Jamison Cold Storage Door Co. v. Brown

218 S.W.2d 883, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1619
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedFebruary 25, 1949
DocketNo. 15025
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 218 S.W.2d 883 (Jamison Cold Storage Door Co. v. Brown) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jamison Cold Storage Door Co. v. Brown, 218 S.W.2d 883, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1619 (Tex. Ct. App. 1949).

Opinion

SPEER, Justice.

This is an appeal by Jamison Cold Storage Door Company, a corporation, from an order of the district court of Dallas County denying and overruling its motion to order execution issued against Fred Brown (hereinafter called appellee), alleged to be a subscriber of the capital stock in The Snyder Corporation, for which he had not paid at the time when appellant had obtained a judgment against The Snyder Corporation and execution had been issued thereon and returned nulla bona.

Appellee answered and resisted the motion upon the grounds that The Snyder Corporation had assigned all of its property, including its chose in action against him for his subscribed and unpaid capital stock, to Paul A. Kerin, in trust for the benefit of its creditors and that said trustee as such then owned said chose in action and that he alone had power to enforce it.

The motion of appellant was filed on April 9, 1948 in the court in which it had procured the .unsatisfied judgment against The Snyder Corporation. After notice to and answer by appellee, the trial court heard the evidence adduced by the parties and by order “denied and overruled” the motion. This appeal followed.

At appellant’s request the court filed findings of fact and conclusions of law. The substance of these findings is:

1. On April 19, 1948 this court rendered judgment for appellant against The Snyder Corporation for $1197.44, with interest from date of judgment.

2. Subsequent to the date of that judgment execution was issued and returned nulla bona.

3. The Snyder Corporation is a corporation under the laws of Texas with a capital stock of $50,000 all subscribed, of which $35,000 has been paid in.

4. Fred Brown (appellee) is a stockholder in The Snyder Corporation, who subscribed for $20,000 of the capital stock and has paid in only $5,000.

5. On February 3, 1948, The Snyder Corporation duly assigned all of its property, including choses in action, rights and causes of action on unpaid stock subscriptions, to Paul A. Kerin, assignee, for the benefit of all its creditors; that said assignment was duly filed and recorded in the deed records of Dallas County, Texas.

6. The bond of the assignee for the benefit of creditors was duly approved by the County Judge of Dallas County, Texas, and recorded in the deed records of said County.

7. Appellant has neither filed nor attempted to file a claim with the assignee for the benefit of creditors.

8. There is property of The Snyder Corporation now in the hands of the assignee for the benefit of creditors.

[885]*885His conclusion of law was:

“1. That plaintiff (appellant) is not •entitled to levy of execution against Fred Brown (appellee).” There is no conflict in the testimony, it is all in documentary form.

Points of error 1 and 2 present substantially the same proposition; in effect, they are:

(1) Error of the court in refusing to render judgment for appellant on its motion under the provisions of Article 1345, R.C.S.; and

(2) Error of the court in overruling appellant’s motion for execution against appellee “and assuming appellee’s theories to be correct, in not dismissing appellant’s motion for execution inasmuch as the defenses raised by Brown were in effect pleas in abatement.”

Appellant relies upon the provisions of Article 1345, R.C.S., for the relief sought. In 1874 the Legislature passed laws authorizing the creation of private corporations and set out many of the rights and functions of such corporations when formed. Section 25 of that Act provided that the hoard of directors or trustees of a corporation could require subscribers for its capital stock to make payment therefor at such times and in such amounts as may be required by the by-laws, and by section 26 for the forfeiture of subscribed stock if payments were not made upon such request. Vol. 8, G.L., p. 122 et seq., Vernon’s Ann. Civ.St. art. 1319 et seq., 1335, 1336. Those laws have been amended many times since their enactment. However, some provisions of the early law have remained and are in the present laws on the subject. Sections 25, 26 and 29 have thus been retained in substantially their original language, and they now appear as Articles 1335, 1336 and 1345, R.C.S., respectively. The substance of Article 1345 is that where judgment has been rendered against a corporation and execution has issued thereon and been returned 'nulla bona, a judgment creditor can file a motion in the court where judgment was obtained showing the facts and after notice the court may order execution to issue against the property of a stockholder to an extent equal to the amount of his subscribed stock unpaid.

If Article 1345 supra were the only law applicable to the situation before us, our task would be easy. Since the passage of the 1874 Act concerning corporations and rights by, against and incidental to them, the Legislature passed what is commonly known as the “Assignment for Benefit of Creditors” Act in 1879. Vol. 8, G.L., p. 1357 et seq. This Act with its amendments now constitute Title 12, Article 261 et seq., R.C.S. The various articles in the title provide that a debtor may assign all of his assets to an assignee or trustee for the benefit of his creditors consenting thereto in proportion to their respective claims; such assignment passes all of said assets to the assignee. If under the assignment the trustee is able to pay each of the consenting creditors as much as one-third of his claim, the debtor will be discharged from further liability thereon. The trustee must give notice of the assignment and creditors desiring to accept thereunder must indicate it within a specified time and a creditor who does not so accept can have no benefits under the assignment; the only relief a non consenting creditor has is set out in Article 271, which reads: “Any creditor not consenting to the assignment may garnishee the assignee for any excess of such estate remaining in his hands after the payment to the consenting creditors (of) the amount of their debts and the costs and expenses of executing the assignment.” Appellant was not a consenting creditor.

The several provisions of the “Assignment for Benefit of Creditors” Act is one of the means for administering a debtor’s estate so that his creditors may receive their respective shares therein without preference to any of the same class who comply with its requirements. A private corporation may avail itself of the “Assignment for Benefit of Creditors” Act. 5 Tex.Jur., p. 95, sec. 40.

The form of the assignment in this case is not attacked. It passed to the assignee a stock of merchandise, furniture and fixtures, a lease contract, cash on hand, accounts receivable, choses in action and other property for the purpose of the trust. The rights of the assignor to enforce its claim against appellee Brown for [886]*886the unpaid subscribed capital stock was a chose in action and undoubtedly it passed to the trustee for the benefit of the consenting creditors who presented their claims to the assignee. Appellant chose not to consent and present its judgment claim to the assignee; therefore it could not receive any of the proceeds arising from the assets in the assignee’s hands until all accepting creditors had been paid as provided in Articles 263, 265 and 271, R.C.S.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Circle Double "C" Enterprises, Inc. v. Wisco Electric, Inc.
782 S.W.2d 299 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1989)
Matthews v. Matthews
725 S.W.2d 275 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1986)
Mediacomp, Inc. v. Capital Cities Communication, Inc.
698 S.W.2d 207 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1985)
Lettieri v. Lettieri
654 S.W.2d 554 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1983)
Ligon v. E. F. Hutton & Co.
428 S.W.2d 434 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1968)
Johnson v. Barnwell Production Company
391 S.W.2d 776 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1965)
Fulton v. Abramson
369 S.W.2d 815 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1963)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
218 S.W.2d 883, 1949 Tex. App. LEXIS 1619, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jamison-cold-storage-door-co-v-brown-texapp-1949.