McCourt v. Singers-Bigger

145 F. 103, 76 C.C.A. 73, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 3954
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedMarch 24, 1906
DocketNos. 2,283, 2,284
StatusPublished
Cited by45 cases

This text of 145 F. 103 (McCourt v. Singers-Bigger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McCourt v. Singers-Bigger, 145 F. 103, 76 C.C.A. 73, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 3954 (8th Cir. 1906).

Opinion

ADAMS, Circuit Judge,

after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

[107]*107Before disposing of the main question, a preliminary consideration of the obligations and duties imposed by law upon directors of a corporation may not be unprofitable. Whatever may be the technical relation between them and the corporation itself, its creditors, or the public, they are, in a general and universal sense, trustees for the stockholders. They are chosen to represent them in the enterprise upon which they mutually embark. Their duty is to use and employ the corporate assets and all corporate facilities and privileges, within the limits of powers conferred upon the corporation by law, for the ultimate benefit and advantage of the shareholders. They have no rights in such assets or facilities or privileges superior to those of their principals. They occupy toward them strictly fiduciary relations and are accountable to them on principles governing that relationship. Any action by them impairing corporate rights or sacrificing corporate interests is regarded as a flagrant breach of trust on their part. Thompson’s Commentary on the Daw of Corporations, vol. 3, § 4009 et seq., and cases cited.

In Ward v. Davidson, 89 Mo. 445, 458, 1 S. W. 846, Black, Judge, speaking for the court, says:

“Directors and officers of corporations occupy a position of trust and must act in the utmost good faith. They will not be allowed to deal with the «•orporhte funds and proi>orty for their private gain. They have no right to deal with themselves and for the corporation at the same time, and they must account for the profits made by the use of the company’s assets, and for moneys made by a breach of trust" — citing 1 Morawetz on Priv. Oorp. (2d Ed.) §243, 245; Field on Corp. .174 ; 1 Perry on Trusts (3d Ed.) § 429.

To the same effect is Wardell v. Railroad Co., 103 U. S. 651, 658, 26 L. Ed. 509.

Applying this principle, which only needs mentioning to gain unqualified assent to the case before us, how does it stand?

For years McCourt and Bush had owned and enjoyed the right to operate the theaters in question. After organizing the old company their business was conducted much as before, under the management of both Bush and McCourt as chief officers of the company. In about a year Bush died, and later Mrs. Bush, in whose name one-half of the capital stock stood, also died; and the share of the theatrical business represented by that stock descended to their daughter, the complainant in this cause. At the time she acquired her interest McCourt was a director and president of the company, and charged with all the duties and obligations imposed upon him as such. They included, as already seen, a high degree of fidelity and loyalty to complainant as a stockholder holding one-half of the stock of the company. His duty was to do all things reasonably within his power, to promote the business, and enhance the profits of the company. What could he have reasonably done? Clearly that which ordinarily prudent persons under like circumstances would do for themselves. The company was in a flourishing condition. It had an assured corporate existence of many years, and established business with a good will of great value, two leasehold estates with unexpired terms of about two years each, and, with them, all the advantages incident to such conditions. An ordinarily prudent person would undoubtedly have [108]*108bethought himself to secure an extension of such leases and thereby ‘Conserve and preserve the good will and integrity of the business. The likelihood of being able to secure such an extension under like circumstances is so great that it has come to be recognized as a valuable incident to the tenant’s estate, a species of property which the law protects. McCourt clearly did not take this view of the matter, but, on the contrary, soon after the death of Mrs. Bush, deliberately devised a scheme to appropriate the business to himself. He caused the defendant corporation to be formed for his own benefit and practically destroyed the profitable business of the old company by acquiring leases of the theaters in which it had built up its business, for his new corporation. In many ways he made use of his position and powers in the old company and consumed his time which belonged to it to enhance the value and attractiveness of the theaters when they should come under the new leases. His conduct was inequitable, obviously dictated by considerations of personal interest, and far below that high degree of fidelity which the law imposed upon him as agent and trustee of the complainant.'

The general rule, as declared in the American and English Encyclopedia of Law (volume 18, p. 696), is as follows:

“Though a tenant may not have any absolute right to a renewal against the will of his lessor, courts of equity recognize his reasonable expectancy of'renewal as a property or asset, and if one standing in a fiduciary or quasi fiduciary relation to a lessee secures a renewal of the lease to himself, a court of equity will treat him as holding the lease in trust for the original lessee.”

The principle so declared is supported by abundant authority.

In Davis v. Hamlin, 108 Ill. 39, 48 Am. Rep. 541, the Supreme Court of Illinois considered a similar question. In that case the managing agent of the owner of a theater, who by reason of his employment had learned the methods of conducting the business and had become familiar with its value and future possibilities, at the expiration of a lease in the name of his principal, privately secured a renewal thereof to himself. The court held him to be trustee with respect to that lease for his principal. Amongst other things, it said:

“Tire obtaining of the lease by Davis amounted to a virtual destruction of his employer’s whole business at the termination of the old lease, under which the latter was holding. * * * There was a good will attached to it, which was valuable. * * * If a manager of a business were allowed to obtain such a lease for himself, there would be laid before him the inducement to produce in the mind of his principal an underestimate of the value of the lease, and to that end, may be, to mismanage so as to reduce profits, in order that he might more easily acquire the lease for himself. * * * Although there was here no right of renewal of the lease in the tenant, he had a reasonable expectation of its renewal, which courts of equity have recognized as an interest of value. * * * ”

This principle was early declared by Chancellor Walworth in Phyfe v. Wardell & Woolley, 5 Paige (N. Y.) 268, 28 Am. Dec. 430. He there lays down the doctrine in these words:

“If a person who has a particular or special interest in a lease obtains a renewal thereof from the circumstance of his being in possession as tenant, or from having such particular interest, the renewed lease is, in equity, considered as a mere continuance of the original lease, subject to the additional [109]*109charges upon the renewal, for the purpose of protecting the equitable rights of till parties who had. any interest either legal or equitable in the old lease.”

To the same effect are Gibbes v. Jenkins, 3 Sandford, Ch. (N. Y.) 130, 134; Mitchell v. Reed, 61 N. Y. 123, 129, 19 Am. Rep. 252; Johnson’s Appeal, 115 Pa. 129, 133, 8 Atl. 36, 2 Am. St. Rep. 539; Hannerty v. Standard Theater Company, 109 Mo.

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Bluebook (online)
145 F. 103, 76 C.C.A. 73, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 3954, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mccourt-v-singers-bigger-ca8-1906.