Rayado Colonization Co. v. Rieke

163 P. 292, 62 Colo. 447, 1917 Colo. LEXIS 242
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedFebruary 5, 1917
DocketNo. 8655
StatusPublished

This text of 163 P. 292 (Rayado Colonization Co. v. Rieke) 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
Rayado Colonization Co. v. Rieke, 163 P. 292, 62 Colo. 447, 1917 Colo. LEXIS 242 (Colo. 1917).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Scott

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an action by the defendants in error for equitable relief as against the plaintiffs in error.

The complaint sets up the several judgments of defendants in error, against the plaintiff in error, the Hag-adorn Investment Company, including that of Henry J. Rieke et al. reviewed by this court in the case of Hagadorn Company v. Rieke, 60 Colo. 555.

The remaining judgments against the Hagadorn Company grew out of similar transactions, and under a like state of facts as considered in that case. These were fraudulent land sales by that company. The conduct of the company in the transactions was found by this court in the reported case to be:

“The defendant company, acting through its authorized agents and representatives in making these contracts of sale, carried out a fixed, definite plan of wilful fraud, misrepresentation and deceit, upon which the plaintiff acted and by means of which alone he was in[449]*449duced to act. In short, the transaction was nothing more or less than a plain steal, skillfully inaugurated and artfully consummated through a subtle system of cunning and deception, by which a fraud so bold and daring in its conception was perpetuated that it shocks every moral sense. This conclusion is supported not only by a preponderance of the testimony, but by testimony of a most convincing and satisfactory character. Indeed, it is so established beyond all reasonable doubt. ’ ’

The relief asked in the present action was for a judgment against the defendants and each of them in the total sum of $51,914.00; the appointment of a receiver for the two corporation defendants; that the said corporations, their officers and agents, be restrained from disposing of any of the corporate assets; for an order commanding restitution by the defendant, The Rayado' Company, and the individual defendants, to the Hagadorn Company, of any and all property of said company alleged to have been wrongfully and fraudulently converted by them, and for body judgments against each of the individual defendants.

The trial court made findings of fact, among which are the following:

“That judgments were duly rendered by the District Court of Conejos County, Colorado, against the defendant, The Hagadorn Investment Company, in favor of the plaintiff and intervenors in the sum and amounts, respectively, as follows, to-wit:

(a) That on December 5th, 1911, judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff, H. J. Rieke, in the principal sum of thirty-six thousand and fifty dollars ($36,050.00), together with costs in the amount of one hundred and sixty-four dollars and twenty-eight cents ($164.28).

[450]*450(b) That on December 5th, 1911, judgment was rendered in favor of the intervenor William Bieke, in the principal snm of twelve thousand eight hundred dollars ($12,800.00) and costs in the amount of thirty-nine dollars and twenty-three cents ($39.23).

(c) That, on March 13th, 1911, judgment was rendered in favor of the intervenor Ben B. Sinn, in the principal sum of nine thousand and fourteen dollars ($9,014.00) and the costs in the sum of forty-five dollars and twenty-eight cents ($45.28).

(d) That on March 13th, 1911, judgment was rendered in favor of intervenor Edward J. Sinn, in the sum of eight thousand eight hundred dollars ($8,800.00), together with costs in the sum of twenty-two dollars and ninety-five cents ($22.95).

(e) That on March 13th, 1911, judgment was rendered in favor of intervenor John L. Jones, in the sum of eight thousand and eight hundred dollars ($8,800.00), together with costs in the sum of twenty-four dollars and forty-five cents ($24.45).

That the allegations of the complaint and the petition of intervention are sustained; that both the said defendant companies, the said The Hagadorn Investment Company and the said The Bayado Colonization Company, were dummy companies managed as the private affairs of the three defendants, A. G. Hagadorn, F. J. Hagadorn and J. D. Hagadorn; that the said A. G. Hagadorn is the father of the defendants, F. J. Hagadorn and J. D. Hagadorn; that the Bayado Colonization Company is but a creature of the defendants, The Hagadorn Investment Company, A. G. Hagadorn, F. J. Hagadorn and J. D. Hagadorn, and was promoted, organized, and financed with the funds of the said The Hagadorn Investment Company by and through the acts of the said defendants, A. G. Hagadorn, F. J. Hagadorn and J. D. [451]*451Hagadorn, who constituted the entire board of directors, and exercised absolute control and management of both the said corporations when the plaintiff’s and intervenor’s rights accrued against both said companies.

That the defendants, A. Gr. Hagadorn, F. J. Hagadorn and- J. D. Hagadorn conspired together to declare false and fictitious dividends, and withdraw valuable securities and substituted therefor worthless securities, and to prefer themselves as creditors of The Hagadorn Investment Company, and that they, and the defendant The Rayado Colonization Company, conspired together to take from the said The Hagadorn Investment Company its assets, and to conceal the same from the plaintiff and said intervenors, so as to hinder, delay and' defraud the plaintiff and the intervenors herein, and that said defendants accomplished the purpose of said conspiracies.

That the defendant The Hagadorn Investment Company by and through the acts of the defendants, A. Gr. Hagadorn, F. J. Hagadorn and J. D. Hagadorn, constituting its Board of Directors, and practically all its stockholders, on or about December 1st, 1910, declared, and on or about March 24th, 1911, distributed a two hundred per cent (200 per cent) dividend in the total sum of forty-nine thousand, nine hundred and eighty dollars ($49,980.00) and that of said dividend, A. G. Hagadorn received assets of the value of twenty thousand, six hundred dollars ($20,600.00) and the defendant J. D. Hagadorn received of the assets twenty-two thousand dollars ($22,000.00) and the defendant F. J. Hagadorn received assets of the value of two thousand dollars ($2,000.00).

That subsequent to the declaration and distribution of said dividend, as mentioned in finding 4 above, and on March 25th, 1911, the defendant, A. G. Hagadorn, converted, and was suffered and aided by his co-directors, [452]*452the said J. D. Hagadorn and F. J. Hagadorn, to convert, and with their consent did convert to his own nse, the following additional assets of the said The Hagadorn Investment Company and in the following manner:

(a) A note of the defendant, The Rayado Colonization Company, payable to the defendant The Hagadorn Investment Company in the principal snm and of a value of eight thousand, two hundred and forty-three dollars and seventy-one cents ($8,243.71), which note was taken by A. G. Hagadorn, in exchange for a note of one J. M. Webber for the sum of eight thousand dollars ($8,000.00); that the difference in the face value of the said notes was charged off to “unearned profits” of the company; that said Webber note was worthless and of no value whatever.

(b) That on a balance of indebtedness claimed to be due him the said A. G.

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Related

Hagadorn Investment Co. v. Rieke
155 P. 381 (Supreme Court of Colorado, 1916)

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Bluebook (online)
163 P. 292, 62 Colo. 447, 1917 Colo. LEXIS 242, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rayado-colonization-co-v-rieke-colo-1917.