Mason v. Wade Furnace Co.

29 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 173, 1932 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1399
CourtCourt of Common Pleas of Ohio, Hamilton County
DecidedFebruary 15, 1932
StatusPublished

This text of 29 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 173 (Mason v. Wade Furnace Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Common Pleas of Ohio, Hamilton County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Mason v. Wade Furnace Co., 29 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 173, 1932 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1399 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1932).

Opinion

Matthews, J.

This cause comes before the court upon the motion of an intervening creditor to set aside an order made appointing a receiver of the assets of the defendant company. The ground of the motion is that the petition does not state facts in law sufficient to justify the appointment of a receiver, and that such facts were not presented to the court upon the hearing.

The facts necessary to be noticed in passing upon this motion are that the plaintiff in his petition alleges that the defendant is a corporation under the laws of this state, and that it is engaged in the warm air furnace business. He alleges that the defendant is indebted to him in the sum of one hundred and twenty-five ($125.00) dollars long past due, and that he is also a stockholder. He also alleges that 'the defendant is unable to pay its obligations as they become due, and is unable to arrange for funds for necessary operating expenses and liquidat[174]*174ing its liabilities without jeopardizing the rights of the parties; that its total assets will exceed its total liabilities and that it is solvent provided its assets are properly protected and not dissipated, and that unless a receiver is appointed judgment against it will be rendered and levies made which will prevent the defendant from carrying on its business resulting in the dissipation of its assets. Plaintiff also alleges that the defendant is being continually harrassed by its creditors who threaten execution and that the plaintiff fears that its assets may be lost or materially injured unless a receiver is appointed to take charge of same; and it is impossible for the defendant to conduct its business without a multiplicity of actions and levies against it. The prayer of the petition is:

“That the plaintiff be compelled to pay its obligation to him of one hundred twenty-five dollars ($125.00) aforesaid, and that all necessary steps to conserve his rights as a creditor and stockholder of defendant be taken until the defendant’s liabilities are liquidated, that this court administer as a trust fund all the assets, property and rights of the defendant company; that a receiver be appointed to take charge of, manage and conduct the business of the defendant and to reduce to his possession the property and assets of the defendant for the benefit of its creditors and stockholders, etc.”

The cause came on to be heard on the plaintiff’s motion for the appointment of a receiver and at that hearing the defendant corporation, by its officers and attorneys, was present in court, admitted the allegation of the petition, and on behalf of all its stockholders as well as the corporate entity joined in the prayer that the court appoint a receiver.

In this situation the court appointed a receiver, and the motion of the intervening judgment creditor now before the court raises the question of the validity of that appointment.

The question here presented has been frequently before the Federal courts. In the case of Horn v. Pere Marquette R. Co. et al., 151 Fed. 626, the court considered [175]*175the validity of the appointment of Judson Harmon as receiver of the Pere Marquette Railway Company on a bill in equity filed by a single unsecured creditor who had no judgment, and claimed no lien. Speaking through Judge Lurton, afterwards Justice Lurton of the United States Supreme Court, the court at 633 and 634 said:

“Next it is said that the bill under which the receiver was appointed was filed by a single unsecured creditor, who had no judgment, and who claimed no lien. But the defendant debtor appeared, and, by a sworn answer, confessed the debt and its utter insolvency, and joined in the prayer for the appointment of a receiver. The objection, if tenable in view of the confession of the debt and of insolvency, was one which, in a case where the court had jurisdiction, of the parties and is of general equitable cognizance, may be waived ‘and, when waived, stands as though no such objection ever existed.’ Tompkins v. Catawba Mills (C. C.) 82 Fed., 780; Sage v. Memphis etc., Ry. Co., 125 U. S. 361, 8 Sup. Ct. 887, 31 L. Ed. 694; Mellen v. Moline etc., Iron Works, 131 U. S. 352, 9 Sup. Ct. 781, 33 L. Ed. 178; Hollins v. Brierfield Coal, etc., Co., 150 U. S. 371, 380, 14 Sup. Ct. 137, 57 L. Ed. 1113. In the case last cited, the court expressly held that such an objection must be made in limine or it is waived, citing Reynes v. Dumont, 130 U. S. 354, 9 Sup. Ct. 486, 32 L. Ed. 934, and other cases. In Central Trust Co. v. McGeorge, 151 U. S. 131-135, 14 Sup. Ct. 286, 38 L. Ed. 98, where a corporation had waived the fact that it was sued in the wrong district by an appearance and consent to the appointment of a receiver, the objection was subsequently made by stockholders and creditors who came in and challenged the appointment so made. After deciding that neither the complainant nor defendant were residents of the district, the court ruled that the objection, though good if made in time by the defendant, had been waived. The court then added:

‘It is scarcely necessary to say that, as the defendant company had submitted itself to the jurisdiction of the court, such voluntary action could not be overruled at the instance of the stockholders and creditors, not parties to the suit as brought, but who were permitted to become such by an intervening petition.’

To much the same effect is Citizens’ Bank v. Union Mining Co., (C. C.) 106 Fed. 97. A most absurd result would ensue if, when the corporation has submitted to the [176]*176jurisdiction of a court of equity or to the local jurisdiction, a creditor could come in, or when brought in, might reopen the matter of jurisdiction over the debtor corporation. If such an objection is not waived once for all, so- as to close the question as to stockholders and creditors, what number of creditors would conclude the rest? In Grand Trunk Ry. Co. v. Central Vermont Ry. Co. (C. C.) 85 Fed. 67, it was very logically ruled by Judge Wheeler that a mortgagee subsequently intervening and being made a defendant could not demur to the bill because the complainant who filed the bill was not a judgment creditor, being bound by the waiver of that objection by the railroad company which had answered, and consented to the appointment of a receiver.”

It will be observed that in Horn v. Pere Marquette, supra, there was an allegation in the bill of insolvency, but the court did not have before it the question of the sense in which that term was used. This question was considered, however, in the Ohio case of Cincinnati Equipment Company v. Degnan, 184 Federal, 834. In that case the United States Court of Appeals through Judge Warrington reaffirmed the jurisdiction of equity to appoint a receiver on the bill of a simple contract creditor when the defendant appears and admits the allegations in the bill. Discussing the meaning of the term insolvency, Judge Warrington at page 840 said:

“ ‘Insolvency,’ as counsel urge it, is statutory, and in administering the bankruptcy act must be strictly adhered to. Duncan v.

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Bluebook (online)
29 Ohio N.P. (n.s.) 173, 1932 Ohio Misc. LEXIS 1399, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mason-v-wade-furnace-co-ohctcomplhamilt-1932.