New Amsterdam Casualty Co. v. Wood

57 So. 2d 141, 213 Miss. 499, 1952 Miss. LEXIS 390
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 3, 1952
DocketNo. 38197
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 57 So. 2d 141 (New Amsterdam Casualty Co. v. Wood) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
New Amsterdam Casualty Co. v. Wood, 57 So. 2d 141, 213 Miss. 499, 1952 Miss. LEXIS 390 (Mich. 1952).

Opinion

Alexander, J.

Bills were filed by six complainants against the receiver of the National Acceptance Corporation, Pañi A. Scliumpert and the New Amsterdam Casualty Company. Others were named for the purpose of impounding alleged assets of the corporation. The suits were filed pursuant to our Blue Sky Law, Code 1942, Secs. 5360 et seq., and their chief purpose was to enforce bonds issued by the said surety under that law. ■ The suits were consolidated for trial. Decree was rendered adjudicating the liabilities of the surety respectively to the several complainants, all of whom were found to have been induced through misrepresentations by Paul A. Schumpert, the president and manager of the corporation, to purchase varying amounts of common and preferred stock. Subrogation was decreed to the surety but only after all stockholders had been paid. There was no decree against the receiver. Only two issues remain upon this appeal. They are (1) the right of the surety to subrogation to the extent of the amounts paid for common and preferred stock; and (2) whether a bond executed by the surety covered the sale by misrepresentation, of common stock sold.

A chronology of the pertinent acts of the corporation, all of which were done in the year 1947, is as follows: The corporate charter was granted in January; on March 31, the corporation filed its application to sell preferred stock; on April 16 permit was issued by the Secretary of State to sell preferred stock “and none other”; on the same day the surety executed its bond which covered the sale by the corporation of “its stock”; November 13 the corporation made application for permit to sell common stock and on the same day the surety executed its bond covering the sale of its common stock; December 2, permit was issued to the corporation to sell its common stock. On November 16, 1948, the corporation was placed into receivership.

As to the preferred stock no issue remains except, as stated, the right of the surety to subrogation as against [502]*502the receiver of the corporation. With respect to the common stock, the chancellor found upon ample testimony that the sales of all such were induced by misrepresentation of Paul A. Schumpert. Our inquiry in this regard is therefore narrowed to the obligation of the surety as to sales of common stock sold between the execution of its first bond on April 16, allegedly covering only preferred stock, and the second bond executed November 13.

The first bond dated April 16, 1947, under Code 1942, Sections 5367, 5368, recites that it is executed pursuant to its application under date of March 31, 1947, “for a permit to sell its stock”. Its obligation was “that said National Acceptance Corporation will comply with the provisions of said Act known as Chapter 88, Laws of 1932, in the sale of stock of” said corporation. (Italics supplied.) Let it be repeated that the application for permit, referred to in the bond, was for the sale of “its securities as follows: $-■ — .Common Stock, $200,000.00 Preferred Stock”, and that the permit covered the sale of preferred stock “and none other.”

The foregoing details are important since the surety contends that purchasers of common stock were charged with notice and knowledge of the terms of the permit of April 16. The record shows, and the opinion and decree of the chancellor supports the view, that sales of common stock were induced by an exhibit of the bond to prospective purchasers. What then is the obligation of the surety? Is it measured by the terms of the bond whose recitals are broad enough to cover any stock of the corporation, especially in view of the necessity to construe it most strongly against the surety, or is its obligation limited to the recitals of the permit which are to be read into the bond? After prolonged consideration, we find that the bond, which is not by its terms limited to the sale of preferred stock, and which was the leverage used by the president and agent of the corporation to pry funds from the grasp of investors bemused by its reassuring re[503]*503citáis, covers the sale of any stock of the corporation. Regardless of any duty to obligate itself, the surety has done so. No mistake or inadvertence is asserted or sought as a basis for its reformation. It remains exigible according to its terms. McCrosky v. Riggs, 9 Smedes & M. 107, 17 Miss. 107; State v. Harney, 57 Miss 863. We hold, therefore, that the right of the purchasers of common stock to sue upon either or both bonds is established. 66 C.J.S., Notice, sec. 11(b); 23 Am. Jur., Fraud and Deceit, Sec. 163.

Appellant contends, however, that the stock so sold represented merely a sale by the owner of his own holdings. We need not dissect this contention in view of the disclosure that Paul A. Schumpert sold to the complainants stock issued directly by the corporation. The scheme employed was to induce a sale by representations that payments for the stock sold would go into the capital structure of the corporation. Upon payment, however, Schumpert would issue stock out of the corporation’s stock book and would thereupon covertly cancel certificates of his own, reissuing the new stock in lieu thereof. None of the proceeds from such sales progressed beyond the hands of Schumpert. He had, upon organizing the corporation, been issued 37,500 shares of common stock in payment of organizational expenses allegedly incurred by him and for other asserted considerations. The value of such stock was fixed at ten cents per share and was sold by its president at prices as high as ten dollars per share. He also purchased stock from other stockholders and resold it at substantial profits, using the subtle devices above described.

We do not, for the reasons just stated, examine whether the corporation would be equally liable for the sale and transfer by Schumpert of his own stock in the open market. In this connection, in view of the necessity for a remand of the cause, it is not out of place to call attention to Code 1942, Sec. 5361, which defines a dealer as ‘ ‘ every person or company, other than an agent, who shall, in [504]*504this State, engage either wholly or in part in the business of selling, offering for sale, negotiating for the sale of, otherwise dealing in any security issued by others, or of underwriting any issue of such securities, or offering them for sale to the public”; and an agent as “every person or company employed or appointed by an investment company or dealer, or any other person who shall, within this State, whether as an employee, or otherwise, for a compensation, sell, offer for sale, negotiate for the sale of, or take subscriptions for any security.” Section 5372 defines, for the purpose of registration and permit, who is a dealer, but includes also the following language: “The term ‘dealer’ shall not include an owner, nor issuer, of such securities so owned by him when such sale is not made in the course of continued and successive transactions of similar nature, nor one who, in a trust capacity created by law, lawfully sells any securities embraced within such trust.” See also 53 C.J.S., Licenses Sec. 74, p. 758.

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57 So. 2d 141, 213 Miss. 499, 1952 Miss. LEXIS 390, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/new-amsterdam-casualty-co-v-wood-miss-1952.