Gentilly Land Co. v. Crawford

74 So. 2d 47, 225 La. 837, 1954 La. LEXIS 1267
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedMay 31, 1954
DocketNo. 41485
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 74 So. 2d 47 (Gentilly Land Co. v. Crawford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gentilly Land Co. v. Crawford, 74 So. 2d 47, 225 La. 837, 1954 La. LEXIS 1267 (La. 1954).

Opinion

LE BLANC, Justice.

In this proceeding there is involved the validity, vel non, of Certificate No. 9 for 2500 shares of the common stock of the plaintiff corporation, Gentilly Land Company, Inc. The certificate was issued in the name of Ronald A. Hymel on July 30, 1951 at a par value of one cent per share.

' The plaintiff corporation was organized •for the purpose of acquiring certain lands on which a cemetery for the burial of colored people would be developed. The idea seems to have been conceived by Hymel who later was joined in the enterprise by Charles J. Lange and G. Charles Porpora. At a pre-incorporation meeting held on May 2, 1951, the three agreed to have an act of incorporation drawn in which the capital stock would be composed of 50.0 shares of cumulative preferred, nonvoting, 7% stock, at the par value of $100 and 10,000 shares of common voting stock at a par value of one (If) cent. It was proposed that for the purpose of selling the preferred stock three shares of common stock should be sold to the purchaser at the rate of one cent per share. Each of the three incorporators was to subscribe to seven shares of preferred stock.

At that meeting a proposal was approved to the effect that since Mr. Hymel had originated the idea and had engaged in so much promotional work, he should be entitled to purchase, as a promoter’s bonus, 2500 shares of common stock at par. Another proposal was also approved under which Mr. Lange and Mr. Porpora would each be permitted to purchase 500 shares of common stock at one cent per share for services rendered by them in organizing the corporation. A final proposal approved was that since Mr. Hymel had worked so hard for the organization of the burial ground, if he should be successful in securing a large investment from a certain Mrs. Devereaux, that for such service he would be permitted to purchase, as an extra bonus, 2500 additional shares of the common stock, said purchase to be made within five months from the date of incorporation.

An act of incorporation was duly executed on May 14, 1951, and it is made to appear that of the 500 shares of preferred stock there were 21 shares allotted, 7 to each of the three incorporators and for which cash in the sum of $2100 was received. No other cash consideration was received nor was there any valuation fot services and property.

On May 28, 1952, a document was drawn up and signed by Ronald A. Hymel and Zedic B. Crawford, before two witnesses, in which it is recited that whereas they had associated themselves together for the development of the project, it has ever been [841]*841their common and mutual understanding that they should he on an equal footing insofar as the benefits to be derived are concerned and accordingly Hymel acknowledges that whereas Certificate No. 9 dated July 30, 1951, evidencing 2500 shares of the common stock of Gentilly Land Co., Inc., though standing in his name, they are in reality and in fact the property of Zedic B. Crawford and that Hymel holds them as Crawford’s agent and for the purpose of convenience. The document further recites that Certificate No. 8 for 2500 shares of common stock issued on the same day as the other, in the name of Hymel, is held by him for his own personal account but that with respect to both certificates it is agreed that the voting power of the shares of stock represented shall, for a period of- ten years, be pooled and voted as a block in such manner as to promote and protect the best interest of the parties.

In the course of time, Mrs. Isabel Spell-man Devereaux became the purchaser and owner of 100 shares of the preferred stock of the corporation and 2800 shares of the common stock. She also had become a large preferred creditor and on May 14, 1952, she with two other owners of some of the preferred and common stock, petitioned the Civil District Court of Orleans Parish for a receivership, alleging various acts of mismanagement on the part of the officers. After regular proceedings had, M.rs, Devereaux was appointed Receiver and qualified as such.

In the meantime Certificate No. 9 was seized in the hands of Ronald A. Hymel under garnishment at the instance of a judgment creditor of Zedic B. Crawford and upon learning this (Mrs. Devereaux, acting in her capacity as Receiver of The Gentilly Land Co., Inc.), as she alleges, instituted the present proceeding seeking to enjoin the sale of the said certificate under seizure; to have the same surrendered to the corporation and asking for judgment decreeing its nullity and ordering its cancellation. Her demand is predicated on the allegation that the certificate for the 2500 shares of stock involved was issued in the name of Ronald A. Hymel, for account of Zedic B. Crawford, without any consideration or payment to the corporation by the said Hymel and Crawford or any other person. Plaintiff impleaded as parties defendant both Hymel and Crawford, Llewellyn J. Scanlon, Civil Sheriff of Orleans Parish and Southern Tile Co., Inc., the seizing creditor.

An answer was filed by Crawford in proper person in which he admits all the allegations made by the Receiver. Hymel made no appearance other than to testify as a witness called by the plaintiff and his testimony was ordered to be taken as his answer by the trial judge. The controversy therefore has narrowed itself to one between the Receiver of the corporation and the seizing creditor, Southern Tile Co., Inc., which at its first pleading, filed a rule to dissolve the restraining order.

[843]*843The rule to dissolve was based on an estoppel urged against the plaintiff corporation to impeach the title of certificate No. 9 issued by it, and on the contention also that valuable consideration in the form of services rendered had been given for the stock. The Receiver answered the rule to dissolve, reiterating its allegation of nullity of the stock, and alleging further that it would be shown that in the application made by the corporation to the Commissioner of Securities for the State of Louisiana it was recited that “no stock (either common or preferred) would be issued except for a cash consideration and that no stock would be issued for services.” The Receiver further represented that Certificate No. 9 was issued for account of Crawford without any consideration or payment being made and on the expectation that he would pay for same and that the face value thereof was carried on the books of the corporation on open account. With regard to the plea of estoppel set out in the motion to dissolve, the Receiver stated in her answer that the same was of no avail because the corporation itself could not by its consent cure the nullity of the certificate of stock and what it could not do by consent could not be done by estoppel.

On the same day that the answer to the rule to dissolve was filed, the Receiver filed a plea of estoppel based on the alleged offer and tender made by Southern Tile Co., Inc., to pay for the stock on two different occasions, thus admitting and confirming the allegations made in the Receiver’s original petition that the certificate had been issued without consideration and was illegal, null and void, ab initio.

Three days after it filed its rule to dissolve the restraining order, Southern Tile Co., Inc. filed its answer to the plaintiff’s petition in which it denied practically all of the allegations thereof and, further answering, set out that the plaintiff corporation has been actuated by a desire to benefit Zedic B.

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Bluebook (online)
74 So. 2d 47, 225 La. 837, 1954 La. LEXIS 1267, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gentilly-land-co-v-crawford-la-1954.