Hoag v. Kuiken
Hoag v. Kuiken
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The plaintiffs sued to compel the specific performance of a contract for the sale of shares of stock in a bank; to have defendants Ben Kuiken and R. D. Rose decreed the holders in trust of a number of shares of the stock for the use and benefit of the plaintiffs; and, if it were impossible to compel specific performance of the sale of-the shares of stock in the bank, to recover damages for the failure of the defendants to comply with the contract. Judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiffs for $300 damages, and the defendants appeal.
Findings of fact and conclusions of law were made by the court. The findings of fact showed that defendants Ben Kuiken, R. D.
“16. That the defendants stated at the time of the entering into said oral contract and their understanding was that it was not to be binding unless it was satisfactory to and approved by all of the stockholders of the bank.
“17. It was further understood by and between plaintiffs and defendants that defendants would in good faith try to procure the consent of the stockholders to the terms of said agreement.
“18. That defendants did pursuant to said agreement call a stockholders’ meeting for April first, 1919, at the defendant bank, and immediately set about in good faith to procure the consent of the stockholders to the oral agreement of the directors of said bank with plaintiffs.
“19. That the defendant Denton never was favorable to the agreement with plaintiffs and that the other stockholders of the bank, not defendants herein, immediately began to oppose the proposed action of the defendants, and many of the depositors and customers of said bank expressed themselves as opposed to the plaintiffs’ procuring so large a block of stock and some of them threatened to withdraw their deposits and business from the defendant bank if the proposed deal was consummated.”
The court further found that when the stockholders met, it was unanimously determined to increase the capital stock of the Ionia State Bank to $20,000 and that it was also unanimously determined not to sell twenty shares of the new stock to each of the plaintiffs and not to sell more than five shares to any one person.
The contract was not violated by the defendants. It provided that “it was not to be binding unless it was satisfactory to and approved by all of the stockholders of the bank”; the contract was not satisfactory to all the stockholders; some of them objected to it; neither was it approved by all of them.
The defendants voted not to sell twenty shares of stock to each of the plaintiffs. The plaintiffs argue that by thus voting, the defend
The judgment is reversed, and the trial court is directed to enter judgment for the defendants.
070rehearing
OPINION DENYING A REHEARING.
The opinion of the court was delivered by
In an application for rehearing, an error in copying one of the findings of fact is called to the attention of the court. The error was in the seventeenth finding; it should have been quoted as follows:
"17. It was further understood by and between plaintiffs and defendants that the defendants would in good faith try to procure the consent of the stockholders to the terms of said agreement, and that a vote of two-thirds oj the stockholders was necessary to legally approve the same.”
The italicized portion of the finding was omitted. This makes it necessary to quote another finding as follows:
“That at the stockholders meeting on April 1, the defendants in this action had in addition to their own stock a proxy for seven shares of the Davis stock, issued to R. D. Rose and a proxy for one share of Dusenbury stock, issued to Ben Kuiken, making a total of sixty-six shares of the capital stock consisting of one hundred shares of the defendant bank that could be voted by the defendants either by reason of ownership or proxy.”
This correction and addition do not make any change in the result. The contract was “not to be binding unless it was satisfactory to and approved by all the stockholders of the bank.” The contract was not satisfactory to and was not approved by all of the stockholders of the bank. That ends the matter, and it is not necessary to say anything further, but the last part of the seventeenth finding of fact, the part that was omitted, will be noticed. That finding, so far as this discussion is concerned, reads, “It was further understood . . . that a vote of two-thirds of the stockholders was
A rehearing is denied.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.