Altoona Sanitary Milk Co. v. Armstrong
Altoona Sanitary Milk Co. v. Armstrong
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
■ This action is brought to recover the amount of a subscription by the defendant to the capital stock of the plaintiff corporation. The only ground of defense, so far as the specifications of error are concerned, was that the defendant was relieved of liability because of the connection of the Industrial Construction Company, of Chicago, a corporation of the state of Illinois, with the contract which included the subscription of the defendant to the capital stock of the plaintiff corporation. The fact that the Illinois corporation, at the time of the execution of the contract, did hot have an authorized agent or an established office in Pennsylvania, and had not registered in the office of the secretary of the commonwealth, or in the office of the auditor general, and consequently had no right to make the contract, must, it is contended by the defendant, render the whole contract invalid, and strike down all rights arising thereunder. The contract was dated October 15, 1903, and the Illinois corporation, while not registered at that date, did appoint an agent, establish an office, execute the certificate required by the Act of April 22, 1874, P. L. 108, and duly file the same in the office of the secretary of the commonwealth, on November 11, 1903. i
The written agreement which contains the subscription of stock upon which this action is founded did name the Illinois corporation as “party of the first pari” and the subscribers, the defendant and eighty-two other residents., of Altoona, as “parties of the second part;” but all the provisions of this paper must be considered in determining its true meaning and ascertaining its effect and the rights and duties to which it gave rise. When thus considered it clearly appears that the principal purpose of the subscribers was to form a corporation to own and operate a sanitary milk plant, the stock of the corporation to be held by the subscribers in the proportion set down in their respective subscriptions. This clearly appears from the following paragraph of the subscription agreement. “For the purpose of forming a corporation to own and operate said sanitary milk plant and fully carry out the intention of the subscribers, it is agreed that when this contract is closed, second parties, shall come together at some convenient meeting place in compliance
The Illinois corporation was not a subscriber to the stock of the Pennsylvania corporation; its undertaking was simply to equip and furnish the building. The agreement was, in effect, quadrilateral, each subscriber contracted with the proposed Pennsylvania corporation, with all the other subscribers and with the Illinois corporation: Railway Company v. Bily, 11 Pa. Superior Ct. 144; Jeannette Bottle Works v. Schall, 13 Pa. Superior Ct. 96; Edinboro Academy v. Robinson, 37 Pa. 210; Shober’s Administrators v. Lancaster County Park Association, 68 Pa. 429.
There was no dispute, at the trial in the court below, as to the material facts in this case. Subscriptions to the capital stock of the proposed corporation to an amount in excess of 150,000, the aggregate being almost 175,000, were obtained prior to October 15, 1903. Notice was given to the subscribers as provided for in the agreement, and in pursuance thereof there was a meeting of the subscribers on October 19,1903, at which an organization was effected, there were elected a board of directors, a secretary, a treasurer and three auditors; the name of “Altoona Sanitary Milk Company” was adopted for the proposed corporation, the amount of the capital stock fixed at 175,000, the board of directors authorized to determine the manner of collecting the stock subscriptions and provision made for procuring a charter. An application for a charter in due form having been made, the same was approved by the governor of the commonwealth and the charter was-issued on December 8, 1903, to the plaintiff corporation. The charter was duly recorded in the office for the recording of deeds in Blair county, on January 22, 1904. The Pennsylvania corporation thus formed issued calls for payment of installments upon the subscriptions of stock from
After careful consideration of the subscription agreement and the evidence produced at the trial below we are led to the conclusion that the action of the learned judge of the court below in giving binding instructions for the plaintiff was free from error. The contract, so far as the Illinois corporation is concerned, has been fully executed, and that corporation has no further interest in the matter. The plaintiff does not recover under any right derived from the Illinois corporation, but upon the contract of this defendant with his associates. Even if the Illinois corporation could not have enforced this contract against
The judgment is affirmed
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.