Forbes v. Gracey

9 F. Cas. 401, 1877 U.S. App. LEXIS 2061
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Nevada
DecidedApril 26, 1877
DocketCase No. 4,924
StatusPublished

This text of 9 F. Cas. 401 (Forbes v. Gracey) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Nevada primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Forbes v. Gracey, 9 F. Cas. 401, 1877 U.S. App. LEXIS 2061 (circtdnv 1877).

Opinion

HILLYER, District Judge.

This is a

motion made on behalf of the complainant LCkarles Forbes] for an interlocutory injunction restraining the defendant [Thomas] Gracey from collecting and the other defendants [the California Mining Company, John AY. Mackay, and James G. Fair] from paying the tax laid upon the proceeds of the California mine for the quarter ending June 30, 1S7G. The motion was made upon the bill, and the defendant Gracey shows cause against it by a demurrer and an affidavit touching the equities of the bill. The bill alleges that the complainant is an alien and a stockholder in the California Company; that that company is a corporation organized under the laws of California, and that Mac-kay and Fair are citizens of Nevada,; that said corporation is in possession of the “California Mine,” but has never purchased it. and the title is still iu the United States. It then refers to the compact in the Nevada enabling act not to tax or interfere with the disposition of the public lands, and quotes nt length the law of Nevada taxing the net [402]*402proceeds of mines. It states that the defendant Gracey is assessor of Storey county, and has assessed the ores taken from said mine against the said company for the second quarter of 1S7G and a tax upon them of $72,852.03; that he has demanded and still is demanding from the defendants, Mackay & Fair, superintendents of said company and its agents at Virginia City, the said tax, and that said Gracey “has” threatened and still threatens and is about and will, unless restrained. seize property of said company and sell it to satisfy the tax; that the tax is one collected every three months, and is a continuing grievance; that the defendant Gracey is irresponsible for the amount of any one quarterly tax, and his bond is for only §40.000; that the Nevada tax law unjustly discriminates against the mines; that the tax and assessment are invalid and illegal, because at the time the assessment was made the yield of the mine had not then become “proceeds” and because the yield for that quarter, at the time the assessment was made was not within the state of Nevada, hut had been exported therefrom; that Mackay and Fair are about to and will pay the said tax unless restrained. The bill next alleges the notice given by complainant to the corporation of his interest as a stockholder of the tax and its illegality, and his demand that the corporation institute suit to test its validity, and his protest against the payment of the tax, and the refusal of the corporation to comply; that he sues for other stockholders who shall, in due time, come in, and he is entirely remediless, except in a court of equity.

The demurrer is upon several grounds; those urged being that the complainant has a complete and adequate remedy at law, and there is a total want of equity in the bill; that there is a nonjoinder of necessary parties plaintiff, because all the stockholders should have been joined; that there is a defect of parties defendant, because the directors should have been made defendants and Mackay and Fair should not have been.

Upon the argument the point was made that a stockholder cannot maintain a suit of this kind, although the rights of the corporation are involved and the board of trustees refuse or decline to take the proper steps to assert them. But this point is settled authoritatively in favor of the right-of the stockholder to sue, under the circumstances mentioned, by our supreme court. Dodge v. Woolsey, 18 How. [59 U. S.] 331; Davenport v. Dows, 18 Wall. [85 U. S.] 626. And see Huntington v. Central Pac. R. Co. [Case No. 6,911]. And, while the corporation must be made a party to the bill, it is held unnecessary to make the directors parties in such suit when no relief is prayed against them, Heath v. Erie Ry. Co. [Id. 6.306], and cases there cited; Davenport v. Dows, supra. So it seems equally well settled that the suit can be maintained without making all the other stockholders parties, at least if the suit is brought by one for the benefit of all. It is no longer doubted, says our supreme court, in Dodge v. Woolsey, “either in England or the United States, that courts of equity have a jurisdiction over corporations at the instance of one or more of their members.” Winch v. Birkenhead, L. & C. J. Ry. Co., 13 Eng. Law & Eq. 506. Mackay and Fair are alleged to be the agents of the corporation of whom payment of the tax has been demanded, and about to pay the alleged illegal tax, unless restrained. Under these circumstances they seem to me to be proper, though, perhaps, not indispensable parties to the bill. I consider none of the objections made to the parties in the bill well taken.

The next point raised by the demurrer is that the complainant has an adequate remedy at law, and that-there is no fact stated in the bill authorizing the interposition of a court of equity. It is admitted that the illegality of the tax and the threatened sale of property for its payment constitute, of themselves alone, no ground for such interposition. The rule is that “there must be some special circumstances attending a threatened injury of this kind distinguishing it from a common trespass, and bringing the case under some recognized head of equity jurisdiction before the preventive remedy of injunction can be invoked.” Dows v. Chicago, 11 Wall. [78 U. S.] 108. The “special circumstances,” which give a court of equity jurisdiction, may be spell as require the aid of the court by injunction to prevent or remove a cloud on complainant’s title, to prevent a multiplicity of suits, “or to prevent any injurious act by a public officer for which the law gives no adequate redress.” Carroll v. Safford, 3 How. [44 U. S.] 459; Dow v. Chicago. supra; Huntington v. Central Pac. R. Co., supra. Does the law furnish this com-plainantwith adequate redress for the injury which he sets out in his bill? As this case is now presented upon bill and demurrer, it appears, for the purposes of a decision on this point, that the defendant corporation is about to pay. and will pay unless restrained, an illegal tax, and that the corporation refuses to bring any suit or take any steps to test the validity of the tax or resist its collection. It may. then, be granted that the corporation itself, in case it saw fit to proceed, would have complete legal redress, either by paying the tax under protest and suing to recover it, or by an action of trespass or re-plevin against the officer seizing property to satisfy it without granting that this complainant has any such legal redress within his reach. For the very gist of his complaint and the main ground upon which he stands in a court of equity is that the corporation is about to pay the illegal tax, and refuses to use its legal remedies; and nothing can be clearer than that the stockholder has no such direct legal interest in or right to the property of his corporation as enables [403]*403him to sue in a court of law for an injury to that property. The legal right to the property taxed is in the corporation, and according to all legal rules an action for an injury to that right must be brought by the corporation. Where, then, is the stockholder’s legal redress? He himself cannot sue to enforce the rights of the corporation without making it a party defendant, so that it may be-bound by the judgment Davenport v. Dows, supra.

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Bluebook (online)
9 F. Cas. 401, 1877 U.S. App. LEXIS 2061, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/forbes-v-gracey-circtdnv-1877.