Fox v. Allensville, Center Square, & Vevay Turnpike Co.

46 Ind. 31
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 15, 1874
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 46 Ind. 31 (Fox v. Allensville, Center Square, & Vevay Turnpike Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fox v. Allensville, Center Square, & Vevay Turnpike Co., 46 Ind. 31 (Ind. 1874).

Opinion

Worden, C. J.

This was an action by the appellee against the appellant upon his subscription to the-capital stock of the company. The subscription sued upon was contained in the articles of association, which are set out and made a part of the complaint. The complaint contained such averments as show a due organization of the-company.

Issue,trial, verdictand judgment for the plaintiff, amotionfor a new trial being overruled, and exception taken.

There was a demurrer to the complaint for want of sufficient facts overruled, and exception. The defendant answered in four paragraphs, the first being the general, denial, the other three' being special. Demurrers for want of sufficient facts were sustained to the second, third, and' fourth paragraphs of the answer, and the defendant excepted. These rulings on the demurrers are assigned for error.

The complaint is long and need not be set out in order to an understanding of the objections made to it.

The amount of the capital stock of the company, as fixed. by the articles of association, is fifteen thousand dollars, and the whole amount does not appear to have been subscribed. for. It is claimed that this is fatal to the existence of the corporation. The statute on the subject provides that the-articles of association shall specify the amount of the capital stock and the number of shares into which it is divided, and that whenever the stock subscribed amounts to the sum of five hundred dollars per mile of the proposed road, copies of the articles of association shall be filed in the office of the recorder of each county through which the road is to pass, and shall from that time be a corporation, known by the name assumed in [its] articles of association.” We are of opinion that under these statutory provisions, the whole amount of the capital stock, as fixed by the articles • [33]*33of association, need not be subscribed before the corporation can be brought into existence. The case of Hoagland v. The Cincinnati and Fort Wayne Railroad Co., 18 Ind. 452, is in point. All that is necessary in this respect is, that there shall be subscriptions of stock to the amount of five hundred dollars per mile of the proposed road. This amount appears to have been subscribed.

It is also objected that the residence of some of the subscribers is not stated. The residence of a few of the subscribers is not stated, but without them there is more than enough subscribed to amount to the five hundred dollars per mile of the proposed road. This objection, therefore, is not valid. See Busenback v. The Attica and Bethel Gravel Road Co., 43 Ind. 265.

It is further objected that the 'complaint does not show a valid election of directors of the corporation. It alleges, “ that pursuant to said statute, a board of directors of said company was elected by the stockholders thereof, in all respects as required by said statute, which board of directors so elected were duly qualified, and entered upon the discharge of duty as such board of directors,” etc. It is urged that this “ does not show how the directors were elected, but pleads a mere conclusion, and not facts.” The statute, in section 2, provides, that “not less than three nor more than seven directors shall be elected by the stockholders of * every such corporation, who shall hold their office for one year and until their successors are in like manner elected,” etc. In glancing through the statute, we do not discover that any provision is therein made as to the manner of electing directors, whether by ballot or viva voce. The allegations in. the complaint are as explicit as the statute. We think the complaint sufficient. It alleges that the directors were elected by the stockholders. This is all the statute requires. The mode of conducting the election is not material, it being done by the proper persons. The words in the complaint “in all respects as required by said statute” may be stricken [34]*34out as surplusage, and then there will be no conclusion of law stated, but the simple averment of fact that the directors were elected by the stockholders. We need not inquire whether, in an action on a subscription for stock, advantage could be taken of an irregularity in the election of a board of directors.

It is next objected that the notice of the call for the payment of subscriptions is not made a part of the complaint. This, in 'our opinion, was not necessary. The notice of calls was not the foundation of the action, but the written subscription. To be sure, an action could not be maintained on the subscription until notice of the calls had been given as provided for in section 11 of the act above cited, but the notice is, nevertheless, not the foundation of the action, and need not be set out by copy. The complaint clearly avers the making of the call and the giving of notice thereof as required by the section above cited. The counsel for the appellant, in their brief, say, “there is no allegation that notice was given, for thirty days, of the time and place the subscribers were required to pay their subscriptions, nor is there anything in the complaint to show how often the notice was published, if more than once, a defect that we think must be fatal." We copy the complaint in respect to the giving of the notice: That on the 2d day of March, 1872, plaintiff gave notice that all of said subscription was by ■order of the company due, and must be paid to the treasurer of said company, David Scott, at his residence in Jacksonville, Indiana, on or before the first day of April, 1872, by publishing the same in the Vevay Reveille, a newspaper printed in said county,” etc.

The publication made on the 2d of March, for payment on the 1st of April, would, by adopting the ordinary rule of including one of the days and excluding the other, be a publication thirty days before the specified time of payment. We believe it is the settled practice in this State to serve process on Friday for the court sitting on the second succeeding Monday, and this is regarded as ten days’service [35]*35before court. To make ten days, either the Friday or Monday must be counted. In the case before us, counting the day on which the notice was published, thirty days intervened before the 1st day of April, the time required by the statute. Upon looking into the statute on the subject of notice, section 11 above cited, we are of opinion that where notice is published in a newspaper, but one publication is required to be made, and this must be made thirty days before the specified time of payment.

We have thus considered the objections urged to the complaint. They are all, in our opinion, unfounded, and there was no error committed in overruling the demurrer thereto.

The second paragraph of the answer alleged that in the articles of association it was stipulated that the capital stock ■of the company should be fifteen thousand dollars; that the defendant, relying on the same, subscribed, etc.; that the company has never had a capital stock of more than three thousand dollars, and not enough to build the proposed road, etc. This paragraph is clearly bad, and the demurrer to it was -correctly sustained. We deem it unnecessary to add any thing to what was said upon this point in considering the complaint.

In the third paragraph of his answer, the defendant alleged that he was induced to make his subscription by the solicitation of one John P.

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Bluebook (online)
46 Ind. 31, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fox-v-allensville-center-square-vevay-turnpike-co-ind-1874.