Jerman's Adm'r v. Benton

79 Mo. 148
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedOctober 15, 1883
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 79 Mo. 148 (Jerman's Adm'r v. Benton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jerman's Adm'r v. Benton, 79 Mo. 148 (Mo. 1883).

Opinion

Martin, C.

This was a proceeding by motion under the statute for execution against the defendant as a stockholder in the Bellefontaine Railway Company. On the 5th day of March, 1877, the plaintiff’s intestate recovered judgment against the Bellefontaine Railway Company in the sum of $13,158.60. This judgment was rendered on certain bonds issued by said company on the 1st day of January, 1866. Execution having been returned nulla bona, the plaintiff filed his motion against William H. Benton for a judgment against him as a stockholder in the company at the date of the issue of the bonds and at the time of filing the motion. The allegations were sufficient to admit the evidence in the case, which was contained in an agreed statement of the facts.

It appears that the company was organized on the 15th day of March, 1864, under a charter granted by special act of the legislature contained in Session Acts 1862-3, page 488; that William H. Benton, defendant, became a subscriber on the 10th day of February, 1865, for 518 shares of the capital stock, of the par value of $100 per share; that by an increase of the capital authorized by vote on the 20th day of September, 1865, he became entitled to another 518 shares, making 1,036 shares in all; that after parting with some of this- stock-he-remained owner of 734 shares, of the par value of $73,400, for which a certificate was issued to him dated June 7th, 1869 ; that on these shares there was actually paid in, $67 per share, leaving unpaid $33 per share, or a sum equal to $24,222. It also appears that said Benton, on the 22nd day of May, 1876, obtained [150]*150a judgment against the company for $14,913.10, on which an execution had been returned nulla bona; that on the 10th day of April, 1876, he recovered another judgment in the sum of $13,088.33, upon which he had realized $2,-835.50, leaving the remainder unsatisfied; also that he holds as owner thereof a note of the company in the sum of $2,500, due in December, 1875. It was admitted that the plaintiff’s intestate acquired the bonds upon which the judgment was rendered by devise from her husband, who died July 25th, 1874. There were other judgments and other execution creditors of the company, claiming judgment against the defendant as stockholder.

The circuit court held the defendant -liable to the execution creditors of the company in a sum double the amount of his stock, giving credit of course for the amount of stock paid up, and rendered judgment in favor of the plaintiff in the sum of $16,236.99. This judgment was, on appeal to the St. Louis court of appeals, reversed, with directions to assess judgment against him for the unpaid portion of his stock on the basis of single liability only, and to allow him to offset any matured indebtedness held by him against the company. From this judgment the plaintiff has appealed.

Whether the defendant is responsible as a stockholder under the double liability clause in force at different times in this State constitutes the principal question for decision.

i. stockholdebs: double liability. I. It is difficult to perceive how he could be held answerable to this plaintiff under the double liability clause of the constitution of 1866. Although that constitution went into force July 4th, 1865, the double liability clause contained in it was not carried into effect by appropriate legislation until the passage of the act of March 19th, 1865. Afterward, and before the commencement of this proceeding, that clause was entirely repealed by the constitutional amendment of November 8th, 1870. This amendment declared that all laws, ordinances and provisions inconsistent with it should be [151]*151forever abolished. The law-making power imposed this liability on the stockholder, and it assumed the right to relieve him from it, a right which cannot be questioned except by those creditors, who could successfully show that the obligation of their contracts had been impaired by the act of repeal. Clearly the plaintiff in this case cannot insist that the obligation of his contract has in any way been impaired by this change in the liability of the stockholder, because it originated anterior to the 19th day of March, 1866, at which date the double liability clause of the constitution of 1865 first took effect; the bonds upon which his judgment is founded, having been issued January 1st, 1866. They certainly could not have been issued upon the faith of the double liability clause of March 19th, 1866. And the fact that the act imposing that liability was soon afterward passed, and for a time furnished a bettér remedy for the enforcement and collection of the bonds would not have the effect of so connecting the double liability clause with the obligation of the bonds as to place that clause beyond the power of the law-making power to repeal it, as the contracts were entered into before it was passed. The protection against repeal of the clause is recognized only as to contracts made on the faith of the clause. Prov. Sav. Inst. v. Jackson Place Skating Rink, 52 Mo. 552; Hawthorne v. Calef, 2 Wall. 10. The court of appeals was, therefore, right in holding that if the defendant was subject at all to the double liability clause, it had to be by reason of some previous law or constitution.

II. It is claimed by counsel for plaintiff that the defendant was subject to the double liability clause of section 13, chapter 34, being “An act concerning corporations.” 1 R. S. 1855, p. 372. It is unnecessary to consider the language of this section. It purports to embrace “ all corporations hereafter created by the legislature, unless otherwise specified in their charter,” and imposes upon the stockholder thereof the double liability clause as to “ all debts contracted during his ownership ” of the stock. The Belle[152]*152fontaine Railway Company was created by the legislature after the enactment of this chapter; there was no provision in its charter inconsistent with the section imposing the double liability; and the bonds upon which plaintiff obtained judgment were issued while defendant was owner of the stock in controversy. If the defendant, as stockholder of this company, is not in some manner relieved from the effect of the -double liability clause of the' Corporation Act, then the plaintiff, as a holder of the bonds so issued, must have the right to invoke its advantages as a part of the obligation of his contract, notwithstanding any subsequent repeal.

2 _ _. rail_ road companies. III. The court of appeals held that the. defendant, as a stockholder in a railway company, was relieved' from the double liability clause of the Corporation Act, by virtue-of section 57 of the 89th chapter of the statute of 1855, containing “An act to authorize the formation of railroad associations and to regulate the same;” (R. S. 1855, p.

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Bluebook (online)
79 Mo. 148, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jermans-admr-v-benton-mo-1883.