Baird v. Mall

232 N.W. 47, 57 S.D. 309, 1930 S.D. LEXIS 112
CourtSouth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 2, 1930
DocketFile Nos. 6575, 6576, 6577
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 232 N.W. 47 (Baird v. Mall) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering South Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baird v. Mall, 232 N.W. 47, 57 S.D. 309, 1930 S.D. LEXIS 112 (S.D. 1930).

Opinion

SHERWOOD; J.

This appeal includes three separate actions, each brought by the receiver appointed1 by a North Dakota court for an insolvent North Dakota state bank. The actions were brought in the circuit court of Beadle county, S. D., against the three South Dakota stockholders of said -bank, to recover from each his double liability as a stockholder. The complaints are identical except as to names and amounts. By stipulation the three actions were tried together in the circuit court. At the close of the trial a verdict was directed against each of the defendants separately. From a judgment entered on these verdicts defendants have each appealed. The assignments of error, and issues of law, are identical in each case. By stipulation the three cases are presented in one brief and argument in this court.

The record shows that Driscoll State Bank was organized under the laws of North Dakota and located at Driscoll in said state. It became insolvent in November, 1923. Upon the report of the public examiner of said state, an action was brought in the Supreme Court of North Dakota against said bank in strict compliance with the provisions of chapter 137, Laws of North Dakota, for the year 1923. Summons was served on the bank and such proceedings -had that one L. R. Baird (plaintiff in the present action) was appointed receiver of said bank and thereupon duly qualified. Upon a hearing duly had in said action upon the re[312]*312ceiver’s report, the court found from the evidence that Driscoll State Bank was insolvent. It further found that the liabilities of said bank greatly exceeded its assets plus the entire double liability of its stockholders. Thereafter the court levied an assessment of ioo per cent on each stockholder in said bank, and thereupon made an order in said action finding and reciting all said facts among other things; and further ordering and directing “that if said assessments were not paid as demanded by said receiver, he is hereby directed to bring action in his own name as receiver against the respective stockholders for the collection of said added statutory liability. This order shall authorize the said receiver to bring or continue actions already brought in other states as may be authorized or permitted by the courts of said states so far as the courts may authorize the same.”

This order was madte December 3, 1923, and is still in force. It further showed that defendants owned all the stock of Driscoll State Bank in the following portions: Alice Barnes, as administratrix of the estate of W. H. Barnes, no shares; W. L. M!all, 20 shares; J. H. Elwell, 20 shares. Total shares 150. Value $100 each.

All said stockholders resided in Huron, Beadle county, S. D., at the time they bought the stock in Driscoll State Bank and have resided there ever since. Neither defendant ever resided in North Dakota; and neither was served! with summons in the action brought against the bank in North Dakota, which resulted in its being declared insolvent.

The receiver notified these stockholders of such assessment and demanded payment thereof. Upon their refusal to pay, he brought said actions in Beadle county,' S. D., and from judgments in favor of plaintiff the several defendants appeal.

It is evident that respondent’s right to bring the actions rests primarily on the statutes of North Dakota, and the decisions of its Supreme 'Court. The following statutes of that state were pleaded either in full or in substance in the complaint, namely: Section 5168 of the Comp. Daws of North Dakota, enacted in the year 1913; section 1 of chapter 53 of the Session Daws of North Dakota for the year 1915; chapter 1-3,7 of the Daws of North Dakota enacted in the year 1923; section 4 of chapter 179 of the Session Daws of North Dakota for the year 1923.

[313]*313The following order and decision of the North Dakota Supreme Court is also' pleaded in substance, namely, an order dated December 3, 1923, supra, made by the Supreme Court of North Dakota, in an action brought by the Attorney General of said state in the name of the state of North Dakota, against Driscoll State Bank; also a decision of the Supreme Court of North Dakota in which F. M. Davis, as receiver of the Farmers’ & Merchants’ State Bank of Danhoff, is respondent, versus Johnson, appellant, which opinion was filed by the Supreme Court of North Dakota on the 30th day of December, 1918, and reported in volume 41 of North Dakota Supreme Court Reports at page 85, 170 N. W. 520. The complaint is long, and as the only material question presented is plaintiff’s right to bring and maintain the action on practically undisputed facts, it will only be necessary to refer to and discuss those parts of the complaint and the evidence bearing upon that question.

The statutes above referred to were each admitted in evidence over appellant’s objections made upon all the grounds stated in his objections a to e, inclusive, hereinafter set out in this opinion; but as respondent’s right to sue depended upon the statutes and decisions of the Supreme Court of North Dakota and the statutes and decisions offered in evidence were pertinent to the issue, the objections were properly overruled.

The evidence will be discussed in connection with the contentions of the parties hereinafter stated.

Appellants have assigned numerous errors; but they are all discussed together in the brief, and are all based on two proposi- . tions:

1. That the complaint fails to- state a cause of action on any theory.

2. That the evidence is wholly insufficient to sustain either verdict.

Based on these two general propositions, appellants specifically contend that:

a. No authority is expressly given either by the Constitution or statutes of North Dakota to the receiver of an insolvent state bank to maintain a suit against stockholders' on their double liability, either within, or outside, the territorial limits of North Dakota.

[314]*314•b. Unless the statutes, or Constitution, of North Dakota expressly authorize a receiver to bring'such actions, the courts of North Dakota are powerless to give him such authority; and the question whether such power is given must be determined solely by the laws of North Dakota.

c. Plaintiff is not a judicial receiver, but only a personal representative of the state banking department of North Dakota.

d. If plaintiff is a receiver, he is merely an equitable receiver, possessed of no title to the property or assets, of the corporation; and hence has no right to bring suits, either within or without the state of North Dakota to recover on a stockholder’s double liability.

e. No authority has been given by any court in this state to bring either of these actions.

It is respondent’s contention:

1. That section 5168, supra, established the stockholder’s double liability in North Dakota. That such liability was primary and an action could be brought thereon by any creditor of the bank against any stockholder either within or outside the state of North Dakota.

2. That chapter 53, Daws 1915, supra, expressly authorized the receiver of said bank to- bring such suits.

3.

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Related

Argo Oil Corporation v. Lathrop
72 N.W.2d 431 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1955)
Baird v. Barnes
235 N.W. 122 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1931)

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Bluebook (online)
232 N.W. 47, 57 S.D. 309, 1930 S.D. LEXIS 112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baird-v-mall-sd-1930.