People ex rel. Daniels v. District Court of City of Denver

33 Colo. 293
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedJanuary 15, 1905
DocketNo. 4795
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 33 Colo. 293 (People ex rel. Daniels v. District Court of City of Denver) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
People ex rel. Daniels v. District Court of City of Denver, 33 Colo. 293 (Colo. 1905).

Opinion

Per Curiam.

1. Prom the foregoing summary of the complaint it will be noted that the money judgment prayed for was on account of alleged frauds committed, and ultra vires acts done, by the individual defendants for which'their companies could not, under the averments, and, indeed, were not asked to, be held liable. The only object of the action and the only judgment prayed for against the corporations, were their dissolution and the winding up of their affairs. Neither an injunction nor a receivership was appropriate, under the allegations of the complaint, to the relief of a money judgment, and, indeed, no such contention is made. If they are appropriate or ancillary to any phase of the case made, it is to that part of the relief which, consists of a prayer for a dissolution of the corporations, and that is the claim made here by respondents. It fol[299]*299lows, then, that we are to consider the question of the trial court’s power in appointing the receiver as an ancillary remedy, as if this were merely an action against a going, solvent, private business corporation, instituted by a stockholder who is not its creditor, for the purpose of working a dissolution of his company, a forfeiture of its franchises and winding up of its affairs, because of mismanagement, fraud, and ultra vires acts of its controlling directors.

That the complaint is subject to some, if not all, of the grounds interposed by the demurrer, is too clear for argument; and were the case here upon a review from a final judgment in favor of the plaintiff, the judgment would be promptly set aside, not only because of the insufficiency of the complaint, but upon-the ground that, if all the alleged grounds for the appointment of the receiver were established by the evidence, the action of the court in making such appointment would be entirely without .warrant in-law or fact. But this is something we cannot con-' sider upon the present hearing. The only question that is before us upon this application, as we have so often decided, is whether the district court had jurisdiction of the subject-matter of the action, or if, having jurisdiction, it exceeded its lawful authority in appointing a receiver.

2. If it were conceded that it was competent for the district' court to hear and determine the action before it, it does not follow that such jurisdiction is so broad as to permit the court to render any particular judgment it saw fit to give, or, in rendering the same, to depart from the regular course of procedure prescribed by the law of the land for the class of cases to which the pending cause belongs. It is clearly contemplated by section 164 of our code, when the appointment of a receiver is asked for by- ' a party to a pending action, that his adversary should [300]*300have notice, and, if in court, the absolute right to file an answer to the petition therefor, putting in issue the matters therein set up, and evidence to determine the issues joined should be heard, before’ decision is made. There may be instances where no answer can be filed, or where proof may be dispensed with; but where the parties are in court demanding their rights the code should be strictly observed. Here, in immediate connection with the overruling of defendants’ demurrer to the complaint, which defendants had the legal right to interpose to ascertain the sufficiency of plaintiff’s right to any relief, the trial court, before defendants could possibly answer, and without affording them an opportunity even to aslc leave further to plead, appointed the receiver. There was no necessity for such extraordinary conduct, and the unseemly haste causes us to scrutinize carefully the acts complained of. We advert to this phase of the case principally to condemn the practice pursued below, as unwarranted, even in cases where the power to appoint a receiver is unquestioned. We might predicate our decision that the court acted in excess of its lawful powers in this material departure from the established procedure applicable to this case, but we prefer to rest it upon the broader ground that no authority was vested in the district court to appoint a receiver in the action before it, and to that proposition we address ourselves.

3. When the application for a rule to show cause was made, the respondents, upon notice, appeared and resisted its issuance. Their counsel then asserted the jurisdiction of the court below upon the authority granted by section 497, Mills’ Ann. Stats., which, in substance, provides that if any corporation shall do an act which subjects it to a forfeiture of its corporate powers, or shall allow any execution of a court' of record for a payment of [301]*301money, after demand made, to be returned “no property found,” or to remain unsatisfied for ten days after sneb demand, or shall dissolve or cease doing-business, leaving- debts unpaid, suits in equity may be brought against the corporation and all who are stockholders at the time, or who are liable in any way for the debts of the corporation, and courts of equity shall have full power, on good 'cause shown, to dissolve or close up the business of any corporation and to appoint a receiver therefor.-

We are of opinion, as already stated, that, under a fair construction of the complaint, the ultimate and only object of the action in the district court-, as against the corporation defendants, was their dissolution and a winding up of their affairs, because of frauds and acts ultra vires by their directors. As merely incidental thereto, there was a prayer for an injunction to restrain anticipated wrongs and a demand for the appointment of a receiver to.take possession of and preserve the property during the pendency of the litigation. It is the law of this state that courts of equity have no jurisdiction to appoint a receiver, except in an action pending in which the receiver is desired.- — Jones v. Bank of Leadville, 10 Colo. 464. It is also the rule in this state, as generally in this country, that in the absence of a permissive statute, courts of equity have no power to dissolve a going business corporation, and to that end appoint a receiver for the sequestration of the corporate property. It is clear that our statute, above quoted, in conferring upon a court of equity authority which it would not otherwise possess, to decree the dissolution of a corporation at the suit of an individual, and authorizing the taking charge of its property by a receiver for the purpose of closing up its affairs, merely gives a remedy in the nature of a creditor’s bill. Manifestly, it was not within the purview of [302]*302the statute that, at the suit of an individual stockholder who complained of frauds in the management, the court was given authority either to dissolve a corporation or to -appoint a receiver. The statute, in substance, was copied almost literally from Illinois, and the construction put.upon it there in repeated decisions is that the statute was intended merely to afford a remedy in the nature of a creditor’s bill.— Coquard v. Nat. Linseed Oil Co., 171 Ills. 480; Hunt v. LaGrand Roller Rink Co., 143 Ills. 118; Wheeler v. Pullman I. & S. Co., 143 Ills. 197.

The United States circuit court of appeals of the 8th circuit, in Republican Mt. Silver Mines v. Brown, 58 Fed.

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Bluebook (online)
33 Colo. 293, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/people-ex-rel-daniels-v-district-court-of-city-of-denver-colo-1905.