St. Louis, Kennett & Southern Railroad v. Wear

36 S.W. 357, 135 Mo. 230, 1896 Mo. LEXIS 252
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedJune 30, 1896
StatusPublished
Cited by49 cases

This text of 36 S.W. 357 (St. Louis, Kennett & Southern Railroad v. Wear) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. Louis, Kennett & Southern Railroad v. Wear, 36 S.W. 357, 135 Mo. 230, 1896 Mo. LEXIS 252 (Mo. 1896).

Opinion

Barclay, J.

This action is original in the supreme court. The plaintiffs are the St. Louis, Ken nett & Southern railroad company, Louis Houck, and a number of other shareholders in said company.

The defendants are the learned circuit judge of the 22d circuit, and Messrs. Kerfoot and Eordyce, plaintiff and receiver in the proceeding before the judge.

The object of the action is to obtain a writ of prohibition against the enforcement of certain orders entered by the judge in vacation of the court. (Copies of those orders will be printed in the official report.)

The claim of plaintiffs here is that the orders are void, because made without jurisdiction, or, at least, that they are in excess of any jurisdiction which the circuit judge might properly exercise in the proceeding as it then stood.

In response to a preliminary rule in prohibition, defendants made separate returns, and plaintiffs replied thereto. It will not be necessary to state the terms of [252]*252those pleadings at any great length. The facts on which the result of the action in this court depends are few, and need not be obscured by elaboration of the minor features of the controversy. Those facts are also admitted by the pleadings.

The old St. Louis, Kennett and Southern railroad company (which we shall call the old Kennett road for a short name) was incorporated in 1890 to operate a railroad about 19 miles long between Campbell and Kennett in Dunklin county. A new company of the same title was formed in 1895 by an alleged consolidation of the old Kennett road and the Pemiscot railroad company, which had been organized in 1892 to extend the railroad from Kennett to Oaruthersville. The latter place is in Pemiscot county, on the Mississippi river. The validity of that consolidation is attacked in the petition filed in the case on the circuit. The ostensible public evidence of the consolidation is the certificate issued by the secretary of state of Missouri, proclaiming compliance with the statutory-requirements in regard to the union of such corporations. R. S. 1889, sec. 2567.

The property formerly owned by the two old companies was in custody of the new Kennett road which operated a line about 44 miles in length from Campbell to Oaruthersville (via Kennett) whenKerfoot’s petition was filed. For the purposes of the hearing in this court the version which that petition gives of the dealings between Kerfoot, Houck and the companies will be accepted as reliable in determining the propriety of the proceedings which followed. The statements of that petition need, not be repeated. They will be referred to as occasion requires.

An ex parte application for the appointment of a receiver was made to the circuit judge in vacation, on [253]*253the petition and representations additional. The substance of those representations is that, if such appointment were not made, the property of said railway companies would “be wasted pending the determination of the said litigation,” and the rights of the plaintiff “suffer irretrievable injury,” etc.

The application excused the want of notice thereof on the ground “that the giving of the said notice would tend to • defeat the object sought to be obtained by the said appointment, in this, to wit: that the said Louis Houck is in exclusive charge of all of the books showing the condition of the affairs of the said companies, and has persons in charge of the various offices and property of the road who. are entirely under'his control; that the said- Louis Houck would so handle and dispose of the books and property of the said companies that the order of appointment of a receiver, if made upon notice, would not avail, and would not be obeyed, the books and movable property of the said companies would be removed from the said counties in which said property is situate and would be removed from the state, so that the said processes of the said court would not be effectual to compel the delivery thereof to the receiver which might be appointed;” “that by the removal of the said books of the said companies, the object of the appointment of such receiver would be frustrated, and his performance of his said duties would be made difficult if not impossible; that all of the said defendants, directors in the said corporations, are under the control of the said defendant, Louis Houck;” and “that if the said defendants should have notice of this application for a receiver, they would resort to various tricks and devices to delay this proceeding, and, in the meanwhile, to further wreck said property; that the said defendants now are plotting to deprive this plaintiff of his property [254]*254interest in the St. Louis, Kennett & Southern Railroad Company by means of a fictitious and fraudulent assessment upon his said stock; and that the giving of the said notice would have the effect to destroy the benefits sought in the appointment of the said receiver. ’ ’

The circuit judge -granted the application, without notice to defendants, and made a vacation order, at Poplar Bluff, ‘in Butler county, the terms of which are set forth at large in the statement accompanying this opinion. The main features of the order are that Mr. Fordyce was appointed receiver of all the real and personal property of defendant companies; he was directed to immediately qualify by giving bond, etc., and then to take charge of all the real and personal property of said companies, “including the rolling stock, the depots, books and papers of the said companies;” to “manage the said railroad properties carefully,” and “continue to fulfill and perform all of the existing contracts of the said railroad companies until the further order of the court in the premises;” to keep accounts, make reports, etc. The order further directed defendants to deliver all said property to said receiver, and enjoined them from interfering with the possession of the latter. The defendants were further ordered to appear before the judge “at the next term of the circuit court in the county of Dunklin,” then and there to show cause why the receivership should not be continued, “pending a hearing upon the merits.”

This order was dated, April 11th, 1896. The next term of the Dunklin circuit court, as appointed by law, will begin on the second Monday (the 13th) of July, 1896. Sess. Laws, 1892, p. 13, sec. 50.

An ordinary summons to defendants to appear and answer the petition in the cause, at the opening of the July term of the circuit court of Dunklin county, was issued on the 10th of April, 1896.

[255]*255Mr. Eordyce, at the time of His appointment as receiver, was president of the St. Lonis Southwestern railroad company, popularly known as the “Cotton Belt” route. It is alleged in the petition for prohibition in this court that the latter is “a competitive railroad company, whose policy has ever been hostile to relator railroad company for the reason that it occupies the same territory for business,” and that the connection of the Kennett road with the Mississippi river secures to the people of Dunklin and Pemiscot counties advantages of competition' between that road and the “Cotton Belt.” There is no denial of these allegations in the return of any of the defendants to the preliminary rule in this court; and like statements as to the roads being in competition appear in the replies to the returns. The above recital shows the substanee of the charges on that point.

When Mr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
36 S.W. 357, 135 Mo. 230, 1896 Mo. LEXIS 252, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-louis-kennett-southern-railroad-v-wear-mo-1896.