108 Pa. 546 | Pa. | 1885
Lead Opinion
delivered the opinion of the court, February 23d, 1885.
The learned counsel for the respondents, in the opening sentence of their counter statement, say: “ It was never pretended that the company could, without legislative sanction, increase or diminish the number of shares or par value thereof.” From this admission, which we readily indorse as correct, we pass at once to the twenty-seventh section of the Act of 1876, from which the stockholders of this corporation derived their power to issue the stock shares the subjects of the present controversy. The section referred to reads as follows : “ Any existing Fire or Fire and Marine Insurance Company, and any stock company formed under this Act, may at any time increase the amount of its capital stock if authorized so to do by the stockholders holding the larger amount in value of the stock at a meeting specially called for that purpose, of which at least sixty days’ public notice shall be given.....Increase of stock as aforesaid may be made by increasing the number of the shares of stock or by increasing the par value of the same, and such increased shares or increased par value shall be allotted pro rata to the stockholders of said company, according to their interest, and may be paid in whole or in part out of the accumulated reserve of the company, in case the condition of the companyiwarrants such allotments, or the same may be disposed of as is provided in this Act for the organization of stock companies.” The first clause of the latter part of this section is that under which the stockholders acted in providing for the increase of the capital stock of the company which they represented, and the latter clause, which refers to section 4, needs no further notice as it does not enter into the present controversy. To this Act, then, and its interpretation, if any it needs, we are confined, for it contains the power under which the stockholders acted, and with it we have but to compare their reso
. The decree of the court below dismissing the plaintiffs’ bill' and imposing upon them the one half of the costs, is now reversed and set aside at the costs of the appellee; and it is ordered that- the said appellee allot to the appellants such an amount of the new stock shares as shall be their proportion under the Act of the General Assembly above recited, free from bonus or charges, and if they, or any of them have, under protest, paid such bonus or charges for the said stock shares, that the same be refunded to them with interest. That the record be remitted to the court below for the purpose, if neces
Dissenting Opinion
filed the following dissenting opinion:—
I do not fully agree with the majority of the court in their construction of the Act of 1876. But, conceding their view of it to be correct, I would not sustain this bill for obvious reasons. They may be briefly stated as follows:—
1. The complainant has no equity. His object is to get stock at $10 per share, for which other shareholders have in good faith paid $20. This is not equity; it is iniquity.
2. He has a full and adequate remedy at law. For the refusal of the company to allot him his proportion of the stock at par, he may sue at law and recover full damages. He has therefore sustained no injury which the law will not redress in the amplest manner. The right to particular shares of stock, where other shares can be bought in the market, is not a right which equity will enforce specifically. We have so decided, and it is familiar law: Foil’s Appeal, 10 Norris, 484.
8. It has been asserted, and it is undoubtedly true, that to enforce the complainant’s legal rights in this proceeding would inflict serious confusion upon the affairs of the defendant company. It is a well-settled rule in equity that a chancellor will not grant an injunction, even to enforce a legal righv, where the injunction will do more mischief than the evil sought to be redressed. Tins must continue to be the rule so long as his decree is of grace, not of right. Applying this principle to the case in hand, we find that a majority of the stock has already been issued under the arrangement adopted at the stockholder’s meeting, and cannot be recalled. Upon each share $20 has been paid in good faith. It requires but a moment’s reflection to see that a decree which requires the company to issue the balance of the stock at $10 must necessarily throw the affairs of the company into confusion, and produce the rankest injustice. If this is equity, it is equity misunderstood.
If there were circumstances of oppression in the case there! might be more ground for this severe exercise of power.. Nothing of the kind appears. On the contrary, the arrangement was entered into in entire good faith; in the belief that it was legal, and under the advice of counsel. Moreover, it was not pretended that all the stockholders were not treated alike. No one stockholder had any advantage over any other. The arrangement was evidently made with a view to the best interests of the company, and in my judgment was wise and conservative. That it was so may fairly be inferred from the fact that the legislature, by the subsequent Act of 29th June,
I can readily understand why the complainant did not resort to bis remedy at law. The measure of damages would in sucb ease have compensated him, but it would have given him no advantage over other stockholders. By filing this bill he gets his stock at $10 per share, for which other shareholders have paid $20, and which is worth in the market $31. Moreover, he has succeeded in throwing the affairs of the company into confusion.
Against such a mode of administering equity I enter my solemn protest.