Naslund v. Moon Motor Car Co.

134 S.W.2d 102, 345 Mo. 465, 1939 Mo. LEXIS 552
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedDecember 13, 1939
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 134 S.W.2d 102 (Naslund v. Moon Motor Car Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Naslund v. Moon Motor Car Co., 134 S.W.2d 102, 345 Mo. 465, 1939 Mo. LEXIS 552 (Mo. 1939).

Opinions

November 15, 1930, a stockholder of the Moon Motor Car Company, St. Louis, filed suit against the company, alleging mismanagement, dissipation of assets, etc., and asked for the appointment of a receiver. On the same day that the suit was filed, Seneca C. Taylor, a member of the St. Louis Bar, was appointed temporary receiver. November 20, 1930, an amended petition was filed in which certain creditors joined as plaintiffs. December 2, 1930, Taylor was made permanent receiver, and later, other creditors intervened. March 25, 1935, Taylor was removed as a receiver because of his sickness, and George P. Dorris was appointed as successor receiver. May 24, 1935, Taylor filed his final report and application for discharge. October 18, 1935, the American Hard Rubber Company and other intervening creditors filed exceptions to the final report, and June 8, 1936, the successor receiver also filed exceptions to the report. These exceptions were, in the main, the same. A trial was had on the exceptions, which resulted in a finding for Taylor, overruling all exceptions, approving the report, and finally discharging Taylor as receiver.

The intervening creditors and the successor receiver filed a joint *Page 470 motion for a new trial, but the successor receiver later withdrew from this motion. The motion was overruled and the intervening creditors appealed. Seneca C. Taylor died May 5, 1937, after the appeal, and the cause was revived here in the name of Catherine Nolan Taylor, executrix of the estate of Seneca C. Taylor.

[1] The final report of the receiver and the exceptions thereto occupy the status of pleadings, the report having the relative status of a petition or complaint, and the exceptions having the relative status of an answer. [Johnson v. Central Trust Co.,159 Ind. 605, 65 N.E. 1028; Citizens' Trust Co. v. Wheeling Can Co.,199 Ind. 311, 157 N.E. 441; Oil Fields Corp. v. Meek,175 Ark. 318, 299 S.W. 29.] And the analogy continues in that the burden of proof rests on the receiver as upon a plaintiff. [Gutterson Gould v. Lebanon Iron Steel Co., 151 F. 72; Commonwealth ex rel. Carson v. Monongahela Valley Bank, 239 Pa. 254, 86 A. 719; In re Magner, 173 Iowa 299, 155 N.W. 317; 4 Bogert's Trusts and Trustees, sec. 971 (9).] At the trial below Taylor took the burden and went forward as does the ordinary plaintiff.

Hereinafter, where we use the term receiver, the reference is to Taylor, unless otherwise noted. Objectors contend: (1) That the receiver operated the Moon Motor Car Company plant contrary to the orders of the court, and paid out $47,047.13 in expenses for which sum he should not be allowed credit; (2) that the receiver needlessly paid $6938.49 to what is termed liquidating managers; (3) that he wrongfully paid $2373.57 to certain general creditors whose claims accrued prior to receivership, and paid one receiver creditor $1000 more than was owed; and (4) it is contended that the whole of the allowance ($15,000) to the receiver should be disallowed. The total which the objectors say should be disallowed is $72,359.19.

December 11, 1930, nine days after Taylor was made permanent receiver, he filed "an application for order to liquidate." The application stated that the Moon Motor Car Company "has on hand at the present time a large stock of raw materials, equipment and automobiles which are depreciating daily, and that, in the opinion of your receiver and his attorneys, it is for the best interest of the estate that said property be put in a salable condition and be sold." The prayer was for an order authorizing and directing the receiver "to employ appraisers, clerks, and necessary employes to put said property in a salable condition, to sell said property to the highest bidder at such times and places as in his opinion are most advantageous for the estate, to pay the necessary expenses incident to the sale of this property, and for such other powers of receivers in like cases." Upon the filing of the application to liquidate the court ordered that that the receiver "liquidate as prayed for in his application." However, he did not liquidate. Instead, he sold, when and where he could, cars and parts on hand, and manufactured or assembled and *Page 471 sold ten Ruxton cars (a car made by the Moon Motor Car Company) and nine chassis. In the final report the receiver asked and was allowed, among others, these credits:

Watchmen and office ............................. $36,992.62 Porters ........................................ 1,131.00 Firemen ........................................ 993.84 Light, power and gas ........................... 4,352.60 Telephone and telegraph ........................ 1,768.94 Coal ........................................... 1,174.29 Missouri District Telegraph Company (automatic burglary alarm system) ............ 2,303.71 Insurance and bonds ............................ 882.41 Accruals as shown by final report: Watchmen — pay roll less Mr. Crider's salary ... 7,018.16 Mr. Taylor, for insurance ...................... 485.06 Mr. Blair, for insurance ....................... 1,092.16 American Auto Insurance Co., compensation insurance ...................................... 230.33 Insurance Agency in 1931-1932 .................. 5,665.00 Union Electric Light Power Co. ............... 1,077.12 Laclede Gas Light Co. .......................... 94.45 Missouri District Telegraph, automatic burglary alarm system ................................. 449.71 ___________ $65,701.40

Objectors say that had the receiver liquidated as he asked for and as the court ordered, the above expenses, instead of being $65,701.40 would have been, reasonably estimated, as follows:

Watchmen — full salaries paid by Mr. Taylor to all watchmen until February 1, 1931, at which time handling of parts should have been completed .......... $ 3,665.38

Watchmen — two watchmen at $75 a month from February 1, 1931, to March 24, 1935 ................... 7,475.00

Fifty per cent of payments for insurance shown by final report ....................................... 4,177.48

Twenty-five per cent of payments for firemen, porters, telephone and telegraph, light, power, and gas, coal, Missouri District Telegraph Company for watchman service, shown by final report .......................................... 3,336.41 __________ $18,654.27

[2] The difference is $47,047.13. The order to liquidate implied, we think, that such should be done within a reasonable time, which objectors say would have been by April 1, 1931, and reckoning *Page 472 to that date they arrive at the above estimated expense, $18,654.27. The receiver proceeded somewhat as if the Moon Motor Car Company could and would be rehabilitated and put back on its feet as a going concern. And prior to July, 1931, the "receiver was optimistic" and said that the "creditors . . . would receive one hundred cents on the dollar," and that "a partial distribution could be expected in July, 1931." As matters finally washed out, creditors, whose claims amounted to $350,588.19, according to a report by the successor receiver filed December 11, 1935, got nothing.

In his final report, the receiver reported receipts totaling $100,804.90, and disbursements in the sum of $100,800.38. The receipts included $889.11, cash on hand November 15, 1930, when a receiver was appointed.

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Bluebook (online)
134 S.W.2d 102, 345 Mo. 465, 1939 Mo. LEXIS 552, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/naslund-v-moon-motor-car-co-mo-1939.