Rodgers v. Dodge

243 Mass. 295
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedDecember 18, 1922
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 243 Mass. 295 (Rodgers v. Dodge) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rodgers v. Dodge, 243 Mass. 295 (Mass. 1922).

Opinion

Braley, J.

The plaintiff, a minority stockholder of the American Toilet Goods Company, the defendant corporation, which although organized under the laws of the State of Maine has a usual place of business at Boston in this Commonwealth, alleges in behalf of himself and all other stockholders who may join, that on January 1, 1916, eighty shares of the unsubscribed and unissued cumulative preferred stock of the corporation was by vote of the board of directors unlawfully and fraudulently issued to the defendant Dodge. The relief asked is, that the vote be declared illegal and void, and the stock returned to the company [297]*297for cancellation, and that Dodge be ordered to account for all dividends which he has received. The case was referred to a master to whose report the plaintiff filed numerous exceptions which were overruled, and the report confirmed, from which decree, as well as from the final decree dismissing the bill, the plaintiff and the corporation appealed to this court.

It is substantially stated in the bill, of which our courts have jurisdiction, Hancock National Bank v. Ellis, 172 Mass. 39, and expressly found by the master, that under the Rev. Sts. of Maine (1903) c. 47, §§ 50, 87, in force when the vote was passed, “Any corporation may purchase mines, manufactories and other property necessary for its business, and the stock of any company or companies owning, mining, manufacturing or producing materials or other property necessary for its business, and issue stock to the amount of the value thereof in payment therefor, and may likewise issue stock for services rendered to such corporation and the stock so issued shall be full paid stock and not liable to any further call or payment thereon; and in the absence of actual fraud in the transaction, the judgment of the directors as to the value of the property purchased, or services rendered, shall be conclusive, . . . and no payment upon any subscription to or agreement for the capital stock of any corporation, shall be deemed a payment within the purview of this chapter, unless bona fide made in cash, or in some other matter or thing at a bona fide and fair valuation thereof.” The passing of the vote, the issuance of the stock, and its delivery are conceded in the answer. The stock had a total par value of “eight thousand dollars” for which payment is to be made in money or money’s worth as provided in the statute. The corporation was organized on March 23, 1914, for the purpose of acquiring and conducting the business of manufacturing and selling perfumery and toilet articles, which had been established by Willis H. Lowe under the trade name of the American Toilet Goods Company. And in May, 1914, Lowe conveyed the “business” to the corporation in consideration of the issue to him of all the common stock “amounting ... to seventy-five thousand dollars,” and of an agreement to assume all outstanding debts and liabilities incurred while the business stood in his name. The mercantile operations conducted by him between June, 1913, and May, 1914, had [298]*298been “principally financed” by the defendant Dodge, hereafter referred to as the defendant, under an agreement in writing dated July 22, 1913, whereby the defendant agreed to lend such sums of money as Lowe might from time to time require, the entire amount “not to exceed eight thousand dollars.” Interest at the rate of five per cent a month was to be paid, and all invoices of merchandise sold were to be assigned to the defendant as security until he had been fully reimbursed. The amount advanced before the transfer amounted to about “four thousand dollars,” and the vote of the directors on May 11, 1914, under which Lowe’s business was taken over and his indebtedness assumed, includes “a loan of $8,000 by George B. Dodge and interest thereon all as evidenced by certain written agreements, to secure the payment of which this corporation shall assign such or all of its book accounts and bills receivable as said Dodge shall from time to time request.” A suit in equity, begun January 30, 1914, by the Willis H. Lowe Company against Lowe was then pending in which damages and injunctive relief were sought on the ground of unfair trade competition. But “ a supplemental bill” joined the American Toilet Goods Company as a co-defendant, charging it with unlawful acts as alleged in the original bill. It became evident from the master’s draft report that, although not yet assessed, large damages would be awarded, and the defendants in that suit thereby “would be forced into bankruptcy.” It also appears that after the corporation was organized, Dodge indorsed its notes, the proceeds of which amounting to more than “six thousand dollars,” were used in carrying on the business. It further owed him “nearly all of the interest which had accrued under the agreement of Mr. Lowe, assumed by the corporation, to pay five per cent a month for his loans, very little of this interest having been paid.” The defendant under these circumstances demanded collateral security, and Lowe, who owned four hundred and twenty-six shares of the Willis H. Lowe Company, transferred that stock to the defendant as security for his liability on the notes of the corporation indorsed or to be indorsed, and for any overdue indebtedness when the stock was delivered.

The contention of the plaintiff that there was but one agreement which related thereto, dated July 22, 1913, in which the [299]*299rate of interest was twelve per cent yearly, cannot be supported on the facts shown by the report. The financial condition had become more acute, and the burden increasingly onerous on January 1, 1915, when the master determined that the Willis H. Lowe Company was entitled to damages against Lowe in the sum of “six thousand dollars,” and against the American Toilet Goods Company for “eighteen thousand dollars.” The corporate indebtedness to the defendant is found to have been at this time “ about eight thousand dollars,” and it was doubtful whether the collateral would be sufficient to satisfy it.

The master having stated at much length the several transactions between Lowe, the corporation, and the defendant through whose active efforts and services a settlement was effected which without any payment of the amounts awarded relieved the American Toilet Goods Company from all liability, makes the following findings: “By this compromise . . . Mr. Dodge surrendered for the benefit of the American Toilet Goods Company all collateral security received from Lowe and which he actually held for the protection of his own liability on . . . that corporation’s notes or for the corporation’s indebtedness to him; while Mr. Lowe consented to and authorized the surrender of all equitable rights which he had as a pledgor of the same collateral to Dodge.” “Dodge’s liability as indorser and the . . . interest due him and unpaid on February 25, 1915, as well as when he received the . . . shares as collateral, exceeded the fair sale value of the shares.” The report also, after reviewing the nature and extent of the defendant’s services, recites, that the defendant, “had rendered services which were of large material value,” and that his negotiation of the settlement was of great importance to the corporation, and his claim to compensation was never disputed. The defendant’s demands for a settlement were the subject of several meetings and prolonged discussion between him, his counsel, and the directors of the company.

The directors, at a meeting legally held, voted, “That whereas this Company is indebted to George B. Dodge to an amount greatly in excess of the eight thousand dollars . . .

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Bluebook (online)
243 Mass. 295, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rodgers-v-dodge-mass-1922.