Adamson v. Davis
| Decision Date | 31 January 1871 |
| Citation | 47 Mo. 268 |
| Parties | THOMAS ADAMSON, Plaintiff in Error, v. FULTON DAVIS, Defendant in Error. |
| Court | Missouri Supreme Court |
Error to First District Court.
Johnson & Budd, for plaintiff in error.
I. The limitation of liability of stockholders to suits commenced within one year applies only to the constitutional individual liability, and not to the amount due on subscriptions to stock. (1 Wagn. Stat. 291, § 13; id. 336, § 13.)
II. The statutory provision prescribing one year's limitation is unreasonable and void. (Cooley on Const. Lim. 336; Berry v. Ramsdell, 4 Metc., Ky., 292.)
Wallace & Mitchell, for defendant in error, claimed, among other things, that, by the charter, the time given for a creditor to institute suit against the corporation--viz: “one year after the debt shall become due,” in order to secure and retain the personal and individual liability of a stockholder for the debt of the corporation--was reasonable.
The plaintiff recovered judgment against the Lexington Railroad and Coal Mining and Transportation Company, a corporation organized under the general laws of this State for business purposes. An execution was issued against the company and returned unsatisfied. A motion was then made in court for an order to issue execution against the defendant as a stockholder in said company. This motion was sustained and execution ordered. The defendant appealed, and upon a hearing in the District Court the judgment was reversed. The case is now brought here by writ of error.
Several points have been raised and questions discussed, but there is one ground that in my judgment is decisive of the case, and that only need be noticed. The proceeding was instituted under the provisions of the statute, which declares that “if any execution shall have been issued against the property or effects of a corporation, and if there can not be found whereon to levy such execution, then such execution may be issued against any of the stockholders to an extent equal in amount to the amount of stock by him or her owned, together with any amount unpaid thereon; provided, always, that no execution shall issue against a stockholder except upon order of the court in which the action, suit or other proceeding shall have been brought or instituted, made upon motion in open court, after sufficient notice in writing to the persons sought to...
To continue reading
Request your trial
-
Chrisman-Sawyer Banking Company v. Independence Wool Manufacturing Co
...37, Revised Statutes 1855, had any application to the liability created by section 13, of chapter 34, Revised Statutes 1855. In Adamson v. Davis, 47 Mo. 268, the proceeding under section 13 of article 1 of chapter 37, 1 Wagner Statutes 1870 p. 291, which provided that if an execution should......
-
Chrisman-Sawyer Banking Co. v. Independence W. Mfg. Co.
...special limitation prescribed by section 22, c. 37, Id., had any application to the liability created by section 13, c. 34, Id. In Adamson v. Davis, 47 Mo. 268, the proceeding was under section 13 of article 1 of chapter 37, p. 291, 1 Wag. St. 1870, which provided that, if an execution shou......
-
State ex rel. and to Use of Wyatt v. Cantley
... ... remedy and leave him a reasonable time in which to enforce ... it. Seibert v. Copp, 62 Mo. 185; Adamson v ... Davis, 47 Mo. 268; Stephens v. National Bank, ... 43 Mo. 389; Faris v. Moore, 256 Mo. 132; ... Bowersock Mills & Power Co. v. Trust Co., ... ...
-
Macon County v. Farmers' Trust Co. of Macon
...it does not deprive such party of its remedy and leaves it a reasonable time in which to enforce it. Siebert v. Copp, 62 Mo. 182; Adamson v. Davis, 47 Mo. 268; Stevens v. National Bank, 43 Mo. 385. (3) A rendered in a former suit between the same parties, on the same cause of action, in a c......