Tipton v. Railway Postal Clerks' Inv. Ass'n

173 S.W. 562, 1914 Tex. App. LEXIS 1563
Court of Appeals of Texas·Decided December 12, 1914·No. No. 8149.·Published·Cited by 6 cases

Opinion

BUCK, J.

Appellants Eugene Tipton and eight others filed this suit in the district court of Tarrant county against the Railway Postal Clerks’ Investment Association and the Trust Company of the South, both alleged to be domiciled in Georgia, hereafter for brevity styled the “Georgia corporation” and the “trust company,” and against the Railway Postal Clerks’ Investment Association of Texas, hereafter called the “Texas corporation,” and against the individuals William Seltzer, J. S. Wallace, John Miller, and ■E. D. Rutledge. Plaintiffs in their petition alleged: That they were, and had been for many years, postal clerks in the employ of the United States. That about the year 1905 they become stockholders in the Georgia corporation and had subscribed for and had issued to them shares of stock at the par value of $100, aggregating 66 shares. That said Georgia corporation was originally organized by and controlled by postal clerks and had for its main purpose the lending of money at reasonable rates to postal clerks without collateral security, and with a quasi insurance feature attached to said loans, in that the notes evidencing the loans provided that they should become void, both as to the principal and to the sureties, if the maker should die before their maturity. That the corporation was capitalized for $225,000, and for many years did a safe and prosperous business and paid regular dividends upon its stock. That while the business of the corporation was conducted at Atlanta, Ga., its business began to grow and extend over the United States and particularly in Texas. That, in order to handle the Texas business properly and to facilitate and increase the same, it became essential to have some character of local *564 agent or officer in Texas, and preferably in Ft. Worth, on account of that city being division headquarters of the railway mail service, and, consequently, the place of residence of many postal clerks. To accomplish this purpose and to avoid the payment of taxes and the restrictions and obligations placed by the laws of Texas upon foreign corporations operating within her borders, the Georgia corporation, without the knowledge or consent of appellants, organized, in 1911, a “dummy” or subsidiary corporation known as the “Railway Postal Clerks’ Investment Association of Texas,” incorporated under the laws of Texas with a $10,000 capital. That the $10,-000 paid in when said Texas corporation was organized was furnished by the Georgia corporation. That William Seltzer, president of the .Georgia corporation, also became president of the Texas corporation, and that the two remaining officers and stockholders of the Texas corporation, to wit, Rutledge and Miller, were each directors in the Georgia corporation and continued so to be. That no semblance of corporate existence, save the name, was maintained by the Texas corporation. That it held no meetings of its directors or stockholders. That it was solely controlled and dominated by the Georgia corporation. That the Georgia corporation furnished all of the money with which it operated its loan business. That all the moneys collected by the Texas corporation were regularly forwarded to the Georgia, corporation semimonthly, together with full reports of its business, receipts, expenditures, etc. That said Rutledge was the manager of said Texas corporation, appointed by the board of directors of the Georgia corporation, and working for said latter corporation at a salary of $200 per month. That the policy of making or curtailing loans, and all the policies for said Texas corporation, were dictated by said Georgia corporation. In short, that the Texas corporation was a corporation in name only, and was in reality the Georgia corporation operating in Texas through a local agency without a permit to do business in this state. It was further alleged that the defendant Seltzer, while president of the Georgia corporation, caused to be organized in Georgia another corporation known as the American Bakers’ Corporation of -Atlanta, Ga.; that said Bakers’ Corporation issued a large amount of watered and worthless bonds; and that said Georgia corporation, without the consent of any of its stockholders, but acting through said Seltzer, its president, and said Rutledge and Miller, in conjunction with its other officers, bought $200,000 worth of said bonds at the par value, paying cash therefor out of the treasury of the Georgia corporation, thereby draining the treasury of the Georgia corporation of its working capital; that shortly thereafter said Georgia corporation and said Texas corporation stopped making loans; that shortly after this transaction the Georgia corporation, acting through its president and board of directors, and without plaintiffs’ knowledge or consent, sold a large part of its assets and capital, to wit, about $46,000 worth of promissory notes evidencing its loans as aforesaid to the vice president of said Georgia corporation, W. R. Ryan, and at the same time, without the knowledge or consent of plaintiffs, the said Georgia corporation entered into an agreement with said Ryan that said corporation would cease to transact any of its loan business east of the Mississippi river in order that said Ryan might operate said business in this territory himself, said last-named acts occurring some time in the fall of 1912, but alleged not to have been discovered by plaintiffs until February, 1913. It is further alleged that, by reason of the aforesaid acts of said Georgia corporation, it had parted with such a considerable amount of its capital and assets and had so restricted its business territory as 'to amount to a practical dissolution of said corporation and to a breach of appellants’ contract with said corporation as subscribers thereto, and was in fact and effect a conversion of plaintiffs’ interests in said corporation, which rendered said corporation liable to plaintiffs for the value of their stock at said time.

They further allege that on or about February 8, 1913, without the consent of plaintiffs, the Georgia corporation consolidated or attempted to consolidate with the defendant trust company, which was alleged to be a worthless and insolvent company; that by such consolidation the original aims and purposes of the Georgia corporation were fundamentally changed, in that, under such agreement of consolidation no further loans were to be made to postal clerks without collateral security, the insurance feature was to be eliminated from the obligations, and the consolidated company was not to be controlled by postal clerks; and that such consolidation or attempted consolidation was a further act that aided in causing a practical dissolution of said Georgia corporation. It is further alleged: That after the meeting of the stockholders of the Georgia corporation on February 8, 1913, the said Georgia corporation sold to the defendant the Texas corporation its own stock, and that in payment thereof about $42,000 worth of the capital and assets of said Georgia corporation, consisting of notes as afore described, most of same being upon loans that had been made by said purported Texas corporation, but which were held as part of the assets and capital of the Georgia corporation. That in payment for said assets the said Rutledge gave his personal note for the face value of said notes, and that said Texas corporation and said Rutledge took possession and control of said assets. That all of said notes were payable at Ft. Worth, Tex., and nearly all of the makers lived in Tarrant county *565 Tex.

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Tipton v. Railway Postal Clerks' Inv. Ass'n, 173 S.W. 562, 1914 Tex. App. LEXIS 1563 (Tex. Ct. App. 1914).

173 S.W. 562 (Tipton v. Railway Postal Clerks' Inv. Ass'n) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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