Fahnestock v. Clark Henry Corp.

151 Misc. 593, 272 N.Y.S. 49, 1934 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1337
CourtNew York Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 15, 1934
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 151 Misc. 593 (Fahnestock v. Clark Henry Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fahnestock v. Clark Henry Corp., 151 Misc. 593, 272 N.Y.S. 49, 1934 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1337 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1934).

Opinion

Humphrey, J.

Defendant Joseph W. Dixon is a member of defendant Graham, Parsons & Co., domestic bankers. Greenebaum Sons Securities Corporation is a domestic corporation. These defendants-separately move to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a cause of action.

The defendants Clark Henry Corporation, Bing & Bing, Inc., Udell Realty Co., Inc., and Irex Realty Corporation, are domestic corporations. Fidel Corporation is a Delaware corporation. The defendants Leo S. Bing, William Guthman, Bertha H. Schwartz, Martin Samuels and Max Sloman are officers and directors of Bing & Bing, Inc. These defendants also move to dismiss the complaint for failure to state a cause of action or, in the alternative, for other relief as specified.

It is alleged that the individual defendants last above named dominated, controlled and directed the affairs of the Clark Henry Corporation in the manner “ herein stated.”

Halsey, Stuart & Co., Inc., and Greenebaum Sons Investment Company are Illinois corporations. The last-named corporation is affiliated with Greenebaum Sons Securities Corporation and both corporations it is alleged are owned and controlled by the same interests. The latter corporation is alleged to have acted as selling agent in New York for Greenebaum Sons Investment Company, which is located in Chicago.

The complaint, with the annexed exhibits, consists of twenty-three closely printed pages. The general nature of the four causes of action therein stated and the transactions upon which they are predicated may be summarized as follows:

The defendant Clark Henry Corporation owned in fee simple a parcel of real estate in the borough of Brooklyn, with the build[596]*596ings and improvements thereon, commonly known as the Hotel St. George. It desired to retire an indebtedness on the property of over $2,000,000, and to erect a new addition at an estimated cost of upwards of $8,000,000. For this purpose, on or about November 1, 1928, it executed to the defendant Chase National Bank its bond in the sum of $8,000,000, maturing in various amounts at various times. By assignment the plaintiff has become the owner of a $10,000 share of said bond, and similar assignments have been issued to upwards of 5,000 holders. All of such assignments are in writing, negotiable in form, and are called bond certificates, Series A. As security for said $8,000,000 bond and said bond certificates, Series A, the Clark Henry Corporation, on November 1, 1928, executed to the Chase National Bank, as corporate trustee, its mortgage covering said real estate, the buildings and improvements thereon, the equipment and appurtenances, and personal property therein, and “ the earnings therefrom,” in trust for the equal benefit of plaintiff and all other holders of said bond certificates, Series A.

Bing & Bing, Inc., owned the entire capital stock of the Clark Henry Corporation, $1,000 in amount, and the latter corporation had no existence separate and apart from Bing & Bing, Inc., who selected the officers and directors thereof from its own officers, directors and employees.

Prior to the execution of said bond and trust mortgage, and in October, 1928, Bing & Bing, it is alleged, entered into an “ arrangement ” with defendants Halsey, Stuart & Co., Greenebaum Sons Securities Corporation and Graham, Parsons & Co., whereby the Clark Henry Corporation would ” issue the $8,000,000 first mortgage serial gold bond certificates, Series A, and $500,000 of bond certificates, Series B, subordinate as to hen to Series A, and the said bond certificates, Series A, “ should ” be sold to the public by the above-named companies. The “ arrangement,” according to the complaint, provided that representation “ should be made ” to the public that the proceeds from the sale of said Series A and Series B certificates would be used to retire the said outstanding corporate indebtedness, and for the completion of said addition and improvements, and for other corporate purposes. The said purposes were to be represented ” as involving estimated expenditures aggregating the sum of $8,552,725.

The said arrangement ” also provided that “ it was further to be represented ” that said bond certificates, Series A, would be legal investment for trust funds upon the completion of said addition and improvements by October 1, 1929; that “ it was further to be represented that the $500,000 bond certificates, Series B, would [597]*597be subordinate in lien to the Series A certificates, but “ it was to be omitted ” that said Series B certificates were to mature prior to Series A and thus be prior as to payments; that “ it was further to be represented ” that said Series A would be a direct obligation of the Clark Henry Corporation and that the estimated earnings of said corporation were nearly two and three-quarter times the maximum yearly interest requirements of said Series A certificates; but it “ was to be omitted ” that said estimated earnings aforesaid would be absorbed by Bing & Bing, Inc., and the Clark Henry Corporation would be operated as a mere department of Bing & Bing as thereinafter set forth, and “ it was to be omitted ” that the Clark Henry Corporation had no capital to give value to its obligation to pay the certificates Series A, but, on the contrary, such values as inhered in the corporation were to be absorbed ” through book entries showing accounts receivable in favor of Bing & Bing and its subsidiaries.

The foregoing allegations relate to alleged sinister designs and purposes pertaining tó the inception of the project. Subsequent portions of the complaint set forth alleged wrongful acts in the carrying out of the enterprises. Among these, it is asserted in paragraph 12 that receipts intended for the Clark Henry Corporation were collected by Bing & Bing and mingled with its own funds and those of affiliated corporations; that Bing & Bing would cause ” the Clark Henry Corporation to enter into unprofitable contracts, leases and agreements with itself and its subsidiary corporations; that property, accounts and funds were shifted by one corporation to another and back again, according to the will of Bing & Bing; that thereby Bing & Bing assumed a fiduciary capacity toward the Clark Henry Corporation and the bondholders, and acted as trustees for the proceeds of the sale of said bond certificates and for the rents, issues, profits, earnings and income from the operation of the hotel and became responsible to said Series A certificate holders for acts of waste and mismanagement as therein specified in respect to the operations of the hotel and the Clark Henry Corporation. The allegations of this paragraph 12 will be further considered hereafter.

It is further alleged in paragraph 16 that when real estate reached a condition of demoralization, Bing & Bing knew that it was necessary to conserve the revenue of the hotel in order to avert insolvency which would wreck the enterprise and destroy a large part of the investment of plaintiff and others similarly situated; that, nevertheless, Bing & Bing, disregarding its obligations “ as fiduciary or trustee as aforesaid,” caused the Clark Henry Corporation to assign to it and its wholly owned subsidiary Fidel Corporation, all [598]*598the rents, issues, earnings and income from the Hotel St.

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Bluebook (online)
151 Misc. 593, 272 N.Y.S. 49, 1934 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1337, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fahnestock-v-clark-henry-corp-nysupct-1934.