Cable v. Gaty

• Decision Date: 31 March 1864
• Citation: Cable v. Gaty, 34 Mo. 573 (Mo. 1864)
• Parties: ISAAC C. CABLE et al., Plaintiffs in Error, v. SAMUEL GATY et al., Defendants in Error.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

34 Mo. 573

ISAAC C. CABLE et al., Plaintiffs in Error,

v.SAMUEL GATY et al., Defendants in Error.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

March Term, 1864.

Error to St. Louis Land Court.

This suit was brought against the Directors of the Marine Railway and Dock Company, upon the same case as was made out in the case of Cable et als. v. McCune et als., reported 26 Mo. 371.

C. D. Drake, for plaintiffs in error.

Gantt, Glover & Shepley, Sharp & Broadhead, for defendants in error.

BATES, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

This was a suit to subject the defendants to personal liability as directors of the St. Louis Marine Railway and Dock Company, a corporation chartered in 1849, upon the allegation that the debts of the corporation exceeded the amount of stock paid in.

The plaintiffs' claim against the corporation is the same which is described in the case of Cable v. McCune, 26 Mo. 371, in which the same plaintiffs sought to subject the defendants to personal liability as stockholders; and the first question presented is whether the demand of the plaintiffs is a debt of the corporation within the meaning of the section of the act under which it is sought to hold the defendants liable.

The section is as follows: “The whole amount of the debts of any corporation hereafter created (except banking companies) shall not exceed the amount of its capital stock actually paid in, and in case of any excess the directors under whose administration it shall happen shall be jointly and severally liable, to the extent of such excess, for all the debts of the company then existing, and for all that shall be contracted, so long as they shall respectively continue in office, and until the debts shall be reduced to the said amount of the capital stock: provided, that any of the directors who shall be absent at the time of contracting any debt contrary to the foregoing provisions, or who shall...