Gaynor v. Force Building & Loan Ass'n

22 Pa. D. & C. 328, 1935 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 284
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedJanuary 10, 1935
Docketno. 8183
StatusPublished

This text of 22 Pa. D. & C. 328 (Gaynor v. Force Building & Loan Ass'n) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gaynor v. Force Building & Loan Ass'n, 22 Pa. D. & C. 328, 1935 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 284 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1935).

Opinion

MacNeille, J.,

We are considering exceptions to an adjudication.

The plaintiff by his bill sought to recover the withdrawal value of certain shares which he held in the defendant building and loan association. He subscribed to 15 double shares of the eleventh series of Loquaco Building & Loan Association on May 3,1929, and made his payments at the rate of $30 a month until January of 1931, when the sum of the instalments paid was $630. Thereafter, he failed to pay his instalments and on July 16,1932, gave notice of withdrawal, at which time the unpaid instalments amounted to $540. Before he gave the notice of withdrawal, and as early as 1931, the assets of the association were not sufficient to pay the stockholders dollar for dollar.

At a series of meetings held between August 4, 1932, and August 24, 1932, discussions were held and culminated in a merger of Loquaco Building & Loan Association, in which the plaintiff had originally taken his shares, with Force Building & Loan Association, which is here defendant. As part of the merger, an agreement of sale was entered into, by the terms of which it was provided that an appraisal be made of the assets of Loquaco Building & Loan Association, to fix the book value of the outstanding shares of that association. This appraisal was made by the Philadelphia Real Estate Board, which fixed this value as .486757679 of the amount which the stockholders, if paid up, would have paid in instalments. In the appraisal, delinquent dues were considered as assets. The plaintiff should have paid in, up to the time of withdrawal, $1,170, and his percentage value of this is $569.40. From this the chancellor deducted $557.90, representing dues and fines unpaid by the plaintiff up to July 16, 1932, when he withdrew. Thus he was awarded a balance of $11.51.

As matters of law, it was concluded by the chancellor that the plaintiff ceased to be a stockholder as of the time of his withdrawal notice, July 16, 1932; that [329]*329neither his assent nor dissent to a subsequent merger was given, and therefore plaintiff is entitled to the withdrawal value of his stock, from which is deducted his unpaid dues and penalties.

The exceptions on the part of the plaintiff are to practically all the chancellor’s findings of fact and conclusions of law. However, we find ample in the testimony to support all the chancellor’s findings of fact, and we believe that all the exceptions should be dismissed. Those exceptions that raise a question as to the charge to the member for his unpaid dues are the only ones which require discussion.

Plaintiff assumes that he should not be charged with his unpaid dues, and that he should receive the amount he had paid in without any such deduction. It is true that the status of the plaintiff and his contractual rights arising therefrom were fixed before the effective date of the Building and Loan Code of 1933. For that reason, the plaintiff points to the Act of April 29, 1874, P. L. 73, sec. 37 (2), 15 PS §991, which provides:

“. . . any stockholder wishing to withdraw . . . shall have power to do so by giving thirty days’ notice of his or her intention to withdraw, when he or she shall be entitled to receive the amount paid in by him or her, less all fines and other charges; . . .”

He also calls attention to his association’s bylaw on the subject of withdrawals, which provides:

“. . . and shall upon surrender and cancellation of his or her stock be entitled to receive, out of the first unappropriated money in the treasury, all moneys paid in on said stock . . .”

But the difficulty which the plaintiff has to meet is that this act of assembly and this bylaw, while entirely reasonable and equitable for a solvent association, are not so when the association is insolvent. In a solvent association, a withdrawing stockholder should be paid the money which he has paid in and such share of the profits as the association has provided for that purpose, or, in lieu of such a provision, he should recover interest, after being charged, however, with fines or penalties. The effect of such a method is equitable as to each shareholder. The fines and penalties imposed upon a member for nonpayment of dues are for the purpose of obliging him to contribute something to take the place of the profit which it may be assumed the association has failed to earn because of his delinquency. A solvent association is one which may pay 100 percent of each member’s contribution. It makes no difference whether you say you are permitting a member to withdraw what he paid in or whether you say you are paying him 100 percent of what he paid in. Insolvency, however, changes the whole situation. Let us assume that in an insolvent association the assets are only equivalent to 50 percent of the instalments paid and due. Let us suppose two members with an equal obligation to pay instalments to the extent of $1,000 each. A pays his, but B pays only $500. If you are in a position to pay 100 percent, A gets his $1,000 and B gets his $500, which is what they paid in. But suppose that only 50 percent can be paid — A gets $500, and B gets $260. Thus A, who met his obligation to pay $1,000 loses $500 and B, who did not keep his contract to pay $1,000 loses only $250. Thus, A who did his duty is penalized and B who did not do his duty is rewarded. From this it would appear that when insolvency exists there is some injustice in excusing B for his unpaid instalments.

Under all the Pennsylvania decision's, it is clear that a stockholder must contribute his share of the losses of the association, and it is provided by the Act of [330]*3301874, supra, see. 37 (2), that every share of stock shall be subject to a lien for the payment of unpaid instalments and other charges incurred thereon.

In Polk v. State Capital Sayings & Loan Assn., 214 Pa. 529, 540, it was said:

“. . . Whatever may be the rule elsewhere, in this state it is settled that this liability is enforceable by way of deduction from, or set off against the withdrawal claim: B. & L. Assn. v. Silverman, 85 Pa. 394, 396; Christian’s App., 102 Pa. 184, 189. Indeed the Act of 1874 makes it so by not only limiting the withdrawing member to what he has paid in, etc., ‘less all fines and other charges’, (which latter phrase under the decisions last cited clearly includes a due proportion of the expenses), but also by making every share of stock subject to a lien in favor of the association ‘for the payment of unpaid installments and other charges incurred thereon under the provisions of the . . . by-laws:’ section 37.”

This seems to justify the opinion expressed in Sundheim, Building and Loan Associations, (3d ed.) 208, in the last paragraph of section 193, in which he said:

“In computing the liabilities of an insolvent association full paid or paid-up stock should he computed at its par value, and installment stock at the amount that should have been paid up to the time of the receivership or liquidation, and any amount that it was in arrears at that time should be deducted from the dividend paid. Dividends paid to a member while the association was in fact insolvent should also be deducted. By this method all holders of installment stock in the same series are placed on an equal basis, whether they have paid up to the time of the appointment of a receiver or liquidation or not.”

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Related

Ferrando v. U. S. National Building & Loan Ass'n
160 A. 716 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1932)
United States Building & Loan Assn' v. Silverman
85 Pa. 394 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1877)
Appeal of Christian
102 Pa. 184 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1883)
Folk v. State Capital Savings & Loan Ass'n
63 A. 1013 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1906)

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Bluebook (online)
22 Pa. D. & C. 328, 1935 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 284, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gaynor-v-force-building-loan-assn-pactcomplphilad-1935.