Kane v. Shields

• Decision Date: 11 January 1897
• Citation: 167 Mass. 392,45 N.E. 758
• Parties: KANE et al. v. SHIELDS et al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts Supreme Court

167 Mass. 392

45 N.E. 758

KANE et al. v. SHIELDS et al.

Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, Hampden.

January 11, 1897

COUNSEL

J.B. Carroll and W.H. McClintock, for plaintiffs.

Daniel E. Leary and Edward H. Lathrop, for defendants.

OPINION

FIELD C.J.

This case was heard by a justice of the superior court upon the pleadings and evidence, and a decree entered for the plaintiffs against certain of the defendants, and the bill dismissed, without costs, as to certain other of the defendants. The evidence was taken by a commissioner appointed by the court at the request of the defendants presumably under rule 35. The case was reported to this court, and the conclusion of the report is as follows "At the request of the defendants, I report this case for the determination of the supreme judicial court, such disposition to be made thereof as to the court shall seem proper."

The plaintiffs' counsel contends that the decree should be affirmed against the defendants held liable by the superior court, and also that it should be modified so as to include among those held liable some of the defendants as to whom the bill was ordered to be dismissed. We are of opinion that this last contention is not open to the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs have not appealed from the decree, and it does not appear that they asked to have the case reported. It appears that the evidence was taken and the case reported at the request of the defendants. Although it does not appear that the defendants have in form appealed from the decree, yet we think that the case, as reported, should be treated as if the defendants had appealed and the plaintiffs had not. Moors v. Washburn, 159 Mass. 172, 176, 34 N.E. 182.

The principal question in the case is whether such an association as is described in the bill and shown by the evidence can, by a vote of a majority of its members voting on the question lawfully authorize its officers to pay, out of the money and funds of the association, to certain members, who are permitted to secede from it and set up another and a different organization, their pro rata share of the property of the association. The constitution and by-laws of the association put in evidence contain no provisions which seem to us to authorize such an appropriation of the property of the association. The association was not dissolved by the vote, but continued to exist the same as before. The case, on the evidence,...