Knickerbocker Trust Co. v. Tarrytown, White Plains & Mamaroneck Railway Co.

133 A.D. 285, 117 N.Y.S. 871, 1909 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2162
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedJune 18, 1909
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 133 A.D. 285 (Knickerbocker Trust Co. v. Tarrytown, White Plains & Mamaroneck Railway Co.) 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
Knickerbocker Trust Co. v. Tarrytown, White Plains & Mamaroneck Railway Co., 133 A.D. 285, 117 N.Y.S. 871, 1909 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2162 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1909).

Opinion

Burr, J.:

This action is brought for the foreclosure of a mortgage upon the property and franchises of the defendant railroad company. On the 13th day of January, 1909, ,J. Addison Young was appointed as-receiver in this action. On the eighteenth day of February, upon his petition, he was authorized to issue certificates amounting to the sum of $50,000, which should be a lien upon the rights, franchises, property and assets of the said' railroad company prior to the lien of the plaintiff’s mortgage, and which, in the event of a sale, should be first paid out of the proceeds thereof. By said order the sum of [287]*287$7,'500 was to be used to meet aprobable deficiency in the operating expenses of the road by the receiver appointed in this action, and $5,500 was to be used for the expense of bricking switches on apart of the roadbed. Although the appeal was taken from the entire order by stipulation entered on the record, no objection is made to so much of the order as directs the issuing of certificates for these purposes. The residue of the proceeds of the sale of said certificates was to be used first to discharge various claims against the temporary receiver of the defendant railroad company, who was appointed on January 21, 1908, in proceedings for the voluntary dissolution of the company, and, second, to redeem outstanding certificates now due and payable, issued by such temporary receiver under an order made in the dissolution proceedings. The power of the court in this regard and the propriety of its exercise are the questions to be here decided.

We shall first consider the attack upon so - much of the order as directs that certificates be issued to redeem the certificates issued by the temporary receiver. In connection with that, it seems necessary to consider and dispose of one other question which has been raised upon this appeal, namely, was the appointment of the temporary receiver in the dissolution- proceedings absolutely void for jurisdictional defects ? If not, then the indebtedness arising upon the certificates issued by lfim may be considered as a single item; if it was, then it may be necessary to consider the various items of alleged indebtedness which go to make up the sum for which they were issued in the same manner as if the defendant railroad had been operated by its officers and directors up to the date when the receiver in this action was appointed. On the 16th day of January, • 1908, a majority of the directors of the defendant railroad united in a petition for its dissolution, under section" 2419 of the Code of Civil Procedure, upon the ground of its' insolvency, and on the seventeenth day of January an order was obtained requiring all persons interested to show cause on the 16th day of March, 1908, before a referee named in the said order, why such dissolution should not be had, which order to show cause provided for the service of a copy thereof both personally and by publication. Ko notice of the presentation of the petition and schedules, nor of the application for such order to show cause, nor any copy of the [288]*288motion papers, nor of such proposed order, was served upon the Attorney-General. The statute not only required this to be done, but in express terms provided that in default thereof any order or judgment based upon such papers, granted in any action or proceeding to dissolve a corporation, should be void. (Laws of 1883, chap. 378, § 8.) • The proceedings here attempted to be taken were purely statutory, and a violation of express requirements of the statute in connection with.the institution and maintenance of such proceedings are jurisdictional in character. (Matter of Strong Co., No. 1, 128 App. Div. 208; Matter of Dolgeville El. L. & P. Co., 160 N. Y. 500; Matter of Simonds Mfg. Co.,. 39 App. Div. 576; Whitney v. New York & Atlantic R. R. Co., 32 Hun, 164.) The order to show cause being void, all proceedings had under it were without jurisdiction and also void, On the 17th day of .January, 1908, upon the petition above referred to, the court.also granted an Order to show cause why a temporary receiver should npt be appointed, returnable before it on the twenty-first day of January. This order and the necessary papers accompanying it seem to have been served upon the Attorney-General as required by the statute, and upon the return day of the said order, J. Addison Young, the same person who has been appointed receiver in this action, was appointed as such temporary receiver and qualified by giving the bond referred to in the said order. The statute provides that if it. shall be made to appear to the satisfaction of the court that a corporation is insolvent, the court may at any stage of the proceedings before thef/nal order appoint a temporary receiver of the property of the corporation. (Code Civ. Proc. § ,2423.) The petition was before the court. It contained 'some evidence of the insolvency of the corjioration. ' It was for the coiirt to say whether such evidence was satisfactory. The filing of. the petition was the commencement of the proceedings. If in proper form, it gavé the court jurisdiction to entertain all subsequent proceedings which were conducted in accord- ' anee with statutory requirements. (Matter of Simonds Mfg. Co.., supra.) There is nothing in the statute which in express. words requires that the granting of a valid order to show cause why the corporation should not be dissolved should precede the granting of an order appointing a temporary receiver. It is the common practice to grant such añ order at the same time that the order to show cause for [289]*289dissolution is granted, or immediately thereafter and before the. service thereof. The statute does not prescribe how soon after the filing of the petition this latter order must be granted. So that, even though the order to show cause for dissolution was void and no proceedings could be taken under it effecting such dissolution, it seems to us that the order appointing the temporary receiver was perfectly valid. It is unnecessary, therefore, for us now to consider the effect of the attempt to cure the jurisdictional defects in the order to show cause by subsequent orders in the proceeding. Subsequent to his appointment, and on' June 20, 1908, on the affidavit of the temporary receiver, and upon notice to the Attorney-General and to the plaintiff in this action, who appeared and opposed the application, the court made an order that the temporary receiver issue his certificates, not exceeding in amount the sum of $13,000, and apply the proceeds to the purchase and installation of two rotary converters, and the necessary apparatus in connection therewith, in the power house of the said railroad company. This order further provided that such certificates should be a prior lien to the lien of plaintiff’s mortgage upon the property and assets of the railroad company. Whether the statute authorizes the issuing of certificates of indebtedness by a temporary receiver is not now before us for review. In at least two cases the existence of such a power seems to have been recognized. (Rochester Trust & Safe Deposit Co. v. O., C. & R. S. R. Co., 122 App. Div. 193; Townsend v. Oneonta, C. & R. S. R. Co., 88 id. 208.) hieither may we now consider whether the circumstances warranted the issuing of such certificates.

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Bluebook (online)
133 A.D. 285, 117 N.Y.S. 871, 1909 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2162, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/knickerbocker-trust-co-v-tarrytown-white-plains-mamaroneck-railway-co-nyappdiv-1909.