Farmers Union Coop. Brokerage v. Palisade Farmers Union Local No. 714
Farmers Union Coop. Brokerage v. Palisade Farmers Union Local No. 714
Opinion of the Court
Circuit Judge. The Farmers Union Co-operative Brokerage, a corporation, on February 18, 1942, filed an application in the Circuit Court of Minnehaha County for voluntary dissolution under the provisions of SDC 11.0902. Objections were timely filed by three stockholders alleging among other things that no legal meeting of the stockholders was held and that no resolution for the voluntary dissolution of the corporation was adopted by affirmative vote of not less than two-thirds vote of the outstanding stock of said corporation. The trial court, after an extended hearing,
Both parties perfected appeals which have by stipulation and order been consolidated. For the purposes of this opinion the Farmers Union Co-operative Brokerage will be referred to as the appellant, and the three objecting stockholders as respondents. The issue raised by appellant as stated in its brief “is the right and authority of the Circuit Court to remove the board of directors of the petitioning corporation from their offices as trustees for the corporation in its voluntary dissolution.” The respondents contend that the circuit court was without jurisdiction to enter a valid decree of dissolution for the reasons set forth in the objections by them filed. This jurisdictional question merits our first consideration.
That the procedure for the voluntary dissolution of a corporation is purely statutory and the requirements thereof must be complied with in order to give the court jurisdiction was pointed out In re Dissolution of Packer City Tire & Rubber Company, 39 S. D. 48, 162 N. W. 897, 898. The court said, “In order to confer jurisdiction upon the court, to order' dissolution it must be shown that at a legal meeting the stockholders had voted by a vote of two-thirds to voluntarily dissolve such corporation.” To the same effect is In re Balfour & Garrette, 14 Cal. App. 261, 111 P. 615.
Appellant asserts that at the time of the holding of the
The Farmers Educational and Co-operative Union of America, more commonly known as “The Farmers Union”, is a non-stock corporation, a portion of whose by-laws we shall hereafter have occasion to discuss. The Farmers Union Co-operative Brokerage is a stock company entirely separate and distinct from the Farmers Union. Each corporation is a legal entity having a separate constitution, by-laws and officers. The constitution and by-laws of the Farmers Union Co-operative Brokerage provide among other things that each voting stockholder shall prior to the issuance of his stock certificate cause the following agreement to be filed by the secretary: “We do hereby agree to the provisions of the Constitution and By-Laws of the Farmers Union Co-operative Brokerage and agree further that should we cease to be members of the Farmers’ Educational and Cooperative Union of America, we will, upon demand by the Board of Directors, surrender our certificate of stock to said board to be listed for sale and paid for as provided in the By-Laws.” The constitution and by-laws also contain the following provision: “The following named organizations may become stockholders of Class A voting stock: A. The S. D. Division of the F. E. C. U. of America, B. Any county
Aside from the matters hereinbefore set forth the constitution and by-laws contain no voting restrictions.
The 43 stockholders, 40 of which were Local unions and 3 of which were county unions, were the holders of fully paid, outstanding Class A stock registered on the books of the corporation as stockholders, and none of such stock had been called in, nor surrendered upon demand by the board of directors or otherwise. It does not appear that any of the 40 Locals or 3 county unions had forfeited its charter, and it thus becomes necessary to determine whether such locals or county unions had “otherwise become defunct” as provided in Section 7 of Article II above quoted.
The constitution and by-laws of the Farmers Union provide that the right to representation at the annual state convention of the association is dependent upon payment of dues for the current year but suspension for nonpayment is provided for by Section 1 of Article V of the by-laws:
Appellant calls attention to the fact that none of these 43 stockholders is objecting to the action taken, but as hereinbefore noted, the adoption of the resolution in the manner prescribed by law must affirmatively appear in order to give the court jurisdiction; the burden was upon the corporation to establish this fact, and this would have been true even had there been no objection to the granting of the application.
Appellant contends that the validity of the election was not before the court and that proceedings to dissolve the corporation cannot be turned into an equitable action for the purpose of determining the validity of outstanding stock. It may.be stated as a general rule that it is the duty of the court to consider the outstanding stock as shown by the stock book of the corporation in determining the amount of the outstanding stock, and as above noted, the books of the appellant show this stock to be outstanding at the time of the meeting; and thus show that there were 302 holders of Class A or voting stock so that an affirmative vote of 201 members would be necessary to support jurisdiction in the dissolution proceeding.
We are of the opinion that if the judgment of dissolution could be otherwise sustained, it, under the facts shown, should have provided for the appointment of the
The discussion of other questions presented would serve no useful purpose.
The judgment of dissolution is set aside and the trial court is-directed to dismiss the proceeding.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- FARMERS UNION COOP. BROKERAGE v. PALISADE FARMERS UNION LOCAL NO. 714
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- 3 cases
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- Published