Gray v. Fuller

44 N.Y.S. 883
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedApril 10, 1897
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 44 N.Y.S. 883 (Gray v. Fuller) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gray v. Fuller, 44 N.Y.S. 883 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1897).

Opinion

FOLLETT, J.

This action was begun May 12, 1896, to restrain the individual defendants from further impairing the rights of the [884]*884defendant corporation and of the plaintiff, a shareholder therein. The Greigsville Salt & Mining Company is a corporation organized in 1890, under the laws of the state of Pennsylvania, with a capital stock of $300,000, for the purpose of mining and selling salt in the county of Livingston, N. Y., where all of its property is situated and its business is carried on. The plaintiff owns $50,000 of the capital stock, and the remainder is owned by Edward L. Puller and persons acting with him.

The defendants in this action are divisible into four classes: (1) The corporation the Greigsville Salt & Mining Company; (2) Chauncey H. Strickland, H. N. Wadham, John H. Fellows, Henry F. Simpson, Arthur H. Christy, A. F. Lane, and Charles E. Wade, the directors of the corporation; (3) Edward L. Fuller, Milo M. Belding, James B. Colgate, and Joseph N. Smith, alleged to be fraudulent judgment creditors of the corporation and fraudulent holders of $100,000 of its bonds acquired by a sale under their aforesaid judgments; (4) Platt V. Bryan, a trustee in the mortgage executed February 14, 1895, to secure the payment of $100,000 of the bonds of the corporation. The question arises whether these classes of defendants are so united in interest or so connected with the facts and transactions set out in the complaint that those facts and transactions constitute a cause of action against all of the defendants.

The following facts are alleged in the complaint as the ground for the relief prayed for: (1) That in 1890 the- Greigsville Salt & Mining Company began mining and selling salt, and carried on the business successfully until about May 6, 1895, when Edward L. Fuller and other persons acting with him, for the purpose of securing the control of the corporation, purchased all of its stock except that owned by the plaintiff; and that on that date four of the directors of the corporation resigned, and their places were filled by a brother of Edward L. Fuller, by an employé of Edward L. Fuller, by Chauncey H. Strickland, and H. N. Wadham, two of the defendants herein. (2) That February 14, 1895, the corporation executed and delivered to Platt V. Bryan, as trustee, a mortgage upon all of its property, to secure the payment of 100 bonds of $1,000 each, payable on the 1st day of February, 1905, with semiannual interest, which bonds were worth their par value; and that about November 7, 1895, the directors suffered judgments to be recovered against the corporation by Edward L. Fuller, Milo M. Belding, James B. Colgate, and Joseph N. Smith in amounts aggregating $21,790, and suffered said judgment creditors to sell the $100,-000 of bonds so issued for the payment of their judgments for 9 cents on the dollar, which sale was suffered by the directors of the corporation for the purpose of bankrupting it and destroying the value of its shares; and that said persons now hold said bonds, and assert that they have the right to foreclose the mortgage, and apply the avails of the sale in payment of said bonds. (3) That, prior to the incorporation of the Greigsville Salt & Mining Company, the Retsof Mining Company was incorporated, and began mining and selling salt on property adjacent to that subsequently acquired [885]*885by the Greigsville Salt & Mining Company, and that the individual defendants in this action, except Platt V. Bryan, were and are largely interested in said Betsof Mining Company, and control the same; that May 6,1895, the works of the Greigsville Salt & Mining Company were closed, in pursuance of the plan of Edward L. Fuller" and other persons acting with him, for the purpose of preventing competition with said Betsof Mining Company; and that a large amount of the property of the Greigsville Salt & Mining Company, consisting of machinery, tools, condensers, and other apparatus necessary for the production of salt, were transferred without compensation to the Betsof Mining Company. (4) That in December, 1895, the Betsof Mining Company was involved in a litigation, and was enjoined from delivering salt, except upon certain conditions; and that «thereafter the mines of said Greigsville Salt & Mining Company were opened, its business resumed, and it is now being carried on by its directors for the benefit of the Betsof Mining Company. (5) That about March 1, 1896, the defendants, who are directors of the corporation, executed a mortgage to one George Simpson on all of the property of the corporation, to secure the payment of $30,000, which was done without the consent of the stockholders, in fraud of their rights; and that the plaintiff apprehends that an action' will be brought to foreclose this mortgage. (6) That Edward L. Fuller is the owner and controller of all the stock of the corporation, except that owned by the plaintiff, and controls the corporation; and that the defendants, who are directors, acting under the direction of Edward L. Fuller, are proceeding to render the property of the Greigsville Salt & Mining Company worthless, for the purpose of destroying the value of the stock of the plaintiff. (7) That, before beginning this action, the plaintiff requested the Greigsville Salt & Mining Company and its directors to bring actions to recover the property, or the value thereof, wrongfully transferred to the Betsof Mining Company, and to set aside the wrongful sale to Edward L. Fuller, Milo M. Belding, James B. Colgate, and Joseph N. Smith of the $100,-000 of the bonds of the corporation; and that his request was refused, and therefore he brings this action in behalf of himself and other stockholders of the corporation who may join in this action. The relief demanded is that Platt V. Bryan, Edward L. Fuller, Milo M. Belding, James B. Colgate, and Joseph N. Smith be restrained from foreclosing the mortgage given to secure the bonds transferred to Fuller, Belding, Colgate, and Smith, and that the pretended sale of the bonds be set aside as fraudulent as against the corporation and the stockholders thereof, and that the corporation have judgment against all the defendants who are directors for their devastavit; that they be removed, and a receiver of the corporation appointed, with power to bring actions to set aside the illegal acts of the individual defendants,' and for such other and further relief as shall be just and agreeable to equity. To this complaint, Edward L. Fuller demurs, upon the grounds (1) that causes of action have been improperly united; (2) that the court has not jurisdiction to grant the relief demanded in the complaint, [886]*886as against the corporation or its directors; (3) that the complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action against the demurrant. No claim is made against Platt V. Bryan, the trustee in the mortgage, for $100,000, nor against the defendant corporation, Bryan being made a defendant solely to restrain him from foreclosing the mortgage, and the corporation solely because its directors will not suffer it to be made a plaintiff. The complaint is not demurred to on the ground that there is a defect of parties plaintiff or defendant.

As to the other individual defendants, the directors (class 2), and the fraudulent creditors and purchasers of the bonds (class 3), it is in effect alleged that all the illegal acts set forth in the complaint were steps taken by the concurrence of all the individual defendants to sell and acquire the property of the corporation for their own use, and to defraud the plaintiff of his interest therein.

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Bluebook (online)
44 N.Y.S. 883, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gray-v-fuller-nyappdiv-1897.