing of the property of the corporation in his hands until final judgment. The court has also, if the interests of the stockholders or creditors of the corporation require, authority to appoint a receiver of the property in this state pending final judgment, but this jurisdiction is exercised solely for the purpose of preventing the unlawful or improper disposition of the property of the corporation during the pendency of the action; and such an order enjoining the defendants from disposing of the property of the corporation, or appointing a receiver of such property, can only be granted when necessary to protect the corporation or its stockholders and creditors against an unlawful disposition of the property of the corporation during the pendency of the action.

The order appealed from assumed to appoint a receiver of the property of the defendant the Coughlin-Sandford Switch Company during the pendency of the action, with power to collect and receive the debts, demands, accounts, assets, and property of the defendant the Coughlin-Sandford Switch Company; to preserve the property and the proceeds of the debts and demands collected; to employ counsel and maintain any action or special proceeding for any of the said purposes, and generally to possess and exercise the usual powers and duties of temporary receivers in such cases. The order also provides that the defendant the Coughlin-Sandford Switch Company and its president, directors, officers, agents, and servants are strictly enjoined from collecting or receiving any debt, demand, or property of the said defendant, and from paying out or in any way transferring or delivering to any person except the receiver thereby appointed any money, property, papers, accounts, or effects of the said company, or otherwise disposing thereof or interfering therewith in any way, during the pendency of the action. This injunction would, in effect, stop all corporate action, and, in connection with the appointment of a receiver, would effect a temporary stoppage of the exercise of corporate franchise by the corporation; a power which is not possessed by the courts of this state in relation to foreign corporations.. In any event, the order must be modified so as [703]*703to apply only to property within .this state, or in the possession of the individual defendant over whom the court has acquired jurisdiction.

It is claimed that the facts presented do not justify either the injunction or the receiver.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
92 N.Y.S. 700, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/acken-v-coughlin-nyappdiv-1905.