176 A. 17 | Pa. | 1934
In this action of quo warranto, which was brought upon the suggestion of the attorney general, the Commonwealth seeks to have the corporate charter of the Seventh Day Baptists, of Ephrata, declared forfeited for misuser, and to have certain persons who claim to be trustees of the corporation ousted. By agreement the case was tried without a jury, and, after hearing the testimony, the court below found that the defendant corporation had wilfully violated the provisions of its charter and exceeded the powers therein given, that it had failed to use the powers and privileges granted by its charter, and that it had been guilty of waste of the corporate property. Accordingly, judgment of ouster was entered as prayed for, and from that judgment the corporation has appealed.
Defendant corporation is a society of Seventh Day German Baptists, a branch of the religious sect of German Baptist Brethren, commonly known as Dunkers or Dunkards. The society was organized about 1728, and several years later a semimonastic community of the members of the society, with a convent (the "Sister House") and a monastery (the "Brother House"), was *360 established at Ephrata, in Lancaster County. The height of the society's influence was reached shortly before the Revolution, and during the war its monastic members nursed many wounded soldiers, a large number of whom are buried on the grounds, in a cemetery which is still in existence. The society became unpopular for the reason, inter alia, that it had opposed the armed resistance to Great Britain, and after the war the number of its monastic members rapidly decreased. By special Act of Assembly of February 21, 1814, P. L. 54, the society was incorporated as the Seventh Day Baptists, of Ephrata. The act recited that, since the monastic branch of the society was "reduced to a few aged and infirm members, who are incapable of managing their estate," the property of the society should be held by the corporation, the trustees of which were given power "to manage the business of the said society," and "to lease the lands and real estate belonging to the same; provided, they shall grant no lease nor dispose of any real estate for a longer term than four years"; the proceeds of the property, it was provided, were "to be applied from time to time, for the use, maintenance and support of the members of the society, and for the support of the poor of the said society." Later, by the Act of February 19, 1828, P. L. 108, and the Act of February 23, 1842, P. L. 30, the trustees were specifically empowered to sell certain portions of the land owned by the corporation; but, with these exceptions, no authority to sell land was given at any time.
The testimony taken below has not been printed in the record before us; accordingly we must assume, on this appeal, that the court below, from competent evidence, found the facts necessary to sustain its conclusions of law, and also all facts warranted by the evidence: Hoffman v. Kline,
Appellant's statement of questions involved, which limits the scope of the appeal (N.Y. Pa. Co. v. N.Y. C. R. R. Co.,
Appellant contends that it is not to be deprived of its charter, because it retains sufficient property to carry out its corporate objects. The court below did not so find, however, and, inasmuch as the evidence is not before us, this contention cannot be regarded as more than a mere assertion of counsel. In any case, the argument has no merit. It is not necessary that the waste of a corporation's assets shall have continued to such an extent that its purposes are impossible of fulfilment, before its charter may be forfeited. Enough appears where a continuous and deliberate waste is shown, and where the corporate purposes have been so disregarded that the public is completely deprived of the charitable benefits for which the corporation was created.
The judgment is affirmed. *363