Bridgeport Electric & Ice Co. v. Bridgeport Land & Improvement Co.
| Decision Date | 10 August 1894 |
| Citation | 104 Ala. 276,16 So. 93 |
| Court | Alabama Supreme Court |
| Parties | BRIDGEPORT ELECTRIC & ICE CO. ET AL. v. BRIDGEPORT LAND & IMP. CO. ET AL. BRIDGEPORT LAND & IMP. CO. v. BRIDGEPORT ELECTRIC & ICE CO ET AL. |
Appeals from chancery court, Jackson county; Thomas Cobbes Chancellor.
Bill by the Bridgeport Land & Improvement Company against the Bridgeport Electric & Ice Company asking for a receiver. A receiver was appointed. Thereafter a decree was made allowing A. B. Meader, trustee, a judgment creditor, to proceed by levy and sale under execution against the assets in the receiver's hands, and both complainant and defendant corporations appeal. Motion by said Meader to dismiss the appeals, and counter motion by the appellants for a writ of mandamus in case the appeal will not lie. Mandamus granted.
On the 18th of March, 1893, the Bridgeport Land & Improvement Company, a corporation, filed a bill in its own name and on behalf of all other creditors who would make themselves parties and contribute to the suit against the Electric Light & Ice Company, also a corporation. The bill avers the insolvency of the defendant corporation, charges that it was operated unskillfully and at a loss, and that the assets were continually depreciating in value, and asked for the appointment of a receiver. On the day of the filing of the bill the register appointed a receiver as prayed for, with authority to take possession of all the assets of the respondent corporation, and to continue the business "and to do and perform all things and acts necessary to the operating and carrying on of said business, under the orders and subject to the control of this court," etc. On the 20th of March, 1893, the receiver qualified by giving an approved bond. There has been no objection made to the appointment of the receiver by the register, and, until that appointment is set aside, or by some legal order suspended the order of his appointment must be regarded as in all respects legal and valid. On the 3d of July, 1893, the receiver filed a petition in the cause, in which, after stating the condition of the property, and a want of necessary cash in hand to carry on the business successfully he prayed that he be authorized to issue receiver's certificates for such an amount as the court might deem proper, and necessary. The court entered a decretal order referring the matter to the register to hold a reference and report the facts and the amount of receiver's certificates necessary; and upon the coming in and confirmation of the register's report it was ordered and decreed that the receiver issue certificates not exceeding $5,000, to bear interest from date at the rate of 8 per cent. per annum, and decreed "that the same shall be a first lien on the property and assets of the defendant corporation in the hands of the receiver, and shall be first paid." This decree was filed August 18, 1893. On the 2d day of October, 1893, one A. B. Meader, as trustee for the Blymyer Ice-Machine Company, filed his petition in this cause, showing that he was a judgment creditor of the Bridgeport Electric & Ice Company by judgment recovered in the circuit court of the United States for the northern division of the northern district of Alabama on the 26th day of April, 1893, for the sum of $11,300.87, and prayed "that he be allowed to enforce payment of his said judgment as he may be advised is proper, *** and for such other and further relief as he might be entitled to." A certified copy of the judgment was made a part of the petition. On the 3d day of October,-the day after the filing of the petition of Meader, the judgment creditor,-without further notice to the complainant or the defendant than that derived from the filing of the petition, the...
To continue reading
Request your trial