Farmers' & Merchants' Bank of Phœnix v. Arizona Mut. Savings & Loan Ass'n

220 F. 1, 135 C.C.A. 577, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 2424
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 1, 1915
DocketNo. 2425
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 220 F. 1 (Farmers' & Merchants' Bank of Phœnix v. Arizona Mut. Savings & Loan Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Farmers' & Merchants' Bank of Phœnix v. Arizona Mut. Savings & Loan Ass'n, 220 F. 1, 135 C.C.A. 577, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 2424 (9th Cir. 1915).

Opinion

GILBERT, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). The decree of February 27, 1913, denies the rights of a large number of stockholders who are not named therein and unjustly distributes the money of the insolvent Loan Association contrary to the pleadings and the purpose of the suit. The decree of March 12, 1914, rectifies the errors of the former decree and provides for a just distribution of the assets of the corporation. The appellant says that the latter decree should not stand, that it is a nullity, because its effect is to set aside a; decree after the expiration of the term at which it was rendered, and that it operates to the prejudice of the appellant, because the latter had by its judgment acquired a vested property right in the surplus remaining in the possession of the Trust Company after the execution of the decree of February 27, 1913, and that it gave to the stockholders of the insolvent Trust Company, at whose instance the original decree was set aside, rights in the assets of that company prior and superior to those of the appellant as a judgment creditor.

[ 1 ] It is unnecessary to cite authorities to the general rule that after the expiration of the term at which a judgment is rendered the judgment becomes an absolute finality, forever binding upon the parties and their privies, and the court is without power to change, revise, or grant other relief against it in the cause or proceeding in which it was rendered. But there are exceptions to the general rule, and one is the [5]*5case in which such errors of law appear upon the face of the decree as to render it void. In the present case the original suit was brought by a stockholder of the Loan Association, an insolvent corporation, for the benefit of himself and all similarly situated, to secure a proper winding up of the corporation, and a distribution of its assets, on the ground that the officers of that corporation refused to act for the benefit of the stockholders, and had entered into a scheme for the fraudulent disposition of the Loan Association’s assets. In such a suit all the stockholders of the Loan Association were entitled to a pro rata distribution of the assets, and all were required to share pro rata in the losses, and all .were obligated to join in the payment of attorney’s fees allowed by the court in such proceedings. The decree of February 27, 1913, does none of these things. It takes no accounting. It arbitrarily decrees the repayment to certain named stockholders of the amounts which they had paid in to the Loan Association, regardless of the losses, debts, and obligations of the Loan Association, excludes from the benefits of the decree a large number of stockholders who had not appeared therein, and to whom no notice had been given, and leaves the remainder of the Loan Association’s property in the hands of the Trust Company, notwithstanding that the bill alleged, and the court found, that all the assets of the Loan Association had been fraudulently transferred to the Trust Company.

[2] In brief, the decree is the entry of a personal judgment in favor of certain stockholders who were assuming to act for all, and it excludes from its benefits all other stockholders who, if they had khowl-edge of the proceeding, may be taken to have assumed that the suit would be carried to a decree in pursuance of its avowed purpose to protect all stockholders alike. That decree was not within the issues presented by the bill. Money recovered in such a suit belongs to. all the stockholders, and not to the complaining stockholder. In Lewis v. Clark, 129 Fed. 570, 573, 64 C. C. A. 138, 141, this court said:

“The shareholders in associations of this character are not in the ordinary sense creditors, and if deemed creditors in any sense they are necessarily subject to all equities existing between themselves.”

In Towle v. American Bldg., L. & Inv. Soc. (C. C.) 61 Fed. 446, Judge Grosscup, discussing the right of a stockholder in an insolvent building and loan association, said:

“Th first question is whether he is entitled to a credit for the amount of assessments paid upon his stock. I think not. Such a credit practically would be paying par on his stock, a preference over other stockholders, to which clearly ho is not entitled. Neither do I think he should be allowed; credit for fines paid in. They are tlie result of his personal delinquencies, and, eo instante, become the common property of all the members of the association.”

Although the record contains no allegation that loans were made to the stockholders of the Loan Association, we are authorized to assume, in view of the purposes of the association, that such loans had been made and were outstanding at the time of the transfer of the assets to the Trust Company. No account is taken in the decree of February 27, 1913, of the rights and equities of the parties arising out of such [6]*6loans. In Riggs v. Capital Brick Co. (C. C.) 128 Fed. 491, it was held that, in the settlement of accounts between an insolvent building and loan association and a borrowing member, payments made by the latter on accoúnt of premium on his loan are to be credited as payments on the loan, and not on his stock, since such premium afose out of his contract as a borrower, and not out of his contract or relationship as a stockholder. And in Gunby v. Armstrong, 133 Fed. 417, 66 C. C. A. 627, it was held that where a building and loan association becomes insolvent, and proceedings are instituted for winding up its affairs, the court, as a matter of necessity, may require the borrowing stockholders to pay forthwith amounts due from them, although they are not in default and their obligations are not due by their terms.

In Reynolds v. Stockton, 140 U. S. 254, 11 Sup. Ct. 773, 35 R. Ed. 464, the question involved was the jurisdiction of a court, in a stockholders’ suit brought to secure the reconveyance of personal property from another corporation, to enter a judgment adjudging the return of real property as well as the personal property involved in the issues. The court said:

“The rule is universal that where a defendant appears and responds only to the complaint as filed, and no amendment is made thereto, the judgment is conclusive only so far as it determines matters which by the pleadings are put in issue.”

And the court held that, to constitute jurisdiction to adjudicate concerning the subject-matter in a given case, there are three essentials. The cburt said:

“First, the court must have cognizance of the class of cases to which the one to be adjudged belongs; second, the proper parties must be present; third, the point decided' must be, in substance and effect, within the issue. That a court cannot go out of its appointed sphere, and that its action is void' with respect to persons who are strangers to its proceedings, are propositions established by a multitude of authorities. A defect in a judgment arising from the fact that the matter decided was not embraced within the issue has not, it would seem, received much judicial consideration. 'And yet I cannot doubt that, upon general principles, such a defect must avoid a judgment”

In Standard Oil Co. v. Missouri, 224 U. S. 270, 32 Sup. Ct. 406, 56 L. Ed. 760, Ann. Cas. 1913D, 936, the court said:

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Bluebook (online)
220 F. 1, 135 C.C.A. 577, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 2424, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/farmers-merchants-bank-of-phnix-v-arizona-mut-savings-loan-assn-ca9-1915.