Lawrence v. Atlantic Paper & Pulp Corp.

298 F. 246, 1924 U.S. App. LEXIS 2631
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit
DecidedApril 3, 1924
DocketNos. 4257, 4258
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 298 F. 246 (Lawrence v. Atlantic Paper & Pulp Corp.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lawrence v. Atlantic Paper & Pulp Corp., 298 F. 246, 1924 U.S. App. LEXIS 2631 (5th Cir. 1924).

Opinion

WALKER, Circuit Judge.

These are two- petitions to revise in matters of law orders of the District Court for the Southern District of Georgia, dismissing petitions filed by the petitioners herein, praying that the adjudication of bankruptcy on a voluntary petition filed on November 1, 1923, in the name of Atlantic Paper & Pulp Corporation, a corporation organized under the laws of New York (herein called the corporation), be set aside and vacated, that a receiver of the property of the corporation be appointed, and for other relief. One of the petitions was filed by Samuel C. Lawrence, a preferred stockholder and [247]*247an alleged creditor of the corporation. The other petition was filed by Margaret G. Lawrence, the wife of Samuel C. Lawrence, and a common stockholder of the corporation.

Each of|the dismissed petitions attacked the bankruptcy adjudication on the following grounds: (1) That the bankruptcy proceeding was not maintainable in the Southern district of Georgia, because, for the «greater portion of six months immediately preceding the filing of the bankruptcy petition, the principal place of business of the corporation was in the Southern district of New York, and not, as alleged in the Bankruptcy petition filed, in the Southern district of Georgia. (2) That the bankruptcy proceeding was instituted without being authorized by valid corporate action of the corporation, and not in pursuance of a resolution of the directors which was relied on in'the institution of the proceeding.

On the hearing in the court below evidence to the following effect was adduced: The charter of the corporation showed that the purposes for which it was formed included the following:

“To manufacture, produce, prepare, purchase, import, export, sell and generally to deal in any and all kinds of paper and in all ingredients, products, and compounds thereof, and in any materials that now are or may hereafter be used in connection with such manufacture. To manufacture, purchase, or otherwise acquire, deal in, hold, own, manage, sell, pledge, transfer, or otherwise dispose of goods, wares, merchandise, and property of any and every class and description.”

The charter contained the following provisions:

“The principal business office of the corporation is to be located in the borough of Manhattan, city of New York. * * * q^e board of directors may appoint and from time to time reappoint an executive committee from among their number, which committee, to the extent provided in the by-laws of the corporation, shall have and may exercise all tie powers of the board of directors in the management of the business and affairs of the corporation during the intervals between the meetings of the board of directors, so far as may be permitted by law.”

After the corporation was organized it undertook to build a pulp mill at Port Wentworth, near Savannah, in the Southern district of Georgia. It established offices in Savannah, and nowhere else. It has not at any time since it was incorporated had an active office, for the transaction of business, an office for which it paid rent, anywhere, except in Chatham county, Ga. The pulp mill has been shut down since September, 1921. The records, books, and accounts of the corporation have always been kept in Savannah. The minute book and corporate seal have "been kept there. During 1923 the corporation, jointly with other corporations, occupied certain offices in an office building in Savannah, contributing $250 per month towards the rent and general office expenses. During the six months between May and November, 1923, it maintained and kept up an office force at Savannah, there took in and paid out money, employed laborers and watchmen to, look after its property, and sold certain of its pulpwood on hand. The corporation had no property anywhere outside of the Southern district of Georgia.

Between May and November, 1923, the corporation made contracts in Savannah in buying necessary supplies to keep up the general physi[248]*248cal condition of the mill property and in selling most of its pulpwood on hand, looked’after its insurance and everything that was necessary to maintain its property, took in small amounts of money from sources other than the sale of pulpwood, collected something in excess of $10,-000 in settlement of an old pulpwood contract, that matter beirig handled through New York attorneys, but under the direction of the corporation’s officers, who resided in Savannah, and were paid salaries there. During the period mentioned the corporation employed and paid several men, watchmen and caretakers, and a man to keep the machinery of the mill in condition. The corporation registered for doing business in Georgia within that period, as required by the laws of that state. The corporation’s receipts during that period were $20,371.08, and its disbursements were $22,082, exclusive of salaries paid to its officers. The meetings of the corporation’s directors and of its executive committee, which will be referred to below, were held in New York in the offices of a firm of which one of its directors is a member. The corporation did not rent any office in New York, and its name was not listed in the telephone directory of that city.

The action of the court which is presented for revision in matters of law is not subject to be set aside on the first above mentioned ground of attack, if evidence adduced warranted, a finding that, within the meaning, of section 2 of the Bankruptcy Act (Comp. St. § 9586), the corporation, during the greater portion of the six months preceding the filing of the bankruptcy petition, had its principal place of business in the district in which that petition was filed. We are of opinion that it cannot properly be said that there was an absence of evidence warranting such a finding. Though the main purpose for which the corporation was formed was the carrying on of a manufacturing business, which was not carried on at all during the six months preceding the filing of the bankruptcy petition, the corporation continuously during that period did transact in the Southern district of Georgia business which under its charter was within the purposes for which it was formed. Included in the purposes for which the corporation was formed were the selling and general dealing in any materials that might be used in connection with the manufacture of paper, the purchasing, holding, and managing of property of any kind, and the dealing in and selling of such property. In selling wood on hand, in managing and caring for its idle pulp mill, in engaging -and paying employees assigned to services in that connection, in buying supplies required to keep up the physical condition of its property, and in directing proceedings for the collection of debts owing to it,' the corporation was transacting business ■ within the purposes for which it was formed.

The above-mentioned phase of the evidence adduced warranted a finding that, while the corporation’s manufacturing plant was not in operátion, the enumerated activities constituted the principal business of the corporation. During the six months immediately preceding the filing of the bankruptcy petition the scene of substantially all of those activities, of the greater part of the corporation’s dealings with the public, was in the Southern district of Georgia. This being so, the facts that the corporation’s charter cdntains the above set out provision as to [249]

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

Related

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
298 F. 246, 1924 U.S. App. LEXIS 2631, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lawrence-v-atlantic-paper-pulp-corp-ca5-1924.