Boyett v. Hahn

• Decision Date: 16 November 1916
• Docket Number: 6 Div. 318
• Citation: Boyett v. Hahn, 197 Ala. 439, 73 So. 79 (Ala. 1916)
• Parties: BOYETT v. HAHN et al.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

73 So. 79

197 Ala. 439

BOYETT v. HAHN et al.

6 Div. 318

Supreme Court of Alabama

November 16, 1916

Appeal from Chancery Court, Jefferson County; A.H. BennersChancellor.

Bill by Mrs. I.E. Boyett against William Hahn and others, to declare complainant the owner of one-half the capital stock of the Plainview Land Company, and for a sale of the assets of said company for a division.From a decree sustaining demurrercomplainant appeals.Transferred from Court of Appeals under Act of April 18, 1911, p. 449, § 6. Affirmed.

L.J Cox, of Birmingham, for appellant.

William M. Spencer, Jr., of Birmingham, for appellees.

THOMAS J.

When the contract of the parties provides no method of enforcing or foreclosing a lien, a court of equity in the exercise of its original jurisdiction may protect and foreclose such lien.1 Pom.Eq.Jur. §§ 165-167;Averyt Drug Co. v. Ely-Robertson-Barlow Drug Co.,69 So. 931.

Exhibit A is a mortgage on Hahn's stock or interest in the corporation.Campbell v. Woodstock I. Co.,83 Ala. 351, 3 So. 369;Gilmer v. Morris,80 Ala. 78, 60 Am.Rep. 85;Ellington v. Charleston,51 Ala. 166.

The complainant has the right, under the averments of her bill, to a foreclosure of her lien on the one-half interest in the Plainview Land Company"transferred, set over, and assigned to Mrs. I.E. Boyett as trustee," by William Hahn.It is averred that this land company is a corporation owned in equal parts by J. Standish Clark and William Hahn; and until the foreclosure by complainant of her lien on Hahn's interest and stock in the corporation, and her purchase of the same at such foreclosure, complainant has no right of participation in the governmental affairs of the corporation, to the exclusion of William Hahn.

If the prayer for relief, under the averments of the bill, were for a foreclosure of her lien on Hahn's interest or stock in the corporation, and not for a dissolution of the corporation and a sale of its assets for division, such relief might be had.

Complainant must first have a foreclosure of her lien, after which, if she becomes the purchaser of Hahn's interest, the right to a participation in the affairs of the corporation will be accorded to her as such purchaser.

It results that respondents' demurrerNo. 5 to the bill as originally filed (No. 7 to the bill as last amended) was properly sustained; and the decree of the chancellor is accordingly affirmed.

Affirmed.

AN...