Vergne Roig v. Superior Court of Mayagüez

77 P.R. 20
CourtSupreme Court of Puerto Rico
DecidedAugust 3, 1954
DocketNo. 2079
StatusPublished

This text of 77 P.R. 20 (Vergne Roig v. Superior Court of Mayagüez) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Puerto Rico primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Vergne Roig v. Superior Court of Mayagüez, 77 P.R. 20 (prsupreme 1954).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Ortiz

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Cervecería Real, Inc. is a corporation engaged in the [23]*23manufacture and sale of beer and malt. On December 16, 1952 the stockholders of the corporation, held an annual meeting, the validity of which is not at issue here, where the stockholders Alberto Inocente Alvarez, Lydia Fajardo de Alvarez, Jaime Annexy Iglesias, Vicente M. Ydrach and José A. Ponce were elected directors of the corporation. On that same date the Board of Directors met and authorized the President, Alberto I. Alvarez, to contract the services of Pedro Vergne Roig, as general manager of the corporation for a term of three years and on that same day the contract was executed.

On December 14, 1953, the date fixed in the by-laws or regulations of the corporation for the annual meeting of stockholders, the same was commenced and held in the presence and with the participation of a group of stockholders who held a total of 1658 shares, the total number of outstanding shares being 5,548. According to the stock books the spouses Alberto I. Alvarez and Lydia Fajardo de Alvarez had 1713 shares each in their own name, that is, 3,426 shares together. They neither appeared nor took part in the meeting, in compliance with a judicial order rendered in a litigation pending between them.- At any rate, at the annual meeting of December 14, 1953, less than V5 of the outstanding shares of the corporation was represented and therefore, no quorum was constituted as required by § 2 of Article 1 of the By-laws of the corporation, which reads:

“Sec. 2. Quorum. Except as hereinafter provided, the presence in person or by proxy of the holders of 4/5 of the outstanding- stock entitled to vote shall be necessary to constitute a quorum for the transaction of business, but a lesser number may adjourn to some future time not less than nor more than ten days later, and the Secretary shall thereupon give at least five days notice by mail to each stockholder entitled to vote who was absent from such meeting. In the event that quorum is not constituted in consequence of the second notice, the meeting shall adjourn to some future date not less than .nor more than fifteen days later and the Secretary shall thereupon give at [24]*24least five days notice by registered mail with acknowledgment receipt to each stockholder entitled to vote who was absent from such meeting. The Secretary shall in this last notice inform the stockholders that any number of stockholders present on such date will constitute quorum for transaction of business.”

Notwithstanding the fact that at the annual meeting of December 14, 1953, the required quorum was not constituted and that two of the stockholders present raised the question of quorum, the holders of a majority of the 1658 shares represented therein held the meeting, overruling the question of quorum and electing the stockholders Alberto I. Alvarez, Lydia Fajardo de Alvarez, Mario Escudero, José A. Ponce and Gabriel C. Soler as directors of the corporation. The meeting was closed without adjourning to some future date. Some of the stockholders, who are the interveners herein, thereafter contested this meeting in writing.

Immediately after the meeting, three of the “directors” elected, to wit, Gabriel C. Soler, Mario Escudero and José A. Ponce, met and appointed Gabriel C. Soler general manager of the corporation to take possession of such office immediately.

On December 19, 1953, the Secretary of the corporation, Enrique Córdova Diaz, sent the following notice to the stockholders :

“I hereby summon you as a stockholder of Cervecería Real, Inc. for the regular annual meeting of stockholders to be held on December 24, 1953, at the main office of the corporation in Mayagiiez, Puerto Rico, at 2 P. M. of said day. This meeting is called pursuant to the By-laws of the corporation inasmuch as there are doubts as to the regular annual meeting of stockholders held on December 14, 1953, insofar as quorum is concerned.”

On December 24,1953, a second meeting was held. Again there was no quorum, since only 1438 shares were represented inasmuch as the aforesaid judicial order was still in force. In that meeting the stockholders present ratified the agree-[25]*25merits of the meeting of December 14, including the election of the directors, and then the stockholders present therein adjourned the meeting to January 8, 1954. On December 26, the Secretary of the corporation issued, and sent on December 30, a notice calling the stockholders to a meeting on January 8, 1954, it being stated in the notice that “pursuant to the by-laws of the corporation, any number of stockholders present at this meeting shall constitute quorum for the transaction of business.” Prior to January 8, 1954, the Mayagiiez Part of the Superior Court had already set aside its former order restraining Álvarez and Lydia Fajardo de Alvarez from voting at the meeting. The impediment set aside, Alvarez appeared at the meeting of January 8 and voted in representation of 1713 shares. The stockholders present therein on January 8 were holders of or represented 3173 shares. The absent stockholders, interveners herein, challenged the validity of that meeting in writing as. they had done previously with respect to the meetings of December 14 and December 24, 1953, because of failure to comply with the provisions of the by-laws. The stockholders who met on January 8 overruled said challenge and proceeded to elect the directors who were stockholders Alberto I. Alvarez, Lydia Fajardo de Alvarez, Jaime Annexy Iglesias, Mario Escudero and José A. Ponce. After the meeting, directors Alvarez, Escudero, and Ponce met and appointed Alvarez as President of the corporation, Escudero as Vice President, and Lydia Soler Fajardo as Secretary, and they also appointed Gabriel C. Soler to the office of general manager of the corporation.

When Soler attempted to take possession of the office to which he had been appointed, he was prevented from so doing because Pedro Vergne Roig, who had been previously appointed by the former Board of Directors for that same position, refused to surrender possession of the plant, properties, books, seal and documents of the corporation. An [26]*26action for injunction was then filed in the Mayagfiez Part, against Pedro Vergne Roig in which Cervecería Real, Inc. and Gabriel Soler appeared as plaintiffs. The complaint alleges, in brief, that on January 8, 1954, the Board of Directors of the corporation had appointed Soler as general manager for a one-year term, which position was occupied, as a matter of fact, by defendant Vergne Roig; that the corporation and co-plaintiff Soler requested Vergne Roig to-surrender the office to Soler as well as the industrial plant, offices, documents, funds and other real and personal property of the corporation, but Vergne Roig refused to do so and insisted on discharging his position and retaining all the aforesaid real and personal property of the corporation: that Vergne Roig’s attitude constitutes an act of disturbance and dispossession of the property of the plaintiff corporation and that if Vergne Roig continues in charge of the administration of the corporation’s business, the latter is exposed i,o serious damages in its business, inasmuch as Vergne Roig might commit acts of sabotage.

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Bluebook (online)
77 P.R. 20, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/vergne-roig-v-superior-court-of-mayaguez-prsupreme-1954.