Tennessee Cotton Growers Ass'n v. Hanson

2 Tenn. App. 118, 1926 Tenn. App. LEXIS 16
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJanuary 15, 1926
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 2 Tenn. App. 118 (Tennessee Cotton Growers Ass'n v. Hanson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Tennessee Cotton Growers Ass'n v. Hanson, 2 Tenn. App. 118, 1926 Tenn. App. LEXIS 16 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

SENTER, J.

Appellant, Tennessee Cotton Growers Association, a non-profit bearing corporation, organized under chapter 100 of the Acts of 1923, known as the Co-operative Marketing Act, filed its original bill in this cause against C. C. Hanson, an alleged member of complainant association, to recover from the defendant for the alleged breach of the contract, in the form of the “organization agreement and the marketing agreement” signed by the defendant. The bill also seeks an injunction, enjoining and restraining the defendant from selling and disposing of cotton grown by the defendant or his tenants for the years 1924, 1925, 1926 and 1927.

The material allegations in the bill important to be noticed at this time are as follows. In order to form a co-operative marketing association in Tennessee, and to remedy certain evils existing in marketing conditions, the organizers of defendant corporation formed an organization committee; this organization committee, as a preliminary step to the organization of the association, prepared and had circulated printed forms for the signatures of members, and organization and marketing agreement; that on contemplation of the proposed incorporation of the organization, the defendant C. C. Hanson, together with numerous other persons, signed, executed and delivered to the organization committee the association agreement; by said agreement so signed by defendant, and other growers of cotton, they, among other things applied for membership in the proposed association; that the organizers of said organization, and the organization committee,' after procuring the requisite number of signers prior to April 15, 1923, the date fixed in the organization agreement, proceeded to apply *120 for a charter of incorporation under chapter 1001 of the Public Acts of 1923, known as the “Co-operative Marketing Act.”

The bill further alleges that after the organization had been perfected, .and a charter duly granted, notices were sent by mail to all the signers of the organization agreement, including the defendant; that defendant was duly notified by mail that his application for membership in the association had been duly accepted and that he had been elected a member of the association, in accordance with, and pursuant to the agreement previously signed by him.

It is further alleged that the defendant breached his contract and agreement with the association by failing and refusing to deliver the cotton grown by him, or by his tenants for the year 1923, and that he failed and refused to deliver to the association cotton grown by him or his tenants for the year 1923. The bill further alleged that complainant was entitled to recover from the defendant on account of the breach of the contract this sum stipulated in the contract as liquidated damages, which was 5c per lib. for the cotton grown for the year 1923, together with the fees, expenses, etc. as provided in the marketing agreement and organization agreement signed by the defendant. The bill also alleged that complainant is entitled to writs of injunction, enjoining and restraining the defendant from selling or marketing his cotton grown for the years covered by the contract, other than through the association.

The defendant demurred to the original bill setting up four grounds for demurrer. The demurrer was overruled by the Chancellor, whereupon the defendant answered the bill. The answer admits that complainant applied for a charter under the provisions of chapter 100 of the Acts of 1923. It admits that many cotton growers undertook to form the association for the co-operative marketing of the cotton of the grower members. It admits that the defendant signed the “Organization Agreement” and the “Marketing Agreement” filed as Exhibit “A” to the bill.

The defendant denies that the complainant is entitled to the relief sought in the bill. He denies that he has violated any agreement made by him; and denies that he is bound by the signed agreement, Exhibit “A” to the bill. He denies that the corporation was formed in the way and manner as represented to him it would be formed.

At the hearing of the cause the Chancellor sustained the bill and decreed a judgment against the defendant for the amount of penalty provided in the contract, which was 5c per lib. on the cotton raised by the defendant for the year 1923, also certain costs *121 and attorneys fees. The decree of the Chancellor made permanent the temporary writ of injunction.

Prom the decree of the Chancellor the defendant has appealed to this court, and has assigned numerous errors.

The first, second, third and sixth assignments of error present the question that the court erred in holding that the defendant-breached his contract, because, complainant was never organized as a corporation, never had any legal existence, was never a iegal entity, and because it was one of the terms and conditions of the' contract that complainant corporation should be legally organized and should become a legal corporation and a legal entity, and that the defendaul was never notified that his application for membership was accepted, and that the corporation did not have power to make the contract sued on only in the event it was authorized to. do so by its by-laws and that no by-laws had been properly adopted.

The fourth assignment of error is directed to the action of the court in granting a temporary injunction and in making the temporary injunction perpetual. The fifth assignment of error complains of the action of the court in holding that the complainant is entitled to have specific performance of the contract by the defendant.

The facts disclosed by the record may be briefly summarized as follows. A group of individuals, composing an Organization Committee in March, 1923, before applying for a charter of incorporation, began taking the preliminary steps looking to the organization of a Co-operative Marketing Association to be composed of cotton growers. To this end it appears that these individuals had prepared a standard form of “organization agreement” and a standard form of “marketing agreement,” and circulated these forms among cotton growers, with the view of getting a sufficient number of subscribers of signers to the organization agreement and the marketing agreement to justify an organization to be incorporated under the general Co-operative Marketing Act.

It was one of the stipulations or conditions, that unless as many growers who in the aggregate had grown and marketed as much as 60,000 bales of cotton for the year 1922 signed the organization agreement; by April 15, 1923, that the signers would not be bound or obligated by their agreement to become members of the association, but in the event signers to the number who had for the year 1922 marketed in the aggregate 60,000 bales of cotton did sign the organization agreement and the marketing agreement, to become members of the proposed organization by April 15, 1923, the signers would be bound.

The defendant signed the organization agreement and the marketing agreement on March 8, 1923. These agreements were on *122

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Related

Rogers v. Roop
92 S.W.2d 423 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1935)
Dawkins v. Koch
12 Tenn. App. 220 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1930)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2 Tenn. App. 118, 1926 Tenn. App. LEXIS 16, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tennessee-cotton-growers-assn-v-hanson-tennctapp-1926.