Steverding v. Cleveland Co-Operative Stove Co.

• Citation: 121 Ohio St. 250,167 N.E. 883
• Decision Date: 12 June 1929
• Docket Number: 21339
• Parties: Steverding Et Al. v. The Cleveland Co-Operative Stove Co. Et Al.
• Court: United States State Supreme Court of Ohio

167 N.E. 883

121 Ohio St. 250

Steverding Et Al. v. The Cleveland Co-Operative Stove Co. Et Al.

No. 21339

Supreme Court of Ohio

June 12, 1929

Corporations - Action for transfer of stock and dividends - Statute of limitations does not run until demand made or payment refused.

Messrs Klein, Harris & Diehm, for plaintiffs in error.

Mr James C. Logue and Mr. Robert E. Roehm, for defendants in error.

BY THE COURT.

John E and Gertrude Steverding filed a petition in the court of common pleas of Cuyahoga county against the Cleveland Co-Operative Stove and Hollow Ware Foundry Company to require that company to transfer to them certain shares of stock of such company, issued to Valentine Christ during his lifetime, by him assigned to Arnold and Mary A Steverding, and by them assigned to the plaintiffs, and for a money judgment for dividends declared, and for an order to transfer to them stock dividends.

Thereafter Arnold and Mary A. Steverding and Vincent Christ, as administrator de bonis non of Valentine Christ, were made parties, and such pleadings were filed by the various parties as to put in issue the question whether Valentine Christ in his lifetime assigned or gave the stock to Arnold and Mary A Steverding and the question whether or not a certain contract of settlement executed between the heirs of Valentine Christ and Arnold Steverding, whereby all the personal property of the estate of Valentine Christ was assigned to Arnold Steverding, was effective to assign this stock, which latter issue involved the question of the knowledge of the other heirs of Valentine Christ of the existence of such stock at the time of the execution of the contract and whether Arnold Steverding, knowing of its existence, fraudulently concealed such fact from such heirs, and the question of the application of the statute of limitations to the unpaid dividends declared on said stock more than six years prior to the institution of this suit.

With the exception of the question of the application of the statute of limitations, all the issues were issues of fact and were determined by the trial court upon evidence adduced.

The minutes of the defendant corporation for each dividend show the "same to be payable on or before" a certain date. The record does not disclose any demand of payment by Valentine Christ, or by his pledgee, or by any one in his behalf, upon the Cleveland Co-Operative Stove Company; nor any notice...