Elite Wood Products Corp. v. Fein
Elite Wood Products Corp. v. Fein
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Plaintiff is the owner of all the outstanding preferred stock of Winthrop Products Corporation (hereinafter referred to as Winthrop), a Massachusetts corporation. It brought this stockholder’s suit against Trenton Products Company (hereinafter referred to as Trenton), Ansley Radio & Television, Inc., (hereinafter referred to as Ansley) and others, and joined Winthrop as a defendant. Trenton and Ansley are both New Jersey corporations and were served with process within this State. All the other defendants, including Winthrop, are nonresidents and no personal service of process was made upon any of them in New Jersey. Substituted service was made on Winthrop and on four other nonresident defendants.
In pertinent part the complaint charged that defendants Bernard Fein and T. Stewart Harris exercised full voting control of Winthrop through ownership of its common stock; that they entered into a corrupt and fraudulent scheme to enrich themselves and ruin Winthrop and siphon off its business and assets; that in furtherance of this scheme, they
Defendants Trenton and Ansley moved to dismiss the complaint against them on the ground that onr court was without jurisdiction to enter any effective or valid or conclusive judgment affecting the defendants Trenton and Ansley, because Winthrop is a necessary and indispensable party to the suit and has not been and cannot be served with process in New Jersey. The trial court entered an order dismissing the complaint as to the defendants Trenton and Ansley '“in all respects except insofar as the complaint makes claim to physical assets of Winthrop Products Corporation allegedly removed to the State of New Jersey, and as to that claim the suit shall proceed to final hearing.”
The plaintiff argues that the trial court erred in limiting the suit against Trenton and Ansley to relief solely in connection with physical assets of Winthrop within the State of New Jersey. But the real question before us is narrower. The only assets of Winthrop claimed to be, or to have been, in possession of Trenton and Ansley consisted of physical assets, namely, machinery, equipment and inventory. The only relief sought against Trenton and Ansley, other than in connection with such physical assets, depended upon the claim against them for an unliquidated amount of profits made by them. Neither Trenton nor Ansley admitted any debt or demand, either liquidated or unliquidated, due to Winthrop. Consequently, neither a liquidated debt or demand, nor an admitted unliquidated debt or demand, due to Winthrop, is involved. Cf. State v. Standard Oil Co., 5 N. J. 281 (1950) affirmed sub nom. Standard Oil Co. v. New Jersey, 341 U. S. 428, 95 L. Ed. 1078 (1951).
The only question, then, is whether substituted service on Winthrop gave our court a breadth of jurisdiction sufficient to support a judgment in the suit against Trenton and Ansley on the claim for the unliquidated amount of profits.
When a corporation refuses to sue for wrongful dealing with corporate property, or for a debt or demand due to the corporation, and the action is brought by its stockholders, the corporation is an indispensably necessary party. 4 Pomeroy Eq. Jur. (5th ed. 1941), § 1095; 13 Am. Jur., Corporations, § 466; cf. Wilson v. American Palace Car Co. (second case), 65 N. J. Eq. 730 (E. & A. 1903). In such a stockholders’ suit, if out court obtains control over the property of such a foreign corporation, it may obtain a jurisdiction quasi in rem over the foreign corporation, by substituted service, sufficient to support a limited judgment respecting such property. Wilson v. American Palace Car Co. (second
Plaintiff also argues that Trenton and Ansley, who were personally served within the State, cannot be heard to complain about the lack of personal service upon Winthrop, relying on Wilson v. American Palace Car Co. (third case), 67 N. J. Eq. 262 (Ch. 1904). But this case has no application. because it held only that “defendants who have refused to come in have no standing to ask for a dismissal of the bill.”
Plaintiff relies heavily on Kidd v. New Hampshire, 72 N. H. 273, 56 A. 465 (Sup. Ct. 1903) and argues it is on all fours with this case. We think it has no application. There, no claim for profits was involved. In that case the defendant traction company, a New Hampshire corporation, was duly served and “The interests of the other defendants in the traction company, and the money and property of all the defendants in the hands of the Rockingham County Light & Power Company, a New Hampshire corporation, were attached upon a writ in aid of the bill * * Substituted service was made on the shareholders’ own corporation, Massachusetts Construction Company, Incorporated, a defendant, which was a Connecticut corporation. In that case the bill charged that stocks and bonds worth $500,00"0, owned by the suing shareholders’ corporation, were fraudulently transferred to
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.