Temple Enterprises, Inc. v. Combs

100 P.2d 613, 164 Or. 133, 128 A.L.R. 856, 1940 Ore. LEXIS 80
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedApril 2, 1940
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 100 P.2d 613 (Temple Enterprises, Inc. v. Combs) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Temple Enterprises, Inc. v. Combs, 100 P.2d 613, 164 Or. 133, 128 A.L.R. 856, 1940 Ore. LEXIS 80 (Or. 1940).

Opinion

LUSK, J.

The circuit court made no findings of fact, but simply entered a decree dismissing the suit. It appears, however, from the abstract of record that the basis of the decree was the court’s ruling that the plaintiff corporation lacked capacity to enter into a lease or otherwise transact any business or to maintain the suit because of its failure to comply with one of the provisions of § 25-225, Oregon Code 1930. That section has to do with corporations issuing shares of capital stock without any nominal or par value, and reads in part as follows:

“In cases of original incorporation of any such corporation the articles shall also set forth the amount of capital to be paid in before the corporation shall begin business, which amount shall in no event be less than $1,000. No corporation authorized to issue shares of stock without par value in pursuance of the provisions of this act shall begin to carry on business or incur any indebtedness until one-half of the par value stock, if any, which the corporation is authorized to issue, shall have been subscribed, and the amount of capital with which it shall begin business as stated in pursuance [144]*144of this section shall have been fully paid up in cash or in property taken at its actual value.”

The articles of incorporation of the plaintiff fix its capital stock at 50 shares of common stock without nominal or par value, and the amount of capital to be paid in before it should begin business at $1,000. The circuit court held that the evidence failed to show that any part of the capital thus fixed had been paid up, and that this constituted a fatal defect in the plaintiff’s case.

There was evidence that Combs, Jr., had spent more than $500 in the business, and that on August 17,1937, Keller tendered to Combs, Jr., who was treasurer of the corporation, his check for $500. The circuit court thought that these facts failed to show a compliance with the statute. Whether that conclusion was right or not we need not determine, because we think that in any event the plaintiff was a corporation de jure, and that only the state can call it to account for its neglect to provide itself with the capital fixed by its articles of incorporation.

The prior decisions of this court make it abundantly clear that when one-half of the stock of a corporation formed under the laws of this state is subscribed and directors are elected, as provided in § 25-209, Oregon Code 1930, the corporation comes into full and complete existence, with power to sue and be sued, to contract, and to begin the prosecution of the business or enterprise for which it was organized. Goodale Lumber Co. v. Shaw, 41 Or. 544, 69 P. 546; Nickum v. Burckhardt, 30 Or. 464, 468, 47 P. 888, 48 P. 474, 60 Am. St. Rep. 822; Holladay v. Elliott, 8 Or. 84, 91; Coyote Gold and Silver Mining Company v. Ruble, 8 Or. 284, 293; Willamette Freighting Co. v. Stannus, 4 Or. 261. The [145]*145record here shows that these, as well as the other preliminary statutory steps were all taken by the incorporators and stockholders of the plaintiff corporation before it executed the agreements here sued upon; and the question, therefore, is what effect is to be given to the corporation’s neglect, — if it was so — to have its fixed capital paid up.

We take it to be the well-established rule that where corporate existence has been achieved, a statutory provision of this kind is construed as a condition subsequent, the failure to observe which cannot be called in question collaterally, but only by the state in a direct proceeding to forfeit the corporate charter. The difference between conditions precedent and conditions subsequent in this connection is thus explained in the leading case of Mokelumne Hill Canal & Mining Co. v. Woodbury, 14 Cal. 424, 427, 73 Am. Dec. 658:

“ * * * There is a broad and obvious distinction between such acts as are declared to be necessary steps in the process of incorporation, and such as are required of the individual seeking to become incorporated, but which are not made prerequisites to the assumption of corporate powers. In respect to the former, any material omission will be fatal to the existence of the corporation, and may be taken advantage of, collaterally, in any form in which the fact of incorporation can properly be called in question. In respect to the latter, the corporation is responsible only to the government and in a direct proceeding to forfeit its charter. The right of the plaintiff to be considered a corporation, and to exercise corporate powers, depends upon the fact of the performance of the particular acts named in the statute as essential to its. corporate existence.”

The case involved the construction of a statute which required a certificate in writing (articles of incorpora[146]*146tion) to be filed in the office of the county clerk, and a duplicate in the office of the secretary of state, and provided that “when the certificate shall be filed as aforesaid, the persons executing the same * * * shall be a body politic and corporate.” The incorporators had neglected to file the duplicate with the secretary of state, and it was contended that there was no corporation. The court held otherwise, saying:

“The intention of the Legislature clearly was, that so far as individuals are concerned, the corporation should acquire a valid legal existence upon the filing of the certificate. The filing of the duplicate is exclusively a matter between the corporation and the State. The rights and privileges conferred by the statute, vest in the corporation upon the filing of the certificate, and can be divested only by a direct proceeding for that purpose. ’ ’

In W. L. Wells Company v. Gastonia Company, 198 U. S. 177, 49 L. Ed. 1003, 25 S. Ct. 640, it appeared that the charter of the plaintiff corporation contained this provision:

“The capital stock of said corporation shall be $50,000, divided into shares of $500 each, and as soon as $10,000 of said stock is subscribed and paid for, said corporation shall have power to commence business.”

The plaintiff sued a foreign corporation in the federal court on a contract, and the defendant contended that, because $10,000 of the plaintiff’s stock had not been subscribed and paid for, it was not a corporation, and the federal court was, therefore, without jurisdiction. But the court held that the provision in question was a condition subsequent, saying:

“If the commencing of the business for which it was incorporated before a certain amount of capital stock was subscribed and paid for was in violation of the [147]*147company’s charter, that was a matter for which it conld be called to account by the state, and did not affect the existence in law of the company as a corporation. ”

To the like effect are: 1 Fletcher, Cyclopedia Corporations (Perm. Ed.) 551, § 167; 14 C. J.£ Corporations’ ’ 156; 18 C. J. S. “Corporations” 452, § 66; Clark on Corporations (2d Ed.) 55, § 26; 1 Morawetz on Private Corporations (2d Ed.) 31, § 31; Stevens on Corporations 104, § 23; 1 Thompson on Corporations (3d Ed.) 237, § 198; 1 Machen, Modern Law of Corporations, 160, § 177, 219, § 265; Quinn v. Woods, 134 Miss. 621, 99 So. 510; Hammond v. Straus, 53 Md. 1; Ryland v. Hollinger,

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Bluebook (online)
100 P.2d 613, 164 Or. 133, 128 A.L.R. 856, 1940 Ore. LEXIS 80, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/temple-enterprises-inc-v-combs-or-1940.