Gulf Refining Co. v. Cleveland Trust Co.

• Decision Date: 12 April 1926
• Docket Number: 25411
• Citation: 166 Miss. 759,108 So. 158
• Court: Mississippi Supreme Court
• Parties: GULF REFINING CO. et al. v. CLEVELAND TRUST CO. et al

108 So. 158

166 Miss. 759

GULF REFINING CO. et al. v. CLEVELAND TRUST CO. et al

No. 25411

Supreme Court of Mississippi

April 12, 1926

Division A

Suggestion Of Error Overruled April 26, 1926.

APPEAL from chancery court of Washington county, HON. E. N. THOMAS Chancellor.

Suit by the Cleveland Trust Company against the Greenville Gas Company and others to foreclose a mortgage and for the appointment of a receiver, in which the Gulf Refining Company and other creditors filed a crossbill. From a decree sustaining a demurrer to the crossbill, defendants appeal. Affirmed and remanded.

Affirmed and remanded.

Percy Bell, of Greenville, for appellants.

Wynn & Hafter, of Greenville, for appellees.

Briefs of counsel not found.

Argued orally by Percy Bell, for appellants, and by William T. Wynn, for appellee.

OPINION

Smith, C. J.

The Cleveland Trust Company exhibited an original bill in the court below against the Greenville Gas Company, a corporation, and several of its creditors, setting forth a mortgage executed to it by the Greenville Gas Company and the breach thereof, and prayed for the foreclosure of the mortgage and for the appointment of a receiver. The appellants, who are among the creditor defendants to the bill, appeared and filed a crossbill setting up the debts due them by the gas company, and that they were incurred by the gas company in carrying on its business; that the mortgage "conveys the franchise and future earnings of the Greenville Gas Company, and therefore, under section 904 of the Annotated Code of 1906, or section 4076 of Hemingway's Code, said trust deed and the claim of the Cleveland Trust Company is subordinate to the indebtedness owing these respondents, and is not valid against them; and that they are entitled to a payment in full of said indebtedness from the proceeds of any sales made of the property of the said Greenville Gas Company."

From a decree sustaining a demurrer to this crossbill the appellants have brought the case to this court.

The record contains neither the original bill nor the charter of the Greenville Gas Company, because of a stipulation entered into by counsel, which stipulation sets forth the facts considered by counsel necessary for a decision of the case. From this stipulation it appears that the property conveyed by the mortgage is certain land therein described, and "also all appurtenances and hereditaments thereto belonging, and all corporate and other franchises, ordinances, permits, licenses, rights, assessments, rights of way, leases, and leasehold interests, grants, privileges, and immunities belonging to or which may be hereafter owned by the mortgagor. Also all other property of the mortgagor whatsoever, real, personal or mixed, whether now owned or hereafter acquired (it being the intention to include the entire existing and future gas business of the mortgagor, and all its existing and future property and its existing and future rights to transact and conduct such business and every part thereof)."

It also appears from this stipulation that the description in the bill of complaint of the property which the appellee seeks to have sold under the mortgage is the same as the description thereof in the mortgage. It does not appear from this stipulation what franchises, ordinances, permits, licenses, rights, assessments, rights of way, leases, and leasehold interests, grants, privileges, and immunities, etc., the gas company owns or the appellee desires to have sold; "the question presented to the chancellor below," according to the stipulation, "and to the court here, being whether or not the language quoted from the deed of trust conveyed the corporate franchise or future earnings of the corporations."

The statute invoked by the appellants is section 904, Code of 1906 (Hemingway's Code, para. 4076), which provides:

"A mortgage or deed of trust conveying the franchise or income or future earnings of any corporation, no matter when or how such corporation was created, shall not be valid against debts contracted in carrying on the business of the corporation."

"Properly speaking the corporate franchise is the primary franchise, that is, the right and privilege, granted by the state, of being a corporation, and of doing such things, and such things only, as are authorized by the charter." 14 C. J. 160; Adams v. Yazoo & M. V. R. Co., 77 Miss. 194, 24 So. 200, 60 L.R.A. 33.

Any doubt as to the meaning of this term in the stipulation of counsel is removed by their briefs wherein this definition is given thereto.

The contentions of counsel for the appellants are that the mortgage conveys (1) the corporate franchise or right to exist as a corporation; and (2) the future earnings of the Greenville Gas Company, and consequently violates the statute hereinbefore referred to, and is therefore void in toto.

Counsel for the appellee deny that the mortgage violates the statute in any particular, but claim that if it does it is void as to the appellants in so far only as it attempts to convey property in violation of the statute.

We will assume for the purpose of the argument that the words "corporate and other franchises" in the deed of trust includes the primary franchise or right to exist as a corporation. The statute here invoked does not confer power on a corporation to convey property, but restricts its power so to do as against the claims of certain of its creditors, from which it would seem to follow that the word "franchise" therein refers to a franchise which a corporation has the power to convey, and which can be subjected to the payment of the debts of the corporation.

The first question then for decision is the meaning of the word "franchise" in the statute.

"A franchise is a special privilege conferred by governmental authority and which does not belong to citizens of the country generally as a matter of common right. . . . Its meaning depends more or less upon the connection in which the word is employed and 'the property and corporation to which it is applied. It may have different significations.'

"For practical purposes, franchises, so far as relating to corporations, are divisible into (1) corporate or general franchises; and (2) special or secondary franchises. The former is the franchise to exist as a corporation, while the latter are certain rights and privileges conferred upon existing corporations, such as the right to use the streets of a municipality to lay pipes or tracks, erect poles or string wires." 2 Fletcher's Cyclopedia Corp., para. 1148; 14 C. J., p. 160; Adams v. Yazoo & M. V. R. Co., 77 Miss. 194, 24 So. 200, 60 L.R.A. 33 et seq.

The primary franchise of a corporation, that is, the right to exist as such, is vested "in the individuals who compose the corporation and not in the corporation itself" (14 C. J., pp. 160, 161; Adams v. Railroad, supra ; 2 Fletcher's Cyclopedia Corp., paras. 1153, 1158; 3 Thompson on Corporations (2 Ed.), paras. 2863, 2864), and can not be conveyed in the absence of legislative authority so to do (14a C. J. 543, 557; 1 Fletcher's Cyc. Corp., para. 1224; Memphis & L. R. R. Co. v. Railroad Commissioners, 5 S.Ct. 299, 112 U.S. 609, 28 L.Ed. 837; Vicksburg Waterworks Co. v. Vicksburg, 26 S.Ct. 660, 202 U.S. 453, 50 L.Ed. 1102, 6 Ann. Cas. 253; Arthur v. Commercial & Railroad Bank, 9 S. & M. 394, 48 Am. Dec. 719), but the special or secondary franchises of a corporation are vested in the corporation and may ordinarily be conveyed or mortgaged under a general power granted to a corporation to dispose of its property (Adams v. Railroad, supra ; 14a C. J. 542, 557; 3 Thompson on Corp. (2 Ed.), para. 2909), except such special or secondary franchises as are charged with a public use (2 Fletcher's Cyc. Corp., para. 1225; 14a C. J. 544; 3 Thompson on Corp. (2 Ed.), para. 2908; Arthur v. Commercial & R. R. Bank, supra; McAllister v. Plant, 54 Miss. 106).

The liability of the franchise of a corporation to seizure and sale under an execution issued on a judgment against the corporation is controlled by section 910, Code of 1906 (Hemingway's Code, para. 4082), which provides that--

When any "judgment shall be rendered against any corporation, . . . its franchise shall be liable to be seized and sold in satisfaction thereof; . . . and the purchaser may recover any penalties imposed for injuries to the franchise, and shall also discharge all the duties imposed by the charter on the corporate body."

The original of this statute is article 10, chapter 35, Revised Code 1857 (section 2414, Rev. Code 1871), in which the provision is that--

"The franchise of any corporation which may receive freight, toll or charges shall . . . be liable to be sold, in...