Cantril Telephone Co. v. Fisher
Cantril Telephone Co. v. Fisher
Opinion of the Court
— We avail ourselves of the following statement of the case contained in appellant’s brief:
The plaintiff, the appellee, Cantril Telephone Company, is an unincorporated and acting association, claiming to be organized and acting under written articles of asso*205 elation, inaccurately called 'by-laws.’ Those articles, signed by sixteen persons, are not only crude and inartistic, but in and of themselves alone fail to show the real purposes and objects of the organization, and are especially silent as to the means and procedure by which the objects and purposes, whatever they may be, are to be effected. But, when the articles are supplemented by the acts and operations under them by the association, it quite fairly appears that the objects and purposes of the association are not pecuniary profit, but' the supplying of telephone conveniences in the homes of members of the association at a price not exceeding actual cost. The terms 'stock of said company,’ 'stock,’ 'stockholders,’ and 'share of stock’ are frequently used in the articles, but evidently inaccurately. Manifestly, by the term 'stockholders,’ is meant the members of the association, and by the term 'stock,’ the privileges appertaining to membership. One becoming a member had to pay $12 (after-wards seemingly raised to $40), which should properly be styled a membership fee, and the money so raised was doubtless used in constructing the line, and any surplus applied on operating and other incidental expenses. A member had the right to connect one phone with the association’s wires, and thus have the use of the association’s lines and connections for such use, having from time to time to pay such assessments as the association should make to meet the expenses of maintenance and operation.
The articles contain these provisions:
'Art. 2. The number of shares shall be limited to the number of phones said line will carry and do good service.
'Art. 3. Each stockholder shall have the right to put in but one ''phone and shall have the use of said line for such phone under such regulations as may be adopted by the board of managers.’ (Abs. 19, line 25.)
'Art 14. No member shall be allowed to own more than one share of stock nor shall he be allowed to sell his share of stock until after he has offered it for sale to the company (except in case such stockholder should sell his farm, in which case the purchaser of the farm shall have the first chance to purchase such stock), at a price not to exceed the original cost of the share. Any share of stock so purchased by the company shall be held as common stock of the company, but can be sold or rented by the company*206 to any person who is not a stockholder at the time of purchase.’
In the ease at bar, at the time the line in question was constructed, one H. H. Barnett owned the W. y% of N. E. 34, section 7, township 67, range 10, in Van Burén county, and said line was constructed along the south end and east-side of said land; and he, being a member of the association, by virtue of such membership, connected a phone in the dwelling house on said lands with said line, and while he owned said lands continued to use said phone and line. On October 28, 1909, said Barnett entered into a written agreement with the defendant B. T. Fisher, whereby he sold said lands, Together with all appurtenances thereto belonging’ to the defendant, and pursuant to said contract on November 5, 1909, deeded, by warranty deed and without any reservations, said lands to defendant Fisher, who under said deed went into possession and has ever since been in possession by a tenant.
We are asked by the appellants not to prejudge the final merits of the case on the ground that the record is not sufficient for such purpose. It is the contention of the defendants that the plaintiff company knowingly bought a lawsuit, and that it undertook to make itself the judge of a controversy between Fisher and Burnett. The following excerpt from appellants’ brief concisely presents their point of view:
It, or its smart Alecs, thought the company could, by use of a pressure that Barnett could not bring to bear, bring Fisher to an unconditional surrender — that is, Barnett could not disconnect the phone, the company could, and doubtless as the smart Alecs thought, Fisher would surrender before suffering disconnection. But they didn’t know Ben Fisher. We now broadly assert, that the granting of and the refusal to dissolve the injunction issued on the part of the plaintiff was an abuse of injunctional procedure, regardless of whether Fisher’s good faith claim of ownership may or may not be finally determined in his favor. And it was, we assert, an abusive refusal to exercise a wholesome power, when the court refused to grant, the temporary' injunction prayed for by Fisher and Struble..*207 Fisher and. Struble have an unqualified right to a full final hearing without being forced to a choice of either renouncing their claimed right or of suffering irreparable injury. The company can not be allowed to become the judge between Fisher and Barnett, and then decide in Barnett’s favor, put itself in Barnett’s place, and by kind of duress force Fisher to yield — enforce against Fisher a pressure Barnett could not enforce.
Careful examination of the record satisfies us that the defendants’ view of the case as thus expressed is somewhat distorted. Burnett was a member of the plaintiff company. He sold his farm to the defendant Fisher, and executed a warranty deed therefor in the latter part of November, 1909. The theory of appellants is that the warranty deed as a matter of law carried to the grantee the membership in the plaintiff company as an appurtenance to the land. This claim is based to some extent, also, upon the provisions of section 14 of the articles of the company. It is clear that, in the absence of section 14 of the articles, the mere conveyance of the land by warranty deed could not of itself confer membership upon the grantee in the plaintiff company. It is conceded by appellees that the sale of the land to Fisher carried to him a right or option to purchase the “share” of Burnett, and to become a member of the plaintiff company. The trial judge was justified in finding from the affidavits before him that in the negotiations for the sale of the land Burnett had solicited Fisher to buy his “share” in the plaintiff company, and that Fisher declined to do so. For the first year after the purchase, Fisher’s tenant paid to Burnett the rental provided for in section 14. In the spring of 1910 the company refused to buy from Burnett because it desired that Fisher should buy the same and become a member. One year later it bought the share from Burnett under the provisions of section 14 for $24. It knew at this time that Fisher claimed that his warranty deed carried all of Burnett’s rights to member
II. It is strongly urged that the granting of a temporary writ of injunction was an abuse of power, regardless of the final merits of the case, and that such writ should
No other question is presented for our consideration.
The order of the trial court is therefore, — Affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.