Kaiser v. Kaiser
Kaiser v. Kaiser
Opinion of the Court
Mrs. Ruth B. Kaiser filed in DeKalb superior court a petition seeking to enjoin a revival of the charter of the Hat Kaiser Investment Company, which expired on January 7, 1933. The defendants named were Herbert Kaiser and Mrs. Helen Kaiser Schwab, residents of DeKalb County; Grover C. Kaiser and Irving R. Kaiser, of the State of California; Hat Kaiser Investment Company, a corporation chartered by an order of Fulton superior court and having its principal office in Fulton County. The petitioner alleged that the individual defendants owned 2400 of the 3000 shares of the capital stock of the corporation; that plaintiff owned 4 shares outright, and was the owner of the beneficial interest in 596 shares, the legal title to which was in the First National Bank of Atlanta as her trustee; that on February 17, 1933, a petition for revival of the charter of said corporation was filed in Fulton superior court, pursuant to a resolution of a majority of the stockholders passed on February 10, 1933, in which it was alleged that the corporation had continued in the exercise of its functions as a corporation in ignorance of the expiration of its charter, though in fact said corporation had continued in business since the expiration of its charter with knowledge of such expiration, and had thereby barred itself from the right to a reviver thereof. The petition further alleges that it will be more beneficial to the owners of the stock in said corporation that its affairs be wound up and its assets divided among the holders of the stock than to continue the corporation as such, and that there is no sound reason for continuing the existence of the corporation. She prayed that the defendants be enjoined from proceeding further with the petition for reviver, and that the assets of the corporation be disposed of as in cases of corporations whose charters have expired. A temporary restraining order was granted. The defendants demurred on the
The first headnote requires no elaboration.
The judgment overruling the general demurrer leaves the proceeding pending for trial at a future term of the court. The overruling of the special grounds of demurrer, if erroneous, is not such error as to require a reversal of the judgment, which retained the action in court. The portions of the petition which were attacked by special demurrer may still be so amended as to afford the defendants proper information to enable them to prepare their defense; and to this end the former judgment overruling the special demurrers is set aside, with direction to the court to make such ruling as to the special demurrers as in his judgment may be in accordance with law. The petition alleged that “ while said corpora
In the conflict of evidence as to the ignorance of the stockholders of the corporation as to the expiration of the corporation’s charter, the judge, as trior of the facts, was authorized, under the evidence for the plaintiff as incorporated in her sworn petition, to find that the corporation had continued in business, after the expiration of its charter, with knowledge thereof.
Judgment affirmed.
Concurring Opinion
concurring specially. Under our law all persons are divided into two classes, natural and artificial. A corporation is not a natural person, but a creature of the law, an artificial person. A corporation is made by law by the transformation of natural persons, or a natural person, into the artificial person called a corporation. A natural person is entitled to perform any act which may be lawfully performed by any other natural person. A corporation, in its application for existence, is confined to the exercise of those rights and privileges only which are specified in its application for charter if approved by the State, acting in cases of charters granted by the superior court through the-judge of the superior court. In a natural person, the functions which he is authorized to perform in his relations to his fellows are not arbitrarily-limited. He may carry on any given business or calling in accordance with the general rules of law for an unlimited time, or until senility or death overtakes him. The period of existence of such corporations as- the one involved in this case, which was granted by the superior court, is twenty years, with a provision that the charter may be revived at any time within five years if the corporation whose charter has expired continued in the specific business which the' corporation was originally created to perform, in ignorance of
Reference
- Full Case Name
- KAISER v. KAISER
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- Published