Cooper v. President & Directors of the Dismal Swamp Canal Co.

• Decision Date: 31 July 1812
• Citation: 6 N.C. 195
• Court: North Carolina Supreme Court
• Parties: WELLS COOPER v. THE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTORS OF THE DISMAL SWAMP CANAL COMPANY AND OTHERS.

6 N.C. 195

WELLS COOPER

v.THE PRESIDENT AND DIRECTORS OF THE DISMAL SWAMP CANAL COMPANY AND OTHERS.

SUPREME COURT OF NORTH CAROLINA

JULY TERM, 1812.

From Chowan.

1. Under the acts of Virginia and North Carolina, incorporating the Dismal Swamp Canal Company, the courts of each State have equal jurisdiction in all matters relating to the concerns of the company; and the court, in either State, in which a suit shall be first properly instituted ousts all other courts of jurisdiction during the pending of such suit, and whilst the judgment which may be given therein remains in force.

2. The shares of the company are not liable to seizure and sale under a fieri facias. They are declared real estate by the acts, only to make them inheritable.

3. A bill in equity will not lie against the officers of the company to compel them to register a conveyance of shares. The proper remedy is a mandamus.

IN 1790 the States of North Carolina and Virginia (by acts of their respective Legislatures) incorporated a company by the name of the Dismal Swamp Canal Company, and declared the shares of the company to be real estate, and the proprietors thereof tenants in common. The canal lies partly in Virginia and partly in North Carolina. The office of the president and directors, for the purpose of registration and of performing their other corporate acts, is held in the town of Norfolk, in the State of Virginia. Wells Cooper purchased certain shares in this canal, at a sheriff's sale, under an execution issuing from the Superior Court of Law at Edenton, and directed to Camden County, where the proprietor then resided and the canal partly lies. He then brought a bill, among other purposes, to compel the president and directors to register the deed executed to him by the sheriff for the shares which he had purchased; and the case was sent to this Court upon the following questions: 1. Whether an execution issuing from a court in North Carolina can be levied on or affect the shares of thecompany. 2. Whether the shares can be transferred under the acts of incorporation, by execution. 3. Whether the courts of North Carolina have jurisdiction in the present case.

HALL, J. The last question submitted to this Court should be first considered: have the courts of North Carolina jurisdiction of the present suit? It is to be observed that the canal lies partly in Virginia, and partly in this State, and that the acts of Assembly incorporating the companies give no preference to the courts of either State. And it is to be further observed that the office of president and directors of the company has not by these acts been located. It therefore follows...