Combes v. Getz, 528

• Citation: 52 S.Ct. 435,76 L.Ed. 866,285 U.S. 434
• Decision Date: 11 April 1932
• Docket Number: No. 528,528
• Parties: COMBES v. GETZ
• Court: United States Supreme Court

285 U.S. 434

52 S.Ct. 435

76 L.Ed. 866

COMBES

v GETZ.

No. 528.

Argued March 21, 1932.

Decided April 11, 1932.

Messrs. Joseph L. Lewinson and W. H. Douglass, both of Los Angeles, Cal., Nat Schmulowitz, J. C. McKinstry, Joseph Haber, Jr., and Charles L. Firebaugh, all of San Francisco, Cal., for petitioner.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 435-437 intentionally omitted] Mr. Alfred Sutro, of San Francisco, Cal., for respondent.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 437-439 intentionally omitted] Mr. Justice SUTHERLAND delivered the opinion of the Court.

This is a suit brought in a California superior court by petitioner, on behalf of himself and other creditors, to recover from respondent, a director in Getz Bros. & Company, a California corporation, the amount of an indebtedness upon an open account for goods sold to the corporation by petitioner's assignor. The basis of the liability sought to be enforced is found in the following provision of section 3, art. 12, of the California Constitution of 1879: 'The directors or trustees of corporations and joint-stock associations shall be jointly and severally liable to the creditors and stockholders for all moneys embezzled or misappropriated by the officers of such corporation or joint-stock association, during the term of such director or trustee.'

The bill alleges misappropriation and embezzlement of moneys of the corporation by its officers, with appropriate details to bring the respondent within the terms of the foregoing provision. The superior court sustained a demurrer to the complaint, for reasons not material here, and rendered final judgment accordingly. An appeal was taken to the state supreme court; and, while that appeal was pending, the provision of the state constitution above quoted was repealed. Thereupon, respondent moved to dismiss the appeal, on the ground that the cause of action had abated by reason of the repeal of the provision of law upon which it was based. The court sustained the motion and dismissed the appeal, Coombes v. Franklin (Cal. Sup.) 1 P.(2d) 992; and subsequently denied a petition for rehearing (Cal. Sup.) 4 P.(2d) 157.

In substance, it was held that the right accorded to corporate creditors was created by, and dependent alone upon, the constitutional provision, said to have the force of a statute; and that when that was repealed, the right fell with it, being still inchoate, not reduced to possession nor perfected by final judgment. It was conceded that the liability created by the Constitution was in its nature contractual and, as a matter of law, entered into and became a part of every contract between the corporation and its creditors. But this contractual liability, it was said, was conditioned by the power reserved over corporate laws by section 1, art. 12, of the Constitution, as follows: 'All laws now in force in this State concerning corporations, and all laws that may be hereafter passed pursuant to this section, may be altered from time to time or repealed.' In virtue of this reservation of power, the state court held that the repeal of the liability provision was a known contingency constituting a part of the contract as much as the provision which imposed the liability.

The decision of the Supreme Court of a state construing and applying its own Constitution and laws generally is binding upon this court; but that is not so where the contract clause of the Federal Constitution is involved. In that case this court will give careful and respectful consideration and all due weight to the adjudication of the state court, but will determine independently thereof whether there be a contract, the obligation of which is within the protection of the contract clause, and whether that obligation has been impaired; and, likewise, will determine for itself the meaning and application of state constitutional or statutory provisions said to create the contract or by which it is asserted an impairment has been effected. Scott v. McNeal, 154 U. S. 34, 45, 14 S. Ct. 1108, 38 L. Ed. 896; Mobile & Ohio Railroad v. Tennessee, 153 U. S. 486, 492, etc., 14 S. Ct. 968, 38 L. Ed. 793; Stearns v. Minnesota, 179 U. S. 223, 232, 233, 21 S. Ct. 73, 45 L. Ed. 162; Louisiana Ry. & Nav. Co. v. New Orleans, 235 U. S. 164, 170, 35 S. Ct. 62, 59 L. Ed. 175; Huntington v. Attrill, 146 U. S. 657, 684, 13 S. Ct. 224, 36 L. Ed. 1123; N. O. Waterworks v. La. Sugar Co., 125 U. S. 18, 38, 8 S. Ct. 741, 31 L. Ed. 607; Bridge Proprietors v. Hoboken Co., 1 Wall. 116, 144, 17 L. Ed. 571; Jefferson Branch Bank v. Skelly, 1 Black, 436, 443, 17 L. Ed. 173.

In substance, the contention of respondent here is that the reserved power provision, read into the contract as one of its terms, authorizes an extinction by repeal of the creditor's cause of action, unless previously reduced to final judgment.

The authority of a state under the so-called reserved power is wide; but is not unlimited. The corporate charter may be repealed or amended, and, within limits not now necessary to define, the interrelations of state, corporation, and stockholders may be changed; but neither vested property rights nor the obligation of contracts of third persons may be destroyed or impaired. Tomlinson v. Jessup, 15 Wall. 454, 459, 21 L. Ed. 204; Lake Shore, etc., Railway Co. v. Smith, 173 U. S. 684, 690, 19 S. Ct. 565, 43 L. Ed. 858. Compare Greenwood v. Freight Co., 105 U. S. 13, 17, 19, 26 L. Ed. 961; Shields v. Ohio, 95 U. S. 319, 324, 24 L. Ed. 357. The right of this petitioner to enforce respondent's liability had become fully perfected and vested prior to the repeal of the liability provision. His cause of action was not purely statutory. It did not arise upon the constitutional rule of law, but upon the contractual liability created in pursuance of the rule. Although the latter derived its being from the former, it immediately acquired an independent existence competent to survive the destruction of the provision which gave it birth. The repeal put an end to the rule for the future, but it did not and could not destroy or impair the previously vested right of the creditor (which in every sense was a property right, Ettor v. Tacoma, 228 U. S. 148, 156, 33 S. Ct. 428, 57 L. Ed. 773; Pritchard v. Norton, 106 U. S. 124, 132, 1 S. Ct. 102, 27 L. Ed. 104) to enforce his cause of action upon the contract. Ettor v. Tacoma, supra; Hawthorne v. Calef, 2 Wall. 10, 22, 17 L. Ed. 776; Steamship Company v. Joliffe, 2 Wall. 450, 17 L. Ed. 805; Ochiltree v. Railroad Company, 21 Wall. 249, 252, 253, 22 L. Ed. 546; Harrison v. Remington Paper Co. (C. C. A.) 140 F. 385, 390, etc., 3 L. R. A. (N. S.) 954, 5 Ann. Cas. 314; Knickerbocker Trust Co. v. Myers (C. C.) 133 F. 764, 767.

The Ettor Case, supra, involved a statute of the state of Washington which required municipalities to compensate for consequential damages. While that statute was in force actions were brought to recover for damages inflicted upon abutting property in consequence of street grading done by the authority and direction of the city of Tacoma. While these actions were being heard, the statute in respect of this liability was repealed; and the trial court directed a verdict for the city, on the theory that the right of action was statutory and fell with the statute, there being no saving clause. Judgment was affirmed by the state Supreme Court and the case came here on writ of of error. This court reversed the judgment and in the course of its opinion (pages 155-156 of 228 U. S., 33 S. Ct. 428, 430, 57 L. Ed. 773) said:

'The court below gave a retrospective effect to the amendatory and repealing act by holding that the effect of the repeal was to destroy the right to compensation which had accrued while the act was in force. The obligation of the city was fixed. The plaintiffs in error had a claim which the city was as much under obligation to pay as for the labor employed to do the grading. It was a claim assignable and enforceable by a common-law action for a breach of the statutory obligation.

'The necessary effect of the repealing act, as construed and applied by the court below, was to deprive the plaintiffs in error of any remedy to enforce the fixed liability of the city to make compensation. This was to deprive the plaintiffs in error of a right which had vested before the repealing act,-a right which was in every sense a property right. Nothing remained to be done to complete the plaintiffs' right to compensation except the ascertainment of the amount of damage to their property. The right of the plaintiffs in error was fixed by the law in force when their property was damaged for public purposes. and the right so vested cannot be defeated by subsequent legislation.'

In the Hawthorne Case, supra, it was held that a state statute, incorporating a railroad company, which provided that the shares of the stockholders should be liable for the debts of the corporation, in effect pledges the liability or guarantee of the stockholders to the extent of their stock to the creditors of the company. 'They thereby virtually agree to become security to the creditors for the payment of the debts of the company, which have been contracted upon the faith of this liability.' Haw thorne supplied the corporation with materials to build its road and obtained judgment against it. Being unable to satisfy the judgment, he brought suit against Calef, a stockholder. The state Supreme Court rendered judgment against Hawthorne on the ground that the individual liability provision had been repealed by subsequent legislation, passed two months after the debt was contracted, and that such repeal had taken away the right to enforce the stockholders' liability. This court reversed on the ground that when the debt was contracted with the company the creditor held the stockholders' liability as security for its payment and the repealing act, by abolishing it, impaired the obligation of that contract.

In the Joliffe Case, supra, this court had...