Copper Belle Mining Co. v. Costello

95 P. 94, 11 Ariz. 334, 1908 Ariz. LEXIS 66
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 27, 1908
DocketCivil No. 1021
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 95 P. 94 (Copper Belle Mining Co. v. Costello) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Copper Belle Mining Co. v. Costello, 95 P. 94, 11 Ariz. 334, 1908 Ariz. LEXIS 66 (Ark. 1908).

Opinion

KENT, C. J.

— The appellants have assigned numerous errors, Which we will consider separately, so far as it seems necessary so to do. The appellants claim that the trial court erred in sustaining the demurrers to the petition of intervention of the stockholders. If the case was a proper one for an intervention by nonassenting stockholders, it is not necessary to consider the correctness of the trial court’s ruling in sustaining the demurrer to the petition in intervention, since the petitioners have not appealed therefrom, but are content with the ruling of the court, and the corporation cannot be heard to complain of the court’s action in that respect.

It is claimed that the court erred in admitting in evidence, as against the Arizona corporation, the mortgage securing the $15,100 note; the objection being that the acknowledgment thereto did not recite that the officers executed the same “as the act and deed of the corporation, ’ ’ and hence it was not entitled to be recorded. Our statute provides: “If the acknowledgment is made by the officers of a corporation, the certificate shall show that such persons as such officers (naming the office of each person) acknowledged the execution of the instrument as the free act and deed of such corporation, by each of them voluntarily executed.” Rev. Stats. Ariz. 1901, par. 739. The acknowledgment was in the following terms: “Before me, Oliver W. Beals, a notary public in and for the county aforesaid, on this day personally appeared B. Brunner and George E. Crawford, both personally known to me to be the president and secretary, respectively, of the Copper Belle Mining Company, the corporation that executed the foregoing instrument, and they each for himself acknowledged to me that he executed said instrument as president and secretary, respectively, of the said corporation, by the authority of a resolution of the board of directors of said corporation passed the first day of February, 1902, for the purpose and con[344]*344sideration therein expressed.” The resolution of the board of directors referred to was later put in evidence. A literal compliance with the precise language of the statute is not requisite, if there has been a substantial compliance therewith. In the case before us the resolution of the board of directors (the act of the corporation) expressly authorized the execution of the instrument, and the acknowledgment recited that it was executed by the authority of such resolution and for the purpose therein expressed. We think it was sufficient in form, and not subject to the objection urged. Muller v. Boone, 63 Tex. 91; Ballard v. Carmichael, 83 Tex. 355, 18 S. W. 734.

The principal assignments of error relate to the action of the court in rendering judgment on the $15,000 note and foreclosing the mortgage given to secure the same. It is claimed that the corporation was not authorized or empowered by its charter to make a note and mortgage, and the same was, therefore, ultra vires and void. In the absence of any restrictive-provision, either in the charter or in the laws of the state under which it was organized, a corporation such as the one in question is not prohibited from executing a note or mortgage by reason of the fact that the charter itself does not expressly authorize such an act. It is a necessary power that exists by implication of law, and as incident to its right to incur an indebtedness. Cook on Corporations, sec. 779, and cases cited.

It is further claimed that the note and mortgage were given by the corporation in payment for the purchase of shares of its own stock from Gleeson, a director; that the corporation was not authorized or empowered by its charter to purchase its own stock; and that the transaction was therefore ultra vires. It is claimed that Reilly was acting in this transaction on behalf of Costello, and that Reilly had full knowledge of all the facts, and that his knowledge must be imputed to Costello; that at the time of making the note and mortgage the company had no profits in its business, and no surplus; that the mortgage covered all the property of the company, and was virtually a conveyance of all the company’s property to* Costello for the benefit of Gleeson, in effect making Gleesbn a preferred stockholder, in fraud of the other stockholders and creditors. We think the evidence discloses that, while Reilly was the local attorney for the company, he was also the legal adviser of Costello, acting generally for him, and that in the matter of the loan in this instance he was acting as the representative of Costello, and that his knowledge must be [345]*345imputed to Costello. It is shown that Reilly had knowledge that the company intended to “buy Gleeson out” and to purchase his stock. Reilly further had knowledge of the action of the stockholders and the board of directors in regard to the authorization of the transaction; but there is no evidence that Costello or Reilly had any knowledge that the company at the time was involved, or that the transaction in effect made Gleeson a preferred stockholder, in fraud of other stockholders or creditors, as claimed by the appellants, or that such conditions as a matter of fact existed. In England it seems to be the rule that at common law a corporation may not purchase shares of its own stock. The objection usually urged to such a transaction is that by such purchase the corporate funds are expended, and no property is received by the corporation except the right to resell. In this country, while some states forbid it, the better rule seems to be that, in the absence of statutory restriction, and where there is no statutory liability on the stock, a solvent corporation may in good faith purchase its own stock, subject to the right of creditors, upon a showing that they have been injured thereby, and in some instances of nonassenting stockholders, to have such purchase declared illegal. Cook on Corporations, see. 310 et seq.; Lowe v. Pioneer Threshing Co. (C. C.), 70 Fed. 646; Clapp v. Peterson, 104 Ill. 26; Blalock v. Kernersville Mfg. Co., 110 N. C. 99, 14 S. E. 501; City Bank of Columbus v. Bruce, 17 N. Y. 507; First Nat. Bank v. Salem Co. (C. C.), 39 Fed. 89; New England Co. v. Abbot, 162 Mass. 148, 38 N. E. 432, 27 L. R. A. 271; Chicago etc. R. R. Co. v. Marseilles, 84 Ill. 643; Farmers’ Bank v. Champlain Transp. Co., 18 Vt. 131; Iowa Lumber Co. v. Foster, 49 Iowa, 25, 31 Am. Rep. 140; Shoemaker v. Washburn Lumber Co., 97 Wis. 585, 73 N. W. 333.

In the case before us, we think the .purchase by the company of its stock was a valid one, as against the corporation. It was done in the discretion of the officers of the company in good faith, and in the exercise of their control of the affairs of the company, for the purpose of getting rid of a superintendent, the owner of a small amount of stock, whose management of the company was believed to be injurious. At the time of the purchase there is no evidence that the company was insolvent, or that any of the officers or directors of the company, or any of its stockholders had reason so to believe, or that Costello or Reilly had any knowledge on the subject whatever. The answer of the defendants in terms [346]*346alleges the insolvency of the company, but also that Gleeson concealed from the officers, directors, and stockholders of the company the real condition, and that he at the time represented to them that the company had no debts other than to him.

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Bluebook (online)
95 P. 94, 11 Ariz. 334, 1908 Ariz. LEXIS 66, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/copper-belle-mining-co-v-costello-ariz-1908.