Rosenfeld v. Horwich

221 Ill. App. 304, 1921 Ill. App. LEXIS 47
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedJune 18, 1921
DocketGen. No. 25,681
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 221 Ill. App. 304 (Rosenfeld v. Horwich) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rosenfeld v. Horwich, 221 Ill. App. 304, 1921 Ill. App. LEXIS 47 (Ill. Ct. App. 1921).

Opinions

Mr. Justice ThomsoN

delivered tile opinion of the court.

This bill in equity was filed by the complainants, in behalf of themselves, and all other creditors, of the Ashland-Twelfth State Bank, organized under the Banking Act of Illinois, by which they sought to enforce the superadded constitutional liability of the stockholders of the hank. This hank seems to have heen organized as a feeder for the LaSalle Street Trust & Savings Bank. Mr. Charles B. Munday, one of those chiefly interested in the LaSalle Street Trust & Savings Bank, was the president of the Ashland-Twelfth State Bank. Munday and his associates applied to the State Auditor for permission to organize the said bank and, pursuant to that application, a license and permission to organize was granted on October 13, 1913. The appellant Dempster duly subscribed for five shares of stock. When the representative of the State Auditor was shown the list of subscribing stockholders, it showed Mr. Munday as subscribing for 1,505 shares out of the total of 2,000 shares. Objection was thereupon made by the Auditor’s representative that this was too great a proportion of the total amount of the stock to be held by Munday. Thereupon one Potts, who had been engaged by Munday to organize the bank and who was elected its vice-president, consulted with Munday and a new list of subscribing stockholders was made out, apparently in the presence of the Auditor’s representative, and in this list Munday was shown as subscribing for 110 shares and the balance was split up among a number of other people, and among them Dempster was shown as subscribing for 155 shares, the subscription price of which was $15,500. This list of subscribing stockholders was duly filed in the office of the State Auditor and a copy thereof was filed in the office of the Recorder of Deeds of Cook County, as required by the statute, on December 10, 1913. Dempster paid in full for the five shares of stock for which he had subscribed. Certificates of stock were made out and issued to the subscribing stockholders as' shown on the list filed with the State Auditor. On February 11 or 12,1914, Dempster went to the bank in response to a call from Potts advising him that the stock certificates were ready for delivery and requesting him to come and get his. Upon that occasion Potts delivered to Dempster certificate No. 44, for the 5 shares of stock for which he had subscribed, and Dempster receipted for it on the stub. Potts then showed Dempster certificate No. 45 for 150 shares which had also been issued to him and requested him to receipt for that also. Dempster inquired what that was for and Potts replied that it was “Mr. Munday’s stock, but he kind of wanted it done this way, — issued in your name and to be trans-fered immediately to him.’5 On direct examination, Dempster testified, “I declined at first, but I eventually signed it, and also the stub for the certificate.” That is, Dempster receipted for that certificate on the stub in the stock certificate book and he also indorsed the certificate in blank and left it with Potts for transfer, as indicated by the latter. On cross-examination, Dempster testified that he had subscribed for no stock other than the five shares; that he knew nothing of the 150 shares certificate until he had his talk with Potts, above referred to; that he “declined at first to receipt for or endorse the certificate, when he explained to me that he would like to have it done, so it was done at his instigation, and I said, ‘Very well, I will do it.’ ” Later, in his cross-examination, he was asked, “What did Mr. Potts tell you was his reason for having you sign the stock certificate?” and he answered, “To accommodate Mr. Munday.” He was then asked, “And you did that to accommodate Mr. Munday?” and he answered, “I did, yes; but rather unwillingly.” He further testified that he later telephoned Potts once or twice to see if the stock in question had been .transíerred to Munday and that Potts said that he would have it done in a short time and still later he wrote a note and that the latter replied that the stock had been transferred. This stock was transferred to Munday on March 10, 1914. The bank failed in June, 1914, and on a bill later filed by tbe State Auditor, the bank was dissolved and a receiver was appointed to take charge of all tbe assets of tbe bank and tbe receiver was directed to convert tbe assets into money and to distribute tbe same among tbe creditors of tbe bank as they might be made to appear, tbe balance remaining, if any, to be distributed among tbe persons found to be stockholders of tbe bank at tbe time of its dissolution, according to their respective holdings. Tbe bill involved in tbe case at bar was then filed. No question is raised on this appeal of tbe superadded constitutional liability of tbe stockholders of thd bank, and tbe appellant Dempster did not contest such a liability on Ms part, so far as tbe 5 shares of stock for which be subscribed were concerned, but be did contest such liability so far as tbe 150 shares of stock, to which we have referred, were concerned, not on the ground that the debts of the bank remaining unpaid had not accrued while he held the stock in question, but on the .ground that he was never the holder of that stock so as to be subject to the constitutional provision as to a stockholder’s superadded liability. The cause was duly referred to a master and, after a hearing, the master held that Dempster was tbe bolder of tbe stock in question up to tbe time it was transferred to Munday on March 10, 1914. Exceptions to the master’s report were overruled by tbe court and a decree was entered in which tbe court found, among other things, that when the Auditor’s representative was shown a list of subscribers to the stock, which showed 1,505 shares in the name of Munday, he stated that 1,505 shares was too much stock in the name of one man and suggested that those shares be divided up; that in order to procure the issuance of a charter to the bank, 150 shares of the stock, being part of the 1,505 shares subscribed for by Munday, were issued on December 12, 1913, by Potts, at the direction of Munday, in the name of Charles W. Dempster as certificate No. 45; that Dempster had previously subscribed for 5 shares, which were issued on December 12, 1913; that in the list of stockholders filed in the office of the Auditor and in the Recorder’s - office, Dempster was certified by the officers of the bank to be the owner and holder of 155 shares of the stock; that on February 12, 1914, Dempster adopted and ratified the issuance of 150 shares of stock to him, represented by certificate No. 45, and acquiesced in and assented to the original issue of said 150 shares to him; that the bank was located in a building owned by Dempster’s father; that on the books of the bank and in the records on file in the office of the Recorder of Deeds and in the office of the Auditor of Public Accounts, he was held out and represented to be the owner of 155 shares of stock from the date of organization to March 10, 1914, and is liable to the creditors of said bank as the holder of 155 shares and the appellant was decreed to pay the appellees $15,500. To reverse this decree the appellant Dempster has perfected this appeal.

Section 6 of article XI of our State Constitution provides that “Every stockholder in a banking corporation or institution shall be individually responsible and liable to its creditors, over and above the amount of stock by him or her held, to an amount equal to his or her respective shares so held, for all its liabilities accruing while he or she remains such stockholder.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
221 Ill. App. 304, 1921 Ill. App. LEXIS 47, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rosenfeld-v-horwich-illappct-1921.