Cordes v. Paulson

248 P. 546, 78 Cal. App. 90, 1926 Cal. App. LEXIS 240
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedMay 21, 1926
DocketDocket No. 3005.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 248 P. 546 (Cordes v. Paulson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cordes v. Paulson, 248 P. 546, 78 Cal. App. 90, 1926 Cal. App. LEXIS 240 (Cal. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

PLUMMER, J.

Action to enforce stockholder’s liability. The defendant had judgment on his motion for nonsuit and plaintiff appeals.

The complaint alleges the existence of a California corporation known as and called “California Marketing Exchange,” having an authorized capital stock of $100,000 divided into 4,000 shares of the par value of $25 each; that at all times between September 13, 1920, to February 28, 1921, inclusive, the defendant was the owner of 20 shares of the capital stock of said corporation; that' between September 13 and September 24, 1920, the number of shares issued was 130, and between September 24, 1920, and February 28, 1921, inclusive, the whole number of subscribed and *93 issued shares of the capital stock of said corporation was 140. The complaint then sets forth five separate causes of action, which causes of action it is alleged were assigned to W. P. Cordes, deceased, and constituted the basis of his action herein. In these several causes of action the plaintiff alleges indebtedness by the corporation, and, by reason of such indebtedness, seeks to hold the defendant for his proportionate share thereof.

Section 3 of article XII of the constitution of the state of California and section 322 of the Civil Code provide that each stockholder of a corporation is individually and personally liable for such proportion of all its debts and liabilities contracted or incurred during the time he was a stockholder, as the amount of stock or shares owned by him bears to the whole of the subscribed capital stock of the corporation.

As set forth in 6 California Jurisprudence, page 997, section 378, “although the liability of stockholders must have its origin and inception in some act of the corporation, it is distinct and separate from that of the corporation.

. . . The corporation has nothing to do with the liability of stockholders after it arises. That is strictly a matter between creditors and stockholders, not as corporators, but as individuals; . . . The corporation is powerless to extend a stockholder’s liability by a new promise or by an agreement extending the period of the statute of limitations or by changing the form of indebtedness.”

In Ellsworth v. Bradford, 186 Cal. 316 [199 Pac. 335], the liability of stockholders as distinct from that of the corporation and also the powerlessness of the corporation after the liability or debt has been created to affect or change the same is thus set forth: “Recognizing, as we must, that the stockholder becomes liable to the corporation’s creditors solely as an original debtor, and not in any way as a surety or guarantor for the corporation, and that this liability arises by operation of law from the creation and existence of the debt, not through any power of the corporation to bind him to personal liability for its obligations, it would seem requisite to fixing such liability in an action against the stockholder to prove the facts establishing the corporate debt. The law makes the act of the corporation creating a corporate liability binding on the stockholders, *94 but it does not extend the power of the corporation .any further in the matter or authorize it to represent the stockholder in putting up a defense against his personal indebtedness. The limitation of the authority of the corporation to in any way enlarge or extend or renew the stockholder’s statutory liability is declared in the decisions of this court holding the corporation powerless to extend such liability by a new promise, or by agreement extending the period of the statute of limitations, or by changing the form of the indebtedness. (Hyman v. Coleman, 82 Cal. 650 [16 Am. St. Rep. 178, 23 Pac. 62]; Winona Wagon Co. v. Bull, 108 Cal. 1 [40 Pac. 1077].) In Winona Wagon Co. v. Bull, supra, this court adopts the following language from Trippe v. Huncheon, 82' Ind. 307, as to the relation of the corporation to stockholders’ liability: ‘The corporation has nothing to do with this liability, nor has it the right or power to represent its members as to this individual obligation. It is a matter between the creditors of the corporation and its members, not as corporators, but as individuals.’ ”

Other authorities might be cited to the same effect, but the foregoing make it clear that after the debt or liability is incurred, no subsequent acknowledgment thereof, no subsequent promise by the corporation, no matter what the form of the act by the corporation may take, can extend the liability of the stockholder, or create any new or additional obligation to be kept or performed by the stockholder.

In several of the alleged causes of action,, set forth in the complaint, the appellant relies upon letters by officers of the corporation showing the existence of the indebtedness before the defendant became a stockholder and for a considerable period thereafter, and upon this basis seeks to hold the defendant. The authorities which we have cited clearly establish the fact that the liability of the corporation is distinct and separate from that of the stockholder, and while the letters written by officers of a corporation may evidence the circumstances ■ of an indebtedness of the corporation they are immaterial as to the liability of a stockholder. A considerable portion of the briefs of counsel have been consumed in a discussion of the law as to what admissions of indebtedness of corporations made *95 by its officers may be admitted in evidence in an action against a stockholder, but, from a careful inspection of the record, as will hereafter appear, we are satisfied the question of the admissibility of such testimony is not really involved in this case by reason of the fact that the letters referring to the indebtedness of the corporation do not refer to debts contracted while the defendant was a stockholder, save and except in one instance where a letter accompanying a check specified that the payment was to be applied upon a particular indebtedness while the defendant was a stockholder, and anything we might say would be unnecessary to a decision of this case and, therefore, obiter as to the admissibility of the acknowledgment of an indebtedness of a corporation by the officers thereof.

With this preliminary statement as to the law by which this case is governed, we will consider the various causes of action set forth in the plaintiff’s complaint, following the order therein, although the proofs as introduced upon the trial did not do so.

For his first cause of action the complaint alleges that “between September 13, 1920, and September 23, 1920, the said California Marketing Exchange incurred an indebtedness and became and is indebted to Rosenberg Bros. & Co., in the sum of eight hundred and fifty and 95/100 ($850.95)' for goods sold and delivered between said last mentioned dates, to said corporation by said Rosenberg & Co.,” to the California Marketing Exchange. In support of this allegation the plaintiff offered correspondence between California Marketing Exchange and Rosenberg & Co., as follows: A letter dated September 3, 1920, written by the secretary of the California Marketing Exchange to Rosenberg Bros.

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Bluebook (online)
248 P. 546, 78 Cal. App. 90, 1926 Cal. App. LEXIS 240, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cordes-v-paulson-calctapp-1926.