Longwell v. Caron

31 P.2d 690, 38 N.M. 260
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 13, 1934
DocketNo. 3815.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 31 P.2d 690 (Longwell v. Caron) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Longwell v. Caron, 31 P.2d 690, 38 N.M. 260 (N.M. 1934).

Opinion

SADLER, Justice.

This is an appeal by each of the parties affected from a decree rendered by the district court of Otero coupty in an accounting suit prosecuted by T. B. Longwell against C. K. Caron, individually, as trustee, and as executor of the last will and testament of C. M. Pate, deceased. Largely, the record writes a history of the changing affairs of Cloudcroft Lumber & Land Company, a corporation, for the sixteen years of its corporate existence, with Longwell and Pate, during ali of such time its officers and principal stockholders, as the chief actors. We shall begin in the beginning.

In the month of May, 1911, T. B. Longwell of Alamogordo, N. M., and C. M. Pate of Louisville, I-Cy., .both lumbermen of experience, following an acquaintanceship formed at a chance meeting between them at Hot Springs, Ark., organized a corporation under the laws of Kentucky known as Cloudcroft Lumber & Land Company^ with an authorized capital stock of $10,<KK) for the purpose of dealing in timber and timber lands in Otero county, N. M. Except for ten shares issued to one Walker, a resident of Kentucky, to qualify him for the directorate, the capital stock of the corporation was owned equally .by Longwell and Pate. Longwell became president of the corporation, and Pate its secretary-treasurer, in which offices they continued throughout the corporate life.

.During the first two years of its existence the company was operated on a small scale, Longwell during such period being employed by the government in estimating and appraising timber and therefore unable to devote his entire time to the company’s affairs. In 1913 he resigned his government position and devoted practically all of his time to the company’s affairs, Pate remaining in Kentucky and visiting New Mexico only at rare intervals.

The corporate existence of the company continued until January 1, 1927, when it was dissolved by voluntary consent of all of the stockholders. Up to this time, except for the comparatively short period hereinafter referred to, when it was in the hands of a receiver, it continued to engage in the business for which it was organized. Shortly following its dissolution Pate and one O. K. Caron, his son-in-law, who had been in the employ of the company for a considerable period as bookkeeper and accountant, were named by the stockholders as a liquidating committee to wind up its affairs and distribute its assets under specific authorization and direction as follows:

“First: To make such arrangements as may be proper find as in the judgment of said Liquidating Committee is best, to dispose of all of the assets and property of the corporation and to make all necessary contracts and take all necessary steps in connection therewith.

“Second: To first pay out of the proceeds of the sale of the property’ all indebtedness of the corporation.

“Third: After all property has been disposed of and all debts have been paid, to divide the remainder of the proceeds among the stockholders of the corporation in proportion to their respective holdings.”

From January 18, 1927, forward the liquidating committee was in active charge of the affairs of the company by virtue of said resolution until May 2, 1928, when Pate died. Caron became executor of his will and as the survivor of the two liquidators continued in active charge of winding up the company’s affairs with the knowledge, consent, and acquiescence of Longwell to the time of the institution of the suit out of which this appeal grows.

The court made an express finding that there was no evidence of fraud on the part of the liquidating committee in administering the affairs of the corporation either when composed jointly of Pate and Caron or when its personnel was reduced to Caron by the death of Pate.

In December, 1923, through an amended certificate of incorporation filed with the Secretary of State in Kentucky by Pate and Long-well and by reason of an accumulation of assets by the corporation, its authorized capital stock was increased from ten thousand to three hundred and fifty thousand dollars. No immediate apportionment of any part of said stock took place, but thereafter and about October 1, 1925, stock was issued, antedated to January 2,1924, in amounts and to holders as follows: 11,024 shares to Longwell; 11,722 shares to Rate; 10 shares to Walker.

Between January 1, and October 1, 1923, Pate made contributions of approximately $52,600 to the capital stock of the corporation. This sum was used in the construction of eleven miles, of standard gauge railroad from Clouderoft to the scene of a timber permit held by the company on the Mescalero Indian Reservation. While an issue was made of whether Longwell agreed to repay to Pate one-half of this contribution to the capital stock, receiving in exchange one-half of the stock subsequently to be issued therefor, the court specifically found that there was no such agreement. Sufficiency of the evidence to susL tain that finding is attacked.

The month of October, 1925, found the credit of the corporation somewhat impaired, and on the 13th of said month, upon the application of Pate as the owner of a majority of the capital stock and the claimant of indebtedness for funds advanced to the extent of approximately $50,000, a receiver for the company was appointed who continued in charge of its affairs until August 20, 1926.

During the pendency of the receivership the claim of Pate against the corporation in the sum of $72,230.97 was filed with the receiver. Certainly, for the purposes of distribution from the reduced assets then before the court, and as appellee insists for all purposes, the claim was allowed in the sum of $60,037.48, leaving unpaid a balance of $12,192.49 of the claim as filed.

It satisfactorily appears that when the time came for closing the receivership and making distribution, there was an inadequacy of reduced assets in the hands of the receiver to pay all outstanding claims in full and meet the expenses of the receivership; that the corporation then owned a valuable timber contract with the government on 640 acres of land in the Mescalero Indian Reservation, known as the Water Canyon Tract, the sale of which by the receiver was imminent to raise funds with which to satisfy claims; and that to avoid a receiver’s sale of the rights on this valuable timber tract, Pate reduced his claim by the amount above indicated, thereby accomplishing a return of the company’s assets to the corporation at close of the receivership.

While the trial court refused the specifically requested finding of appellant that appellee, Longwell, agreed to repay to Pate one-half of the amount of any loss by reason of said reduction, in the findings made of its own motion it did find that the item of $12,192.49 so deducted from said claim and, following the return of the corporate assets set up on the books of the corporation as an indebtedness owing by it to Pate, was a just charge against the funds in the hands of Caron as surviving member of the liquidating committee and allowed it together with interest thereon from the close of the receivership at the rate of 6 per cent, per annum.

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Related

McDermott v. Sher
280 P.2d 660 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1955)
Caron v. Southwest Lumber Co.
62 P.2d 1367 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1936)

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Bluebook (online)
31 P.2d 690, 38 N.M. 260, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/longwell-v-caron-nm-1934.