Ceco Corp. v. Bar-Jay Associates, Inc.

68 Pa. D. & C.2d 674, 1974 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 169
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County
DecidedJuly 16, 1974
Docketno. 428
StatusPublished

This text of 68 Pa. D. & C.2d 674 (Ceco Corp. v. Bar-Jay Associates, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ceco Corp. v. Bar-Jay Associates, Inc., 68 Pa. D. & C.2d 674, 1974 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 169 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1974).

Opinion

CALDWELL, J.,

Plaintiff corporation is a manufacturer and fabricator of structural steel members used in the construction of buildings. Defendant corporation is engaged in the business of buying and selling construction materials and defendant Ruth appears to be the principal person involved in the operation and ownership of Bar-Jay. In 1972, plaintiff sold to Bar-Jay substantial quantities of structural steel for which it has not been paid, whereupon this suit was filed against the corporation and against Charles M. Ruth, Jr., individually.1 Preliminary objections in the nature of demurrers have been filed concerning the claims against Charles M. Ruth, Jr., and are before us for disposition.

In Counts 2 and 3, plaintiff attempts to institute a creditor’s derivative action based on a claimed beneficial interest in Bar-Jay Corporation, which, plaintiff avers, arose as a result of an unsatisfied judgment against Bar-Jay.

[676]*676No case has been cited or found where a creditor’s derivative action has been instituted based on this type of beneficial interest.

The Pennsylvania statute, Act of May 5, 1933, P. L. 364, as amended, 15 PS § 1516(A), and Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 1506, applicable to stockholders’ derivative actions, make no mention of the remedy sought by the plaintiff creditor.

The origin and policy considerations underlying a stockholder’s derivative action suit do not apply to derivative action suits by creditors. The origins of the remedy are in equity. “Equity came to the relief of the stockholder, who had no standing to bring civil action at law against faithless directors and managers”: Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp., 337 U. S. 541, at 548, 69 S. Ct. 1221, at 1226 (1949). Since an adequate legal remedy was available to disappointed creditors, there was no need for equity to come to their aid. In Mitchell et al. v. Commercial Coal Co., 25 Cambria, 230 (1963), the court refused equity jurisdiction to plaintiffs who were not stockholders of the defendant corporation because such plaintiffs had an adequate remedy at law.

The aim of this equitable remedy is to make the management of a corporation legally accountable to the owners of the corporation, i.e., the stockholders. See Dykstra, The Revival of the Derivative Suit, 116 U. of Pa. L.R. 74 (1967). The policy of making the management of a corporation responsible to the individual owners of that corporation, who would otherwise be unable to enforce their rights as owners, is radically different from making the management of a corporation responsible to outside creditors, already having adequate remedies at law. “Creditors of a corporation do not occupy the same relation to the directors as do the stockholders”: Ellis v. Stine, 36 D. & C. [677]*6772d 338, at page 347 (Leb. Co., 1964). Furthermore, in a stockholder’s derivative suit, “The suit is for the benefit of the corporation and all the stockholders and not for plaintiff individually”: 18 C. J. S. §567, pages 1288-89, whereas here the suit is clearly and solely for the benefit of plaintiff.

Finally, the Pennsylvania rule requires that for a shareholder to sue on behalf of the corporation, he must have had an ownership interest in the corporation at the time of the occurrence of the transaction for which the complaint is lodged. If, by analogy, a similar rule is applied to plaintiff, then counts 2 and 3 of the amended complaint would fail, since the alleged beneficial interest in Bar-Jay arose after the transaction complained of. (For rationale of the rule, see Weston v. Reading Company, 445 Pa. 182, at 192, 282 A. 2d 714, at 719 (1971).)

For the foregoing reasons, the demurrer to counts 2 and 3 of the complaint must be sustained.

In count 4, plaintiff sets forth a cause of action for fraud against the individual defendant. Among other things, it is alleged that defendant intentionally informed plaintiff that Bar-Jay was awaiting payment from the general contractors and that Ceco would be paid as soon as Bar-Jay received payment when, in fact, Bar-Jay had already been paid by the general contractors. Plaintiff further alleges that defendant’s misrepresentation was intended to induce plaintiff to forego his remedy under the Public Works Contractors’ Bond Law of 1967, Act of December 20, 1967, P. L. 869, 8 PS §191, that plaintiff in justifiable reliance upon defendant’s assurances did forego the above statutory remedy and that, as a result, plaintiff has been damaged.

From the allegations listed above, it is clear that plaintiff has satisfied the essential requirements of a [678]*678cause of action for fraud as determined by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Scaife Co. v. Rockwell-Standard Corp., 446 Pa. 280, 285 A. 2d 451 (1971). Defendant’s contention that the rebanee of plaintiff is so unreasonable that the court should withdraw the count from the factfinder is without merit.

Pennsylvania Rule of Civil Procedure 1019(b) requires that “ [a] verments of fraud ... be averred with particularity.” The precise standards of particularity needed to satisfy the demands of Rule 1019(b) were discussed by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court in Bata v. Central-Penn National Bank, 423 Pa. 373, 224 A. 2d 174, cert. den., 386 U. S. 1007 (1966):

“While it is impossible to estabbsh precise standards as to the degree of particularity required in a given situation, two conditions must always be met. The pleadings must adequately explain the nature of the claim to the opposing party so as to permit him to prepare a defense and they must be sufficient to convince the court that the above averments are not merely subterfuge”: Page 380.

Plaintiff has satisfied the two conditions enunciated above and, therefore, the demurrer to count 4 of the complaint must be overruled.

In counts 5 and 7, plaintiff alleges that the individual defendant misappropriated or distributed for his own personal use funds of the corporation, thereby breaching his fiduciary duty to Bar-Jay and the plaintiff creditor, and causing the corporate defendant to be unable to pay its debt to plaintiff. Plaintiff also argues that the corporate veil of Bar-Jay should be pierced and the individual defendant be held personally bable for the debts of the corporation to plaintiff.

The question for the court to determine is whether or not these two counts contain sufficient statements of [679]*679facts, which, if proved, would warrant the imposition of liability on Charles M. Ruth, Jr., individually.

In its complaint, plaintiff avers that defendant owes a fiduciary duty to the creditors of Bar-Jay by reason of defendant’s position as officer, director and majority shareholder. In its brief, plaintiff cites West, for use, v. Hotel Pennsylvania, Inc., 148 Pa. Superior Ct. 373, 25 A. 2d 593 (1942), as stating the Pennsylvania rule:

“The directors of a corporation are trustees of the capital of the company, their powers are held by them in trust for all the creditors and cannot be used for their own benefit.” Page 377.

In West, during the time the capital of the corporation was impaired, but prior to the declared bankruptcy of Hotel Pennsylvania, Inc., of which West and his wife were sole stockholders, judgment was confessed on a note of the corporation payable to West.

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Related

Cohen v. Beneficial Industrial Loan Corp.
337 U.S. 541 (Supreme Court, 1949)
Bonanni v. Weston Hauling, Inc.
140 A.2d 591 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1958)
WESTON v. Reading Co.
282 A.2d 714 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1971)
Bata v. Central-Penn Nat. Bank of Phila.
224 A.2d 174 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1966)
Scaife Co. v. Rockwell-Standard Corp.
285 A.2d 451 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1971)
West, for Use v. Hotel Penna., Inc.
25 A.2d 593 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1941)
Taylor v. Penrose Motor Co.
101 Pa. Super. 486 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1930)
Sicardi v. Keystone Oil Co.
24 A. 163 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1892)
Mueller v. Monongahela Fire Clay Co.
38 A. 1009 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1898)
Pangburn v. American Vault, Safe & Lock Co.
54 A. 504 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1903)
Stull v. Bellefonte Stone Products Corp.
205 A.2d 677 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1964)

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Bluebook (online)
68 Pa. D. & C.2d 674, 1974 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 169, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ceco-corp-v-bar-jay-associates-inc-pactcompldauphi-1974.