Good v. Derr

46 F.2d 411, 1931 U.S. App. LEXIS 2433
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit
DecidedJanuary 10, 1931
DocketNo. 4327
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 46 F.2d 411 (Good v. Derr) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Seventh Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Good v. Derr, 46 F.2d 411, 1931 U.S. App. LEXIS 2433 (7th Cir. 1931).

Opinion

SPARKS, Circuit Judge.

Appellant filed this action against appellee to enforce a superadded stockholder’s liability.

It was alleged in the amended complaint that Interstate Securities Company (hereinafter referred to as the company) was incorporated under the laws of South Dakota on December 10, 1913, for the general purpose of conducting an investment and brokerage business, with its principal place of business at Sioux Palls, S. D. That ,at the time of the incorporation the sixth subdivision of the articles contained the following provision:

“The holders of which common stock shall be liable thereon for the debts of the corporation to the extent of any amount remaining unpaid upon the stock held by them, and also to the extent of an additional amount equal to the par value of the common stock held by them, each shareholder being liable for an amount equal to the par value of such common stock held by him in addition to the unpaid part of any of the stock held by him.- [413]*413• * * The directors shall have the power, if in their judgment it becomes necessary, to make assessments on the holders of the common stock and to enforce the superadded liability thereon.”

That on August 1,1922, appellee became, and has ever since been, the owner of 140 shares of the common stock of said corpora tion of the par value of $14,000, which was fully paid. That in August, 1922, the company defaulted on certain bonds held by one Breese, who thereupon commenced an action in South Dakota against the company, securing in due course a default judgment for the amount due him. After an execution had been returned unsatisfied, Breese, on behalf of himself and all the creditors of the company, commenced a sequestration action in South Dakota against it. Upon its failure to file answer, and after service of notice on the company of motion for judgment, a default judgment was taken against it in the sequestration action.

The amended complaint in the instant ease fully sets out the issues which were presented, submitted to, considered, and determined by the South Dakota court at the hearing on said motion for judgment.

The court in the sequestration action found, as alleged in the complaint, that the company was insolvent; that the only assets of the company were, first, the superadded liability of the 1,500 shares of common stock then outstanding, and, second, the balance due on the unpaid purchase price of common and preferred stock, the total amount of these assets being insufficient to pay all of the liabilities of the company.

With regard to the superadded stockholder’s liability, the court found that this liability was a contractual liability of all the stockholders to the creditors, and that sneh liability was an asset owned by the receiver appointed therein.

The judgment provided that appellant he appointed receiver of the company with the usual powers and directions, and with “all the powers of a receiver under the statute, and with all the power of a receiver in equity, and with power to bring and defend actions in the name of said company, or in his own name.” The court then levied an assessment of $100 on each share of common stock outstanding, and directed the receiver to sue all common stockholders wherever such stockholders might be found, whether in South Dakota or elsewhere, to enforce the same.

Appellant qualified as receiver. The South Dakota court required creditors of the company to present their claims and directed that notice be sent to all the creditors, and on September 10, 1928, claims in excess of the total assets as above set forth were allowed.

Both the complaint in the sequestration action and the amended complaint in the instant action allege that each and all the owners of the common stock took and acquired the same with notice and knowledge of the superadded liability referred to in the articles of incorporation, and that the creditors gave to the corporation credit in reliance upon said liability.

The District Court sustained, for want of facts, appellee’s demurrer to appellant’s amended complaint, and, upon failure to plead over, judgment was entered dismissing the complaint. In rendering this judgment it was the theory of the court that the stockholders are hound by the judgment of the South Dakota court in determining the insolvency of the corporation, the necessity for assessments, their amount, and the liability of the stockholders to assessment; but that the superadded liability of the stockholders is not an asset which is owned by the receiver, and hence he is without authority to maintain the action, and for this reason alone the District Court sustained the demurrer.

The question presented for consideration is whether or not appellant, receiver of a South Dakota corporation and appointed by a court of that state, is invested with extraterritorial power to maintain the action in Wisconsin. Whatever authority a receiver of a corporation has in this connection is derived from the laws of the state which is the domicile of the corporation. It is settled law of the federal courts that a chancery receiver has no title to the property in his possession, and hence has no power whatever to maintain an action in a state other than that in which his appointment is made. He is strictly a creature of the court which appointed him, and his jurisdiction cannot exceed that of the court which created him. Sterrett v. Second Nat. Bank, 248 U. S. 73, 39 S. Ct. 27, 63 L. Ed. 135.

Many of the states have enacted statutes authorizing the appointment of receivers, and by such enactments have clothed such receivers with far greater power than that possessed by those appointed by chancery courts. Thus we have statutory receivers as distinguished from chancery receivers; but this distinguishing feature does not of itself determine the receiver’s right to sue in a foreign jurisdiction. This right depends entirely upon whether or not the statute gives him [414]*414the power. What is a sufficient power for this purpose has been well settled as being a title to the property vested in the receiver as assignee or as statutory successor of the insolvent corporation. Sterrett v. Second Nat. Bank, 248 U. S. 73, 39 S. Ct. 27, 63 L. Ed. 135; Converse v. Hamilton, 224 U. S. 243, 32 S. Ct. 415, 56 L. Ed. 749; Bernheimer v. Converse, 206 U. S. 516, 27 S. Ct. 755, 51 L. Ed. 1163; Great Western Mining & Mfg. Co. v. Harris, 198 U. S. 561, 25 S. Ct. 770, 49 L. Ed. 1163.

Where the statute under which the appointment was made confers such title on the receiver, he may sue as of right in the eourts of the foreign jurisdiction, and such foreign eourts will, in respect to such question of title, accept the construction put upon the statute by the highest court of the state in which the receiver was appointed.- Sterrett v. Second Nat. Bank (C. C. A.) 246 F. 753, 3 A. L. R. 256; Sterrett v. Second Nat. Bank, 248 U. S. 73, 39 S. Ct. 27, 63 L. Ed. 135.

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Bluebook (online)
46 F.2d 411, 1931 U.S. App. LEXIS 2433, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/good-v-derr-ca7-1931.