Wilson v. Kiesel

• Decision Date: 30 November 1896
• Docket Number: No. 139,139
• Parties: WILSON v. KIESEL et al
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

164 U.S. 248

17 S.Ct. 124

41 L.Ed. 422

WILSON

v KIESEL et al.

No. 139.

November 30, 1896.

Ogden Hiles, for appellant.

Abbot R. Heywood, for appellees.

Mr. Chief Justice FULLER delivered the opinion of the court.

Wilson recovered judgment against the Ogden Power Company, a corporation organized under the laws of the territory of Utah, for $22,405.16, on which an execution was issued, and returned wholly unsatisfied, whereupon he filed a bill in the Fourth judicial district court for the territory of Utah, county of Weber, against the company, and against Kiesel, Anderson, and Carnahan, and many others, to compel them severally to pay their respective unpaid subscriptions to the capital stock of the corporation, to be applied in satisfaction of the judgment. Defendants Kiesel, Carnahan, and Anderson were charged with having each subscribed for 50 shares of the par value of $100 each, and with being each liable for $5,000. They answered, denying that there was anything due from them to the corporation, and alleging that each of them had paid in full, and at par value, the amount of the stock subscribed by him; and averring, among other things, that plaintiff was also a subscriber, and had paid no part of his subscription; and that Wilson had long before sold and assigned the said judgment, and now had no interest therein; and, by way of cross complaint, alleged that said judgment was entered by unauthorized consent, and was fraudulent and void for various reasons set forth; that it had been sold and transferred to third parties; and that, if the action of Wilson against the company had been tried, no greater sum than $2,000 would have been found due,—to which cross complaint plaintiff filed an answer.

The record discloses that some 22 of the other defendants filed their several answers to the complaint, but does not contain those answers. The cause was referred to a special master, to take testimony, and report his findings thereon, and he subsequently filed a report, containing 21 findings of fact, embracing a finding that defendants Kiesel, Carnahan, and Anderson had paid their subscriptions to the capital stock in full, and to these the master added 29 further findings, making 50 in all. As a conclusion of law, the master recommended that the court find that plaintiff was entitled to a judgment for the sum of $16,500.52; that some 32 named defendants, not including Kiesel, Carnahan, and Anderson, should be, respectively, ordered to pay their unpaid subscriptions in the amounts stated; and that said amounts should be applied in payment of the judgment and costs. A decree was thereupon rendered in favor of plaintiff, April 29, 1893, making the findings and conclusions of the master the findings and conclusions of the district court, and awarding judgment against each of some 30 defendants for amounts stated severally and separately as to each, and in favor of some 7 defendants under a stipulation that they had paid their several subscriptions, and also in favor of defendants Kiesel, Carnahan, and Anderson. Plaintiff moved for a new trial as to Kiesel, Carnahan, and Anderson, which was denied, and he appealed to the supreme court of the territory from the judgment in favor of Kiesel, Carnahan, and Anderson, and from the order overruling the motion for a new trial. The record does not contain the appeal of the other defendants from the judgment which had been rendered in favor of plaintiff, and against them; but it appears from the opinion of the...