Arthur v. Clarke
Arthur v. Clarke
Opinion of the Court
This appeal was taken by two of the defendants, not appellants heretofore, from the judgment entered against the defend
The finding to be considered is that whereby the referee found as a fact, among other things, that each of the appellants was a subscriber, and became and was a stockholder, in defendant corporation from October 11, 1881, to the extent of a specified number of shares of capital stock of a certain par value, a part of which value remained unpaid when this action was brought, — a corporation which, according to the findings, had been organized, put in operation, and was doing business, prior to December 1, 1880. To constitute a foundation for a judgment, the facts required to be found need not be as specific as the allegations of the pleadings, and they were not in this instance, but they must cover the ultimate facts forming the issues presented and tried. On the issuable facts the findings must be complete and certain, and, if the finding in question is so indefinite and ambiguous that it may he construed as meaning that the appellants were merely subscribers for shares of stock, and not full stockholders, with all that these words imply, then it was insufficient, and the judgment appealed from unwarranted. We cannot agree with counsel for appellants that this finding, when considered with others, can be construed as meaning that their clients may have been nothing more than subscribers, or so indefinite and ambiguous that it is impossible to determine whether they merely agreed to take, or actually did take, shares of stock. The finding is, explicitly, that they were subscribers, — persons who had entered into an agreement to take shares of the original issue of stock; and also that, subsequent to the commencement of business operations, they were stockholders, — owners of shares of stock in the corporation. The statute under which the plaintiffs proceeded against these and other defendant stockholders (Gen. St. 1878, c. 76, §§ 21, 22) fixed the liability, in this form of action, of all stockholders from whom amounts were due and unpaid upon shares of stock. Where an action is brought by virtue of and under the provisions of section 17 of said chapter 76, and it is ex.pressly found that the defendants were stockholders in the corporation, it must be held to include a finding that every condition precedent to their becoming full stockholders, and subject to liability,
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Isaac H. Arthur and others v. Francis B. Clarke and another, impleaded, etc.
- Status
- Published