Ogden v. Culpepper

474 So. 2d 1346
CourtLouisiana Court of Appeal
DecidedAugust 21, 1985
Docket17100-CA
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 474 So. 2d 1346 (Ogden v. Culpepper) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Louisiana Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Ogden v. Culpepper, 474 So. 2d 1346 (La. Ct. App. 1985).

Opinion

474 So.2d 1346 (1985)

Debbie Speights OGDEN, et al., Plaintiffs-Appellants,
v.
Billy S. CULPEPPER, et al., Defendants-Appellees.

No. 17100-CA.

Court of Appeal of Louisiana, Second Circuit.

August 21, 1985.

*1347 Bodenheimer, Jones, Klotz & Simmons by J.W. Jones, Shreveport, for plaintiffs-appellants.

Francis M. Gowen, Jr., Shreveport, for defendants-appellees.

Before HALL, SEXTON and NORRIS, JJ.

HALL, Judge.

Debbie Speights Ogden and several other shareholders of Action Finance Co., Inc. are appealing the trial court's decision in a quo warranto action holding that appellees, Billy Culpepper and Robert Lohnes, legally occupied positions on the board of directors of Action Finance Co., Inc.

The predecessor of Action Finance Co., Inc. (Action) was Action Finance Corporation. All of the stock of Action Finance Corporation was owned by Delbert Speights who was also president of the corporation and a member of the board of directors. The other officers and directors of the predecessor corporation were R.K. Talley and Billy Culpepper. It was Speights' desire to retire from the business, and organization of the new corporation was initially intended to be a means to that end. Speights planned to turn the business over to Talley and Culpepper by creating a new corporation in which Speights would own no stock.

Speights presided over an organizational meeting of the board of directors for the new corporation that was held on September 30, 1976. At that meeting it was decided that Talley would be president and treasurer of the new corporation and that Culpepper would be the new corporation's vice-president and secretary. Although Speights presided over this meeting "by common consent," Speights was not a director of the new corporation as evidenced by the initial report filed with the Secretary of State on October 6, 1976 in which only Talley and Culpepper were named as directors.

While Speights was not a director of Action, and initially planned to get out of the business altogether, he and members of *1348 his family ended up with a substantial amount of the new corporation's stock when Talley and Culpepper were unable to either purchase for themselves or to sell to others all the stock authorized for issuance. Talley and Culpepper purchased 3,000 shares each of the 11,000 shares originally issued and sold 475 more shares for a total of 6,475 shares. The remaining 4,525 shares were purchased by Delbert Speights and members of his family. Although Speights owns no shares in his own name, 3,850 of the 4,525 shares controlled by Speights and his family are owned by the Speights Investment Corporation which essentially is the old Action Finance Corporation owned by Speights as the sole shareholder. Aside from being a stockholder, Speights was also instrumental in securing a line of credit for Action with First National Bank of Shreveport, and kept a close watch over the new corporation's business.

Robert Lohnes went to work for the old corporation four months before the formation of the new corporation. He left his job as a collection manager for Shreve Auto Finance, a company for whom he had worked for seven years, after being approached by Talley. At first Lohnes was neither an officer nor a director of the new corporation, and until October 1978 worked solely as a manager for the collection department of the old and then the new corporation.

R.K. Talley resigned as an officer and director of Action in October 1978, and sold his 3,000 shares back to the company at a loss. Prior to Talley's resignation, Action had not been doing well financially. Talley originally purchased his stock at $10.00 a share, but sold it for $1.67 per share. Shortly after Talley's resignation, Lohnes was called into an office by Speights and Culpepper and told that he was being made secretary of Action. He was also given a pay raise at that time.

In September 1979, approximately a year after Lohnes was promoted, 1,650 shares of stock were issued to Lohnes. These shares represented part of the treasury stock created when Talley sold his shares back to the corporation. The 1,650 shares initially were issued on credit, but were eventually paid for by Lohnes out of bonuses he received from the corporation. He paid $1.67 per share for the stock—the same price for which the shares had been bought from Talley. No notice was sent to the shareholders prior to the issuing of the stock.

In June 1984, a stockholders meeting was called at which Culpepper and Lohnes voted their stock to elect themselves directors of Action. All shareholders were present or represented. While the stock held by Speights and his family members was voted in opposition, that stock, being a minority of the stock in the corporation, was insufficient to block the election of Culpepper and Lohnes.

In July 1984, a suit in quo warranto was brought by those Action shareholders who are now appellants, challenging Culpepper and Lohnes as directors of Action. Delbert Speights and Speights Investment Corporation did not join as parties plaintiffs in that action. Culpepper and Lohnes then brought their own quo warranto action challenging Delbert Speights and his wife, Ruth Speights, as directors. The Speights claimed membership on the board by virtue of a special meeting of the shareholders allegedly held in October 1978 shortly after the resignation of Talley.

The trial court found that any action taken by the stockholders at the meeting of October 1978, if that meeting ever occurred, was invalid since proper notice to the shareholders was never sent. The court further found that the only director of Action in 1979 when Lohnes was issued his stock was Culpepper, that Delbert Speights was fully aware of the issuance of stock to Lohnes, that Culpepper as the sole director was entitled to fix a price for the treasury stock sold to Lohnes, and that the stockholders meeting in June 1984 was a validly called and noticed meeting. Based upon the preceding findings, the trial court held that Lohnes' stock was validly issued and that Lohnes was properly elected to the board of directors along with Culpepper. On the other hand, Ruth and Delbert *1349 Speights were held not to be directors of Action.

A final issue considered by the trial court was the effect of certain stock sale restrictions found in the corporation's articles of incorporation. These restrictions essentially state that the owner of corporation stock must notify the secretary of the corporation in writing of the owner's desire to sell, the proposed sale price, and the name of the proposed purchaser. The secretary in turn would notify the corporation's shareholders to give any of them the opportunity to buy the stock at the proposed price. Although these restrictions appeared in the articles of incorporation, no restrictions nor notice of restrictions appeared on the stock certificates. The trial court noted that the law is clear that for a stock restriction to have effect the restriction or some summary at least sufficient to give notice to the purchaser must be on the certificate. The court found that no restrictions appeared on the stock certificate issued to Lohnes, and that the evidence clearly indicated that despite being secretary of the corporation, Lohnes had no knowledge of any stock restrictions. Accordingly, the sale of the stock to Lohnes was not found invalid because of the restrictions.

The appellants in this case chose not to appeal that portion of the trial court's judgment holding that Ruth and Delbert Speights were not members of the board of directors; that portion of the judgment is now final.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Buffone v. Mangano
116 So. 3d 922 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2013)
Opinion Number
Louisiana Attorney General Reports, 2010
Service Steel v. Guinn's Trailer Sales
850 So. 2d 902 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2003)
Hotard v. Diabetes Self Management Center, Inc.
838 So. 2d 94 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 2003)
Foster v. Blackwell
747 So. 2d 1203 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1999)
Thornton ex rel. Laneco Construction Systems, Inc. v. Lanehart
723 So. 2d 1118 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1998)
THORNTON EX REL. LANECO CONST. v. Lanehart
723 So. 2d 1118 (Louisiana Court of Appeal, 1998)
Brumfield v. Horn
547 So. 2d 415 (Supreme Court of Alabama, 1989)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
474 So. 2d 1346, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/ogden-v-culpepper-lactapp-1985.