Collins Park & Belt Railroad v. Short Electric Railway Co.
Collins Park & Belt Railroad v. Short Electric Railway Co.
Opinion of the Court
1. The word “person,” according to section 5 of tbe code, includes “corporation,” and tbe word “party,” as employed in section 4263 of the code, cannot mean less than person; otherwise there is no provision of law by which a corporation can obtain a supersedeas to a judgment rendered against it. The mere use of the personal pronoun “his” cannot be held to limit the right of supersedeas to natural persons; for to place upon it the narrow construction which would limit the application of the statute to such persons would likewise limit it to persons of the male gender, whereas it was the manifest purpose and intent of the General Assembly to provide a means of obtaining a supersedeas in favor of any party whose interest might be affected by the judgment of a court from whose decision a writ of error lies. So we conclude that this right was extended as well to corporations as to natural persons, and that the former, by their appropriate officers, may as lawfully make the oath required to obtain a supersedeas by affidavit in forma pauperis, as it may execute a bond to accomplish the same purpose.
2. An examination of the record will show that the defendant in the present case bought of the plaintiff and two other persons the railroad property involved in the present litigation (it being at the time subject to the lien of certain encumbrances), paid no part of the purchase money, but entered into an agreement for the prompt payment of the purchase price, time being made of the essence of such agreement, and it being further conditioned that upon default of payment the sellers should have the right of re-entry. Several of the stockholders of the purchaser corporation claimed to have advanced certain moneys upon the betterment and improvement of the property purchased by it. Upon breach of covenant to promptly pay the purchase money, the sellers filed a petition praying for a rescission of the agreement, that they be permitted to re-enter, and failing
3. The evidence fully authorized the decree of rescission;., and inasmuch as the contract being rescinded the property was restored to and became the property of the sellers, the court had authority under the pleadings filed to proceed through its receiver to sell the property and distribute its. proceeds according to the equities, of the several conflicting claimants of the fund. It is obvious that in this distribution the purchaser corporation had no concern. It had no reversionary interest which it sought by appropriate pleadings to protect, and if as between the several contestants before the court errors were committed (and that there were-we do not concede), such errors were harmless in so far as-the purchaser corporation was concerned, and therefore afford on its behalf no cause either of complaint or exception. Bor this reason we do not deem it profitable to inquire into - the various exceptions taken to the rulings of the court made in adjusting the equities between the conflicting;
Reference
- Full Case Name
- COLLINS PARK & BELT RAILROAD COMPANY v. SHORT ELECTRIC RAILWAY CO.
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published