Peoples Finance & Thrift Co. v. Daugherty

141 P.2d 742, 61 Cal. App. 2d 11, 1943 Cal. App. LEXIS 599
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedOctober 15, 1943
DocketCiv. No. 3303
StatusPublished

This text of 141 P.2d 742 (Peoples Finance & Thrift Co. v. Daugherty) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Peoples Finance & Thrift Co. v. Daugherty, 141 P.2d 742, 61 Cal. App. 2d 11, 1943 Cal. App. LEXIS 599 (Cal. Ct. App. 1943).

Opinion

BARNARD, P. J.

The Peoples Finance and Thrift Company of San Diego was organized in 1923 under the Industrial Loan Act of this state (Stats. 1917, chap. 522; Deering’s Gen. Laws, 1937, Act 3603), as amended. Its capitalization was $150,000 and by 1941 it had outstanding investment certificates in the amount of $365,096,43,

On August 13, 1941, after auditing its bocks} the Commissioner of Corporations issued and served an order directing the corporation to make good within sixty days from the daté thereof a deficiency and impairment of its capital in the approximate amount of $125,000, directing the corporation to employ a disinterested certified public accountant to make an audit and to report after determining the exact extent of the impairment of capital, ordering the corporation to cease from certain practices in connection with the making of loans, and further ordering it to show cause, on a certain date, why said order should not be observed and made final. Such a further audit and report was made, followed by a hearing at which findings of fact were made, and on September 30, 1941, the commissioner issued an order making the order of August 13, 1941, final, but amending the same by stating that the amount of the impairment of capital was $143,014.72.

During the month of October, 1941, the corporation applied for a license as a personal property broker and attempted to amend its articles of incorporation by deleting all reference therein to the Industrial Loan Act, by reducing its stated capital from $150,000 to $60,000, and by changing its corporate powers. Nothing further seems to have been done in either of these matters or with respect to eliminating: the outstanding investment certificates which had been issuedi under the authority of the Industrial Loan Act.

On November 10, 1941, the commissioner prepared a written notice of tailing possession of the property and business [13]*13of the corporation pursuant to section 11 of the Industrial Loan Act, which notice stated that this was being done because the corporation had failed to make good the impairment of its capital within sixty days of the requisition and order served upon it. On the same day, the commissioner designated one of his deputies to assist him in liquidating the affairs of the corporation. When this deputy presented this notice and attempted to take possession, on the afternoon of November 12, 1941, he was informed that in the forenoon of that day the corporation had filed a petition in the Superior Court of San Diego County setting forth that it had elected to voluntarily wind up its affairs and dissolve pursuant to the provisions of section 400 of the Civil Code and asking for court supervision of such dissolution under the provisions of section 403 of that code. The deputy commissioner was then served with a copy of the court order assuming supervision over such liquidation.

On January 30, 1942, the Commissioner of Corporations filed a petition in the proceeding in the superior court alleging, in general, the facts above stated and asking the court to terminate the proceedings which had been instituted by the corporation and to permit the commissioner to take possession of the property and business of the corporation as provided in section 11 of the Industrial Loan Act. In its answer thereto the corporation alleged, among other things, that the impairment of its capital did not exceed $65,000, and that it was in a solvent condition, and denied that under the statutes the commissioner had the right or authority to take possession of its property and business or to liquidate the same. After a hearing the court found in favor of the commissioner and entered a judgment vacating its prior order, and authorizing the Commissioner of Corporations to proceed with the liquidation of the affairs of the corporation as provided in the Industrial Loan Act. A motion for a new trial was denied and the corporation has appealed from that order and from the judgment.

It appears without question that this corporation’s capital was seriously impaired and the main question presented is whether, under these circumstances, such a corporation has the right to dissolve voluntarily and liquidate its affairs. The appellant argues that it was solvent in the sense that it had [14]*14sufficient assets to pay all of its creditors, as distinguished from its shareholders, that the public is not interested so long as the corporation was discontinuing business, and that the same rule should be applied here as was applied in the case of Daugherty v. Superior Court, 56 Cal.App.2d 851 [133 P.2d 827]. In that case this court held that there was no inconsistency between the general power of supervision given to the Corporation Commissioner by the Industrial Loan Act and the power of supervision over voluntary dissolution given to the court by section 403 of the Civil Code, in cases where the corporation was solvent and had fully complied with all of the provisions of the loan act. We are here concerned not with the general power of supervision given to the commissioner by the Industrial Loan Act but with the more specific power and duty given him by section 11 of that act in a case where a corporation has allowed its capital to become impaired, or is failing to comply with the statutory or other requirements applicable to such a corporation. Section 11 of the Industrial Loan Act provides, among other things, that if the commissioner has reason to conclude that the capital of such a corporation is impaired he may by an order direct the corporation to make good the deficiency within sixty days of the date of such order, that he may also order the discontinuance of any unsafe or injurious practices, that such orders shall require the corporation to show cause why such orders should not be observed, and that such orders may be made final upon such a hearing and shall then immediately be complied with by the corporation. It is then provided that such a corporation shall have ten days after such order is made final in which to commence a suit to restrain enforcement of the order and that otherwise, upon failure of the corporation to comply with the order, the commissioner may take possession of the property and business of the corporation and retain such possession until the corporation resumes business or its affairs are finally liquidated. It is further provided that on taking possession the commissioner may proceed to liquidate the affairs of the corporation in the manner provided by the Bank Act.

The real question here is not as to any power of supervision in the court over the acts of the Commissioner of Corporations in liquidating such a corporation, but is as to whether the Commissioner of Corporations or the officers of such a [15]*15corporation shall have charge of the process of liquidation of such a corporation when its capital is impaired and it has failed to comply with the orders of the Corporation Commissioner. In effect, the appellant’s contention is that while section 11 of the Industrial Loan Act would apply when such a corporation desires to go on doing business, it has no application where the corporation, being solvent, elects to dissolve and wind up its affairs. The statute does not so provide.

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Related

Daugherty v. Superior Court
133 P.2d 827 (California Court of Appeal, 1943)

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Bluebook (online)
141 P.2d 742, 61 Cal. App. 2d 11, 1943 Cal. App. LEXIS 599, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/peoples-finance-thrift-co-v-daugherty-calctapp-1943.