Commonwealth v. Reliance Safe Deposit & Trust Co.
Commonwealth v. Reliance Safe Deposit & Trust Co.
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
On the ground that the body of the act contains subject matter which is not clearly expressed in the title, counsel for appellant in this case question the constitutionality of the Act of April 23, 1909, P. L. 143, which
It appears from the record that in 1904 the assignee of the Penn Bank, which after a change of name had been operated under a special charter granted April 5, 1872, “to the Safe Deposit and Trust Company of Wheatland,” sold the charter to Samuel B. Hartwell for the sum of $10.00. He with his associates undertook to reorganize the company, and without the payment of any cash capital into the treasury, they issued to themselves paid up capital stock to the amount of $200,000.00. This was in violation of a sound and fundamental rule that in banking corporations the capital stock must be paid in cash. There is no room for watered stock in such a corporation. If the reorganizers of this institution desired to continue the banking business, they were bound to pay in the designated amount of capital in cash. That the old corporation, the Penn Bank, was liquidated, cannot be denied. Admittedly it made a voluntary assignment for the benefit of its creditors, and its assets were distributed, and its charter was sold. Its affairs were wound up and settled. The attempt of the reorganizers to capitalize the franchise, or the right to do business granted by the State, at the sum of $200,000, was the merest farce. The action was a nullity. Nor does it appear that the reorganizers have in any proper manner exercised the powers conferred upon them by the letters patent. The mere hold-; ing of annual meetings and the election of officers, without anything else, is not a compliance with the law.
The assignments of error are overruled, and the judgment and the decree made in pursuance thereof are affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Commonwealth ex rel. v. The Reliance Safe Deposit & Trust Co.
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- Syllabus
- Constitutional law — Titles of acts — Act of April %8, 1909, P. L. llfS — Corporations—Banicing corporations — Forfeiture of charters. 1. The Act of April 23, 1909, P. L. 143, providing for proceedings against certain coiporations to have their charter rights declared null and void, is constitutional. Notice given in the title of an act, that corporations which have not commenced business within two years of the date of their letters patent shall be proceeded against for the purpose of having their charters forfeited, is sufficient notice of a provision in the enacting part of the statute that corporations “which have not paid in the capital required by law, and have not in any manner exercised the powers conferred upon them by their letters patent,” will also be proceeded against. A corporation which has not paid in its capital as required by law, and which has not in any manner exercised the powers conferred upon it by its letters patent, cannot in any proper sense of the word be said to have commenced business. 2. The assignee of a bank which, after a change of name, had been operated under a special charter granted to another banking company, sold the charter for $10. The purchaser and his associates undertook to reorganize the company, and without the payment of any cash into the treasury, issued to themselves paid up capital stock to the amount of $200,000. It was conceded that the bank had been liquidated. Held, the attempt of the reorganizers to capitalize the franchise or to do business in the manner indicated was a mere farce and their action was a nullity. The fact that they had held annual meetings and elected officers made no difference, and a judgment of ouster entered at tbe suit of the Commonwealth was sustained.