Allen-West Commission Co. v. Grumbles

129 F. 287, 63 C.C.A. 401, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4043
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedApril 8, 1904
DocketNo. 1,979
StatusPublished
Cited by76 cases

This text of 129 F. 287 (Allen-West Commission Co. v. Grumbles) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allen-West Commission Co. v. Grumbles, 129 F. 287, 63 C.C.A. 401, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4043 (8th Cir. 1904).

Opinion

SANBORN, Circuit Judge,

after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

The crucial question in this case is: Did the delivery in May, 1899, by the defendant Grumbles to his wife, of the formal bill- of sale of his interest in the Mann-Tankersley Drug Company business, constitute a completed gift of his no shares of stock in the corporation, in view of the fact that Grumbles retained the certificate of the shares, kept the stock in his own name upon the books of the company, voted and received dividends upon it until after he had become hopelessly insolvent and then transferred it'to his wife by an indorsement and surrender of the certificate without the use of the assignment of 1899, of which no notice had been given to the corporation? If this question should be answered in the affirmative, the transfer by Grumbles to his wife in February, 1903, was no evidence of an intent on his part to hinder or defraud his creditors, because the stock had not been his since May, 1899. If, on the other hand, this question should be answered in the negative, that transfer was conclusively fraudulent as against creditors, because it was a voluntary conveyance, without valuable consideration, after the donor had become heavily indebted to his various creditors.

While the assignment recites a consideration of five dollars and of love and affection, counsel for Mr. and Mrs. Grumbles do not claim, nor has the court below found, that this instrument evidences any sale for value of the no shares of stock, or that $5, or any other sum, was ever paid as a part of the consideration for the execution or delivery of that assignment. Moreover, if that question were presented here for our consideration, the written instrument and the facts disclosed by the findings of the court would lead our minds to the conclusion which counsel for all parties to this litigation have tacitly adopted. At the time the assignment was made the stock was worth about $3,700. It is not a rational inference that property of this value was sold for $5. Again, the entire assignment must be read and construed as a whole. When thus read, it declares that it was made for $5, for love and affection, and for the purpose of making a division of the property of the grantor. The natural inference from these recitals is that it was a voluntary assignment without valuable consideration, and that the reference to the $5 is the usual form of recital [290]*290which is frequently inserted in instruments of this character, when no valuable consideration is actually paid. Baltimore Retort & Fire Brick Co. v. Mali, 65 Md. 93,94, 3 Atl. 286, 57 Am. Rep. 304.

We come, therefore, to the only question to which counsel have addressed their arguments — to the question whether or not, under the law applicable thereto, the facts of this case will sustain the conclusion that the defendant Grumbles made a valid gift of his stock in the Mann-Tankersley corporation to his wife on May 14, 1899, when he delivered to her the assignment in question. In every case of an alleged gift, the burden of proof is upon the donee to establish a complete and valid donation. Jones v. Falls (Mo. App.) 73 S. W. 903. Among the indispensable conditions of a valid gift are the intention of the donor to absolutely and irrevocably divest himself of the title, dominion, and control of the subject of the gift in prsesenti at the very time he undertakes to make the gift (Lehr v. Jones, 74 App. Div. 54, 77 N. Y. Supp. 213; Bickford v. Mattocks, 50 Atl. 894, 95 Me. 547; In re Estate of Soulard, 141 Mo. 642, 657, 659, 43 S. W. 617; Newman v. Bost [N. C.] 29 S. E. 848, 850); the irrevocable transfer of the present title, dominion, and control of the thing given to the donee, so that the donor can exercise no farther act of dominion or control over it (Basket v. Hassell, 107 U. S. 602, 614, 615, 2 Sup. Ct. 415, 27 L. Ed. 500; Cook v. Lum, 55 N. J. Law, 373, 376, 26 Atl. 803); and the delivery by the donor to the donee of the subject of the gift or of the most effectual means of commanding the dominion of it. This delivery must be an actual one “so far as the subject is capable of it. It must be secundum subjectam materiam, and be the true and effectual way of obtaining the command and dominion of the subject.” 2 Kent’s Com. 439. If the subject of the gift is a chose in action, such as a bond, a note, or stock in a corporation, the delivery of the most effectual means of reducing the chose to possession or use, such as the delivery of the bond, or the note, or the certificate of stock, if present and capable of delivery, is indispensable to the completion of the gift. Richards v. Delbridge, L. R. 18 Eq. 11; Knight v. Tripp, 121 Cal. 674, 679, 54 Pac. 267; Miller v. Jeffress, 4 Grat. 472, 480; Matthews v. Hoagland, 48 N. J. Eq. 455, 487, 21 Atl. 1054; Wadd v. Hazelton, 137 N. Y. 215, 219, 33 N. E. 143, 21 L. R. A. 693, 33 Am. St. Rep. 707; Matter of Crawford et al., 113 N. Y. 560, 21 N. E. 692, 5 L. R. A. 71; Beaver v. Beaver, 117 N. Y. 421, 22 N. E. 940, 6 L. R. A. 403, 15 Am. St. Rep. 531; Liebe v. Battmann, 33 Or. 241, 54 •Pac. 179, 72 Am. St. Rep. 705; Williams v. Chamberlain, 165 Ill. 210, 218, 46 N. E. 250; Gartside v. Pahlman, 45 Mo. App. 160.

Stock in a corporation is a chose in action, and the certificates are the evidence of its existence and of its amount. They bear some analogy to the title deeds of real estate (Com. v. Crompton, 137 Pa. 138, 20 Atl. 417); but they are far more commanding and useful in the handling of the stock they represent than are title deeds in the handling of the land they describe. Because the stock in a corporation is transferred by means of the delivery, or by means of the indorsement and delivery of the certificates, the latter by a sort of mental substitution come to be thought of and dealt in as the stock itself. The stork of corporations is ordinarily transferred on the books of the company [291]*291only by the surrender of the certificates and the issue of new ones to the grantees. Hence assignments, bills of sale, and conveyances, without the accompanying possession and delivery of the certificates, are much less effectual or available to command the title, the dominion, dr the control of the stock than the mere possesision of the certificates themselves. The indorsement and delivery, or the mere delivery, of the certificates, without entry of the transfer upon the books of the corporation, is generally held to constitute a valid sale of the stock between vendor and vendee, or a completed gift of it between donor and donee. Such an indorsement and delivery of the certificates generally enables the holder to enforce a transfer of the title to the stock upon the books of the corporation. Basket v. Hassell, 107 U. S. 602, 614, 615, 2 Sup. Ct. 415, 27 L. Ed. 500; Com. v. Crompton, 137 Pa. 138, 20 Atl. 417; Hopkins v. Manchester (R. I.) 19 Atl. 243; Walsh v. Sexton, 55 Barb. 251; Leyson v. Davis (Mont.) 42 Pac. 775, 793, 31 L. R. A. 429; First National Bank of Richmond v. Holland, 99 Va. 495, 39 S. E. 126, 55 L. R. A. 155, 86 Am. St. Rep. 898; Stone v. Hackett, 12 Gray, 227, 231; Cushman v. Thayer Mfg. Jewelry Co., 76 N. Y. 365, 32 Am. Rep. 315; Grymes v. Hone, 49 N. Y. 17, 10 Am. Rep. 313; Reed v. Copeland, 50 Conn. 472, 47 Am. Rep. 663.

If, by an indorsement and delivery of the certificates of stock with the donative intention, the defendant had completed his gift to his wife, a court of equity would have compelled the corporation to transfer the shares upon its books.

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Bluebook (online)
129 F. 287, 63 C.C.A. 401, 1904 U.S. App. LEXIS 4043, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allen-west-commission-co-v-grumbles-ca8-1904.