Woodroof v. Howes

26 P. 111, 88 Cal. 184, 1891 Cal. LEXIS 670
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 3, 1891
DocketNo. 13939
StatusPublished
Cited by29 cases

This text of 26 P. 111 (Woodroof v. Howes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Woodroof v. Howes, 26 P. 111, 88 Cal. 184, 1891 Cal. LEXIS 670 (Cal. 1891).

Opinion

Hayne, C.

This was a suit in equity by three stockholders of the Semi-Tropic Land and Water Company, for relief against certain transactions of the company with the defendants F. C. Howes, George H. Bonebrake, and Samuel Merrill. The trial court gave final judg[186]*186merit for the defendants upon demurrer to the complaint, and tire plaintiffs appeal. The complaint consists of seventy-five printed pages, and is exceedingly prolix and involved. It contains three causes of action separately stated. The demurrer was to the whole complaint, and to each separate cause of action.

1. The substance of the material facts alleged in the first division of the complaint is as follows: At the period in question, two of the plaintiffs and the defendants Howes, Bonebrake, and Merrill, were stockholders of the corporation. The third plaintiff acquired his stock somewhat later than the others, but this is not mat erial in the view we have taken. The defendant Howes was a director of the company, and it is alleged that the other members of the board “ were only nominal directors thereof for the purpose of carrying out the plans and sub-serving the individual interests of defendants Howes, Bonebrake, and Merrill, and had no interest in the management and conduct of its affairs, except as the implements and representatives of the interests and wills of the defendants Howes, Bonebrake, and Merrill.” In this condition of affairs, the “said board of directors, disregarding. the interests and rights of all stockholders of said company, other than said Howes, Bonebrake, and Merrill, and for the purpose of defrauding such stockholders, and through the connivance of said Howes, Bonebrake, and Merrill, and for the purpose of sub-serving the individual interests of said Howe, Bonesbralce, and Merrill,” sold to them, for the price of thirty dollars per acre, certain specifically described lands, which “ carried with them, as incident or appurtenant thereto, their pro rata proportion of' all the waters owned by the Semi-Tropic Land and Water Company.” At the time of this transaction the land sold was worth the sum of three hundred dollars per acre, which was known to all the parties. Subsequently, the three defendants named became directors of the company, and were so at the commence[187]*187ment of the suit. The plaintiffs demanded that a suit be commenced in the name of the corporation. But this demand not having been complied with, the plaintiffs brought the present suit on behalf of themselves and the other stockholders, joining the corporation as a defendant.

In addition to the foregoing facts, much unnecessary matter is alleged, as, for example, the representations which the defendants made to the plaintiffs at the time the latter acquired their stock. The suit is not for relief against the contract under which they acquired said stock, and hence the representations referred to are immaterial. So, too, it is immaterial to the case stated in this division of the complaint how the corporation acquired its rights to the property , though it may be permissible to state such facts to show that the three causes of action grew out of the same set of transactions.

In support of their demurrer to this part of the complaint, the defendants make the following points: —

a. It is said that a main foundation of this part of the case is inadequacy of price, and that “ inadequacy of price does not even raise a presumption of fraud.”

This may be true as to persons who do not stand in a fiduciary relation towards each other. But it is not true as to persons whose relations are fiduciary. A trustee is not ordinarily allowed to make money out of his cestui que trust. If he does, the presumption is against him, and he must show affirmatively that the transaction was perfectly fair. Inadequacy of consideration in such a case is one of the facts constituting the fraud. (Golson v. Dunlap, 73 Cal. 157.) And it is hardly necessary to say that the relation which a director sustains to his corporation is fiduciary within the meaning of the rule. In the present case, it is not necessary to consider w'hether the inadequacy of consideration alleged is sufficient to make a case of constructive fraud, because, as will be shown below, there are other allegations, which, [188]*188in connection with the one mentioned, make a case of actual fraud.

b. It is urged that at this time Howes only was a director; that the other four constituted a majority of the hoard; that it is not shown that Howes took any part as director in the act complained of; and that the mere fact that the three defendants persuaded the disinterested majority of the board to do the act compained of does not amount to fraud. “Persuasion,” say the learned counsel, “is never fraudulent.”

In one sense it may be true that persuasion is not fraudulent. In the same sense it may be said that persuasion is not theft; yet if a man persuades his “implements and representatives” to steal, and knowingly shares the booty, he is certainly guilty of theft. And so if he persuades his implements and representatives to commit a fraud, and knowingly * les the fruits thereof, he is guilty of fraud. In the c / before us, it is admitted, for the purpose of the demui i", that the directors wpre the implements and represen tatives of Howes, Bonebrake, and Merrill, and acted with their “ connivance ” for the purpose- of defrauding the other stockholders, in the interest of said defendants. Such conduct was clearly fraudulent tin the part of the directors, and as said defendants connived at such fraud, and received the fruits thereof, they must be held to have participated therein.

c. It is contended that the charges of fraud are too general. All that is necessary for the pleader to do in this regard, however, is to set forth the facts constituting the fraud in ordinary and concise language. Now, what are the facts constituting the fraud?

In the first place, there is the fact of the relation of the parties, viz., that the plaintiffs and defendants were stockholders of the corporation, and that the directors were the implements and representatives of Howes, Bonebrake, and Merrill. This is set forth with sufficient particularity. It was not necessary to state the means [189]*189by which said defendants induced the directors to act as their implements and representatives. QIt is sufficient to the cause made by the complaint that they did so act.

In the second place, there is the fact that the land was worth three hundred dollars per acre, and was sold to said defendants for thirty dollars per acre. It was surely sufficient to allege this in terms. And the criticism made upon it does not seem to be that the fact is not stated with sufficient particularity, but that it is not true. “ An allegation,” say the learned counsel, “ may be so absurd that not even a demurrer will admit it, and in this case the court is presumed by the counsel for the appellants to assume that this property had increased in value from April to August, 1887, something like two thousand per cent. There are some things that even courts are presumed to know, one of which is, that unimproved property in such vast tracts does not increase in value from four thousand to five thousand per cent per annum.”

The basis for this position is stated by counsel to be, that

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Bluebook (online)
26 P. 111, 88 Cal. 184, 1891 Cal. LEXIS 670, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/woodroof-v-howes-cal-1891.