Jamieson v. Indiana Natural Gas & Oil Co.
Decision Date | 20 June 1891 |
Citation | 28 N.E. 76,128 Ind. 555 |
Court | Indiana Supreme Court |
Parties | Jamieson v. Indiana Natural Gas & Oil Co. et al. |
OPINION TEXT STARTS HERE
Appeal from circuit court, Porter county; William Johnston, Judge.
Complaint by Egbert Jamieson, a stockholder in the Indiana Natural Gas & Oil Company, for an injunction to prevent the company from carrying out a contract alleged to have been in violation of law. There was a demurrer to the answer, which the trial court carried back to the complaint, and sustained as a demurrer thereto. Plaintiff appeals.
Walter D. Holt, for appellant. W. E. Niblack, Addison C. Harris, and Linton Cox, for intervenors. Bell & Morris, Morris & Barrett, and Winter & Elam, for appellees.
The complaint of the appellant states these material facts: The Indiana Natural Gas & Oil Company is a corporation organized under the laws of Indiana for the purpose of drilling wells, procuring natural gas, and supplying it to consumers. The appellant is a stockholder in that corporation. The Columbus Construction Company is also a corporation, and is the owner of natural gas wells in many counties of this state. In June, 1890, the gas company entered into a contract with the construction company, wherein it was provided that the latter company should acquire the right of way through Indiana and through Illinois to the city of Chicago; that it should construct for the gas company, on the right of way secured, a line of pipe for the transportation of natural gas, and should furnish all necessary machinery and appliances required to obtain and convey natural gas to consumers. In consideration of the purchase of the right of way and the furnishing and construction of pipe lines, machinery, and appliances, the gas company agreed to issue and deliver to the construction company capital stock to the value of $1,500,000, and also to issue to the construction company $4,000,000 of its corporate bonds, and to secure their payment by a mortgage upon its property and franchises. The construction company, proceeding under the contract, acquired a right of way as agreed, and did purchase and lay down a line of pipe for a distance of 20 miles, and distributed pipe along the right of way for a distance of 40 miles. That company has purchased, and has in readiness, machinery and appliances to be connected with the line of pipes; and it is able, ready, and willing to perform its part of the contract. Natural gas can only be transported to Chicago by pumping and under pressure. It will be impossible to transport it to that point at a pressure which does not exceed 300 pounds to the square inch. The gas company will have no other assets or property than “its plant and system, and no means whatever of paying either the principal or interest” of the corporate bonds which are to be issued to the construction company; but its only means of paying such bonds, or of redeeming its capital stock, will be such as are derived from “the plant and system, and the revenues, tolls, in come, and profits to be earned thereby in the transportation and sale of natural gas in the city of Chicago; and the sole value of its stock will depend upon the right and ability of said company to engage in and carry on, by means of its natural gas plant and system, the business of transportingnatural gas to Chicago and there selling the same.” The plant and system cannot be put to any other commercially profitable use than that of transporting natural gas to Chicago, and can only be used to advantage and profit by the use, as aforesaid, of the pumping machines and other artificial devices. The complaint sets forth at full length the act of March 4, 1891, and, in addition to the averment of the facts already outlined, contains these allegations:
The trial court carried back the demurrer addressed to an answer filed by the appellees to the complaint, and gave judgment because of the insufficiency of that pleading. The ruling of the trial court in carrying back and sustaining the demurrer to the appellant's complaint is properly challenged by a specification in the assignment of errors. We decide the case upon the ruling adjudging the complaint bad, and we neither give nor intimate an opinion upon any other ruling, nor upon any other questions than such as that ruling legitimately presents. We do not feel at liberty to consider any other questions than those designated, and upon none others do we give judgment; nor, indeed, can we decide any other questions without a departure from settled principles of procedure.
To determine what questions are legitimately presented to us, it is necessary to give a construction to the complaint which the trial court condemned; but it is only necessary to state in a very general way what we adjudge to be the nature of the complaint. We adjudge that the complaint is to be construed as charging that the contract of the corporation, of which the appellant is a member, with the construction company is incapable of performance, because it requires a violation of the act of March 4, 1891, in...
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