American Alkali Co. v. Kurtz

• Decision Date: 24 May 1905
• Docket Number: 13.
• Citation: 138 F. 392
• Parties: AMERICAN ALKALI CO., to Use of BROWN, v. KURTZ.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

138 F. 392

AMERICAN ALKALI CO., to Use of BROWN, v. KURTZ.

No. 13.

United States Court of Appeals, Third Circuit.

May 24, 1905

Malcolm Lloyd, Jr., for plaintiff in error.

R. M Schick, for defendant in error.

Before ACHESON, DALLAS, and GRAY, Circuit Judges.

ACHESON Circuit Judge.

This was an action at law brought by the American Alkali Company a corporation of the state of New Jersey, to the use of its receiver, Arthur K. Brown, against W. Wesley Kurtz & Co trading as banker and broker under the name of W. W. Kurtz &amp Co. to recover an assessment made on September 16, 1901, by the board of directors of the company upon 3,700 shares of the preferred stock of the company, of which on that date H. C. Magee was the holder of record on the books of the company. The case stated, submitted to the court for decision, contains the following recital of facts in respect to the 3,700 shares of stock:

'On and prior to November 17, 1900, certificates therefor in the names of various persons, other than the defendant, had been duly issued by the American Alkali Company, and were registered on the books of the company in the name of said various persons. On the said November 17, 1900, the said certificates were in the possession of the defendant, each accompanied with a power of attorney to transfer the same, duly executed by the various persons in whose names they were registered, but in blank as to the name of the attorney who was to execute the transfers. The stock represented by the said certificates was not, however, nor was any part of it, the property of the defendant, but the said stock all belonged to various other persons, and the defendant was in possession of said certificates therefor as agent for the various persons who were the owners thereof. On the said November 17, 1900, the defendant, acting therein as the agent for and on behalf of the various persons who owned the said stock, delivered to the officers of the said American Alkali Company the said certificates for thirty-seven hundred shares of stock, together with the said powers of attorney to transfer the same, and requested that they be transferred to, and that new certificates therefor be issued to, the said H. C. Magee, and the said transfers were on the same day made, and new certificates issued in his name; and the said shares stood of record on the books of the company in his name, and so continued, from the said November 17, 1900

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