Doolittle v. Marsh

• Decision Date: 26 May 1881
• Citation: Doolittle v. Marsh, 11 Neb. 243, 9 N. W. 54 (Neb. 1881)
• Parties: DOOLITTLE v. MARSH.
• Court: Nebraska Supreme Court

11 Neb. 243

9 N.W. 54

DOOLITTLE

v.MARSH.

Supreme Court of Nebraska.

Filed May 26, 1881.

Error from Douglas county.

Redick & Connell, for plaintiff.

George E. Pritchett, for defendant.

COBB, J.

I cannot agree with counsel for the defendant in error in the first point made in his able argument, in which he contends that section 136 of the chapter of the General Statutes entitled “Corporations” does not apply to any corporation not created under general laws. I agree that its provisions are limited to corporations thereafter created, but that is the only limitation, and the only doubt is whether section 139 does not extend the same provision to all corporations without reference to the date, as the two sections combined certainly do, without regard to the method of their organization. But upon his second, or, as counsel has it numbered in his brief, the fourth point, I am quite inclined to agree with him.

The debts spoken of in the two sections undoubtedly are only those obligations arising on express and implied contracts, growing out of dealings between the corporation and other corporations or individuals, where the financial condition of such corporation would or might be the foundation of credit. The law has made it one of the conditions upon which the promoters and managers of corporations may do business without risk to their private fortunes, that such corporation shall publish annually a true statement “of the amount of all the existing debts of the...