Kimbrough v. Gainesville Mather Co.

187 S.E. 169, 53 Ga. App. 735, 1936 Ga. App. LEXIS 385
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedJuly 11, 1936
Docket25035
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 187 S.E. 169 (Kimbrough v. Gainesville Mather Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kimbrough v. Gainesville Mather Co., 187 S.E. 169, 53 Ga. App. 735, 1936 Ga. App. LEXIS 385 (Ga. Ct. App. 1936).

Opinion

MacIntyre, J.

Mrs. W. H. Kimbrough Jr. sued Gainesville Mather Company, C. A. Kimbrough, O. M. Hendrix, C. W. Laws, Mather Brothers Company Inc., Cotton Mather, Roy Mather, and John Mather. . The first exception is to the judgment disallowing an amendment to the petition; the second is to the judgment sustaining a general demurrer. By paragraph, the material parts of the original petition are substantially as follows:

2. Defendants “have injured and damaged . . petitioner in the sum of $4250. . .”

[736]*7363. Gainesville Mather Company, was incorporated with a capital stock of $30,000, each share of stock being of the par value of $100, for the purpose of conducting a retail furniture business in Gainesville, Georgia.

4. The subscribers to said stock, with the number of shares subscribed, follow: Petitioner 50 shares; C. A. Kimbrough 50 shares; J. E. Thaxton 35 shares; an unnamed party -1 share; Mather Brothers Company Inc., Cotton Mather, Roy Mather, and John Mather, 164 shares. Petitioner paid $5000 in cash for her fifty shares of stock.

5. All said parties paid in full for the stock subscribed by them, except Mather Brothers Company Inc., Cotton Mather, Eoy Mather, and John Mather, who “paid $1000 and took over the balance of said . . stock,” but “to whom and in what name said stock was issued petitioner is unable to say.”

6. At the time Gainesville Mather Company was organized its officers were as follows: Cotton Mather, president, Eoy Mather, first vice-president, and J. E. Meeks, secretary and treasurer.

7. Some months after Gainesville Mather Company opened for business Cotton Mather, “acting for himself and on his own account,” purchased the stock, merchandise, and accounts of Hendrix & Laws, a partnership which “was considerably involved financially.”

8. As part of the consideration of said purchase, Cotton Mather agreed with O. M. Hendrix and Charles W. Laws, the members of said partnership, to give each of them employment with the Gainesville Mather Company “at a . . stated salary . . for a . . stated time, said salaries to be paid by” said company. Said contract was made “without the consent of the management and without corporate authority,” and without the knowledge of any one connected with said company, by “Cotton Mather, acting for himself while pretending to act in behalf of . . Gaines-ville Mather Company.” Pending said negotiations, “C. A. Kimbrough had been installed as manager of the Gainesville Mather Company, and was in charge of its business . . and vested with exclusive powers of hiring and discharging all employees.” When advised by Cotton Mather of his employment of said Hendrix and Laws, Kimbrough protested, but was “peremptorily ordered by . . Cotton Mather to take Hendrix in some capacity [737]*737and . . pay him a salary of $150 per month,” and Laws “was placed by . . Cotton Mather in the ostensible employment of another concern of the City of Gainesville, to wit, Pilgrim Estes Company, at the expense of the Gainesville Mather Company in the sum of $150 per month.”

9. '“Cotton Mather purchased and took over said stock . . and the accounts of the said Hendrix & Laws for himself, or for himself and the Mather Brothers Company Inc., and John and Boy Mather.” Cotton Mather “ disposed of the stock of goods . . to other parties, and .' . said accounts were placed for collection with said Gainesville Mather Company,” and said company “was required by . . Cotton Mather to collect said accounts and pay the proceeds over to him, or to Mather Brothers Company Inc. without compensation, and . . the total . . expense of handling the stock of goods . . and the collection of the accounts . . was . . required to be paid by the Gaines-ville Mather Company . . to the detriment and damage of petitioner in the value of her stock.”

10. Later, when it became necessary for the Gainesville Mather Company to dispense with the services of the said Hendrix, and when it refused to continue the payment of said Laws’ salary, Laws and Hendrix entered suit against the Gainesville Mather Company “for the balance of salary due under the contract with the said Cotton Mather,” and recovered judgments aggregating approximately $3000 against said company.

11. “One of the major prohibitions placed upon said Gaines-ville Mather Company by . . Mather Brothers Company Inc., Cotton, John and Boy Mather, was that no order for the purchase of goods for said Gainesville Mather Company . . should be . . filled until first receiving the 'O. K.’ of Mather Brothers Company Inc., or some of the Mathers.” When said judgments were procured, “Gainesville Mather Company was in good standing with the trade . . and its credit was good,” but as a result of said judgments its credit was lost, and “Mather Brothers Company Inc., which . . is owned and controlled by Cotton, John, and Boy Mather, . . refused to 'O. K.’ any further orders, . . and refused to extend credit . . to . . Gainesville Mather Company,-because of said judgments, and the credit . . of . . Gainesville Mather Company was completely destroyed.’’

[738]*73812. “After said judgments were entered of record . . , and while said causes were on appeal . . , all said defendants began a series of pretended and bogus sales to dispose of, remove, and secrete the stock . . and to transfer the books of account of the Gainesville Mather Company, and . . entered into a conspiracy to delete and deplete the stock and assets of the Gaines-ville Mather Company, and to remove the same from the jurisdiction of the court.” The purpose of said conspiracy was accomplished to such an extent that Hendrix and Laws procured an injunction “against all of said defendants,” and a receiver to be appointed. The inventory of said receiver disclosed that “said stock of goods and merchandise had been removed, sequestered, and deleted,” and “the books of account . . pretendedly and wrongfully transferred to the extent that” said stock of the Gainesville Mather Company was reduced from a value of approximately $8000 to less than $2000, and the untransferred accounts “were practically worthless.”

13. “At the time said conspiracy was entered into . . and suit hereinbefore referred to . . instituted, . . the Gaines-ville Mather Company was a going concern, carrying a stock of approximately $8000 in merchandise, and accounts . . collectible of over $20,000, and was prospering.”

14. “As a result of said conspiracy . . and the suits filed by the said Hendrix and . . Laws, . . Mather Brothers Company Inc., and Cotton, John, and Boy Mather, the said Cotton Mather pretending to act . . in behalf of the Gainesville Mather Company, entered into negotiations with . . Hendrix and . . Laws, looking to a settlement of said suit and said judgments,” and did agree to pay to said parties $700 in cash and employ them “in and about the business of the Gainesville Mather Company for a certain . . time . . at a certain salary per month;” the result of which was that Hendrix and Laws “were . . wished upon . . the Gainesville Mather Company at an unnecessary and enormous useless expense,” and said company was required to pay Hendrix and Laws $700 in cash.

15. At first Cotton Mather demanded and received from Gainesville Mather Company a salary fixed at a maximum of $50 per month, but, “without corporate action, on the demand of . . Gotton Mather, this salary was increased from time to time until [739]

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

Related

Mickel v. Pickett
247 S.E.2d 82 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1978)
King Manufacturing Co. v. Clay
118 S.E.2d 581 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1961)
Smyly v. Smith
118 S.E.2d 188 (Supreme Court of Georgia, 1961)
Avent v. . Millard
33 S.E.2d 123 (Supreme Court of North Carolina, 1945)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
187 S.E. 169, 53 Ga. App. 735, 1936 Ga. App. LEXIS 385, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kimbrough-v-gainesville-mather-co-gactapp-1936.