Lafayette Co. v. Neely

21 F. 738, 1884 U.S. App. LEXIS 2446
CourtUnited States Circuit Court
DecidedOctober 6, 1884
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 21 F. 738 (Lafayette Co. v. Neely) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lafayette Co. v. Neely, 21 F. 738, 1884 U.S. App. LEXIS 2446 (uscirct 1884).

Opinion

Hammond, J.

The objection that this bill does not show conformity to the ninety-fourth equity rule cannot, I think, be maintained. The bill was filed April 1, 1882, and if we date the alleged dissolution of the corporation at the time of the foreclosure sale on August 27, 1877, which is the very earliest date at which it can be said to have been dissolved, the suit was commenced within the five years allowed by our statutes for a dissolved corporation to bring suits in its corporate name, notwithstanding the dissolution. Tenn. Code, 1492-1497; Rogersville & Jefferson R. R. v. Kyle, 9 Lea, 691; Kelley v. Mississippi Cent. R. Co. 2 Flippin, 581; S. C. 10 Cent. Law J. 286; S. C. 1 Fed. Rep. 564. But if a later date be fixed, such as the confirmation of the sale or the final decree in the foreclosure suit, which would bring the date of the suit beyond the five years of the statute, it is clear the ninety-fourth equity rule does not apply, if it be conceded that it applies during the five years to a dissolved corporation with continuing power to sue under the peculiar features of the above-cited Tennessee statutes, as to which I express no opinion. 'The rule does not, in terms, include a dissolved corporation, (Jones, Rules, 151,) and it seems settled that the dissolution of a corporation, and its inability to proceed by suit, does not deprive the shareholders of a remedy in their own name in a court of equity. Rogersville, etc., R. R. v. Kyle, supra, at p. 698; Shields v. Ohio, 95 U. S. 319, 324; Bacon v. Robertson, 18 How. 480; Lum v. Robertson, 6 Wall. 277. Of course, when the functions of the directors, managers, and shareholders have closed by dissolution, they no longer occupy that relation, and it is in their own right as individuals that the shareholders must seek redress. It cannot be, therefore, that in such a case the ninety-fourth rule was intended to operate. Greenwood v. Freight Co. 105 U. S. 13, 16. Conceding, however, that the rule extends to a Tennessee corporation during the five years of posthumous existence granted to it by the state statutes, the amendment shows that the plaintiffs have done everything that they could reasonably be required to do, under the existing circumstances, to comply with the rule. Affidavit is made that [740]*740plaintiffs were shareholders at the time of the transaction, and that the suit is not a collusive one to confer on a court of the United States jurisdiction of a case of which otherwise it would have no cognizance, which manifestly, without the affidavit, it is not; and, after all, this is the main requirement of the rule, if not its chief object, and the only one in the power of the court to accomplish by a rule of practice; for, it cannot be assumed that the court intended to or could, under a power to prescribe rules of practice, impose limitations on the jurisdiction on the federal courts not imposed by any act of congress. ~ The rule should not, at least, be so construed until the supreme court itself has affirmed the power to do this. The eases upon which the rule is predicated explain its meaning, and they do not require impossibilities on the part of a shareholder. In the leading case of Hawes v. Oakland, 104 U. S. 450, 461, where the required efforts to ' secure corporate action are described, it is said that the plaintiff may “show a case, if this be not done, where it could not be done, or it was not reasonable to require it;’’ and the “total destruction of the corporate existence and the annihilation of all corporate powers” constitute an acknowledged exception to the rule. Greenwood v. Freight Co., supra. See, also, Detroit v. Dean, 106 U. S. 537; S. C. 1 Sup. Ct. Rep. 560; Hayden v. Manning, Id. 586; S. C. 1 Sup. Ct. Rep. 617; and Dimpfel v. Ohio & M. Ry. Co. 110 U. S. 209, S. C. 3 Sup. Ct. Rep. 573, for a further elucidation of the principles upon which the rule is founded.

Now, by the Tennessee Code, “the managers of the business of such corporation at the time of its dissolution, by whatever name known, are the trustees of the stockholders and creditors,” authorized by these statutes to settle its affairs and “sue for and recover the debts and property of such dissolved corporation in its corporate name.” Tenn. Code, §§ 1494, 1495.

The principal defendant, Neely, was himself, at the time of the dissolution of this corporation, the statutory receiver appointed by the governor under the act of February 11, 1852, c. 151, § 5, p. 207, (Code, § 1101,) “to take possession and control of said railroad and all the assets thereof, and manage the same, etc., and to continue in possession of said road, fixtures, and equipments, and run the same, and manage the entire road” until the debt to the state was paid. State v. E. & K. R. R. 6 Lea, 353, 355; Erwin v. Davenport, 9 Heisk. 44. If this was not the “annihilation of all corporate powers,” it certainly did, in fact, as appears by this bill, paralyze those corporate powers; for the road was surrendered by him to the purchasers under the foreclosure sale, he accounted only to the governor or these purchasers, and the directors or stockholders have not since attempted any corporate action or kept up any corporate organization. Either Neely was himself the person to whom, under this rule and these state statutes, application should have been made to bring this suit in the corporate name,—which were a vain thing to [741]*741do, and it is unreasonable to ask it,—or no snob application could, under the terms of the statute, be made at all. The directors and stockholders were, by the statutes, superseded or deprived of their power, and under the law it has never been restored to them. Erwin v. Davenport, supra. Furthermore, the amended bill alleges that the plaintiffs have applied to such of the directors as they could find to take corporate action in this matter; but that they are scattered throughout the country, and have apparently abandoned all their functions and refused to act. Having made all stockholders who choose to come in parties, it would seem, under the circumstances, unreasonable to require that corporate action should be sought through application to them. The bill does not with sufficient precision name the directors to whom application was made, nor show in detail the efforts to comply with the rule in that regard, as it should have done; but, under the facts disclosed, I am of opinion that the plaintiffs have done the best they could, and for the reasons stated overrule that ground of demurrer.

•The plaintiffs insist that at all events the corporation w.as, and now they are, entitled to an account against their trustee, this statutory receiver of their property.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
21 F. 738, 1884 U.S. App. LEXIS 2446, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lafayette-co-v-neely-uscirct-1884.