after stating the case, delivered the. opinion of the court.
This case presents primarily the question whether a minority of the stockholders of -a corporation have a right to intervene in the foreclosure of a mortgage upon the corporate property for the purpose of showing that the property was sold to the corporation by the connivance of the mortgagees at a gross overvaluation, and to compel the bonds held by them to be
It should be borne in mind in connection with the several defences set up by the intervenors that they- do not appear here in the capacity of creditors, but as stockholders; that their rights are the rights of the corporation and must be asserted аnd enforced through the corporation, and upon the theory that the latter has or threatens, by collusion or otherwise, to neglect the proper defence of the foreclosure suit.
Dodge
v.
Woolsey,
There are several preliminary objections made by the intervenors to this foreclosure which require to be disposed of before entering upon the proper merits of the case. They are —
1. That the bonds were not due. This in a certain sense is true. The bonds were peculiar in this respect: There was no date fixed for their maturity, but there was a provision that on the first day of December, 1893, and upon the same date in every succeeding year, the company would redeem a certain number of bonds to be ascertained by drawings made under the direction of the Northern Trust Company in the month of November in each yеar. That immediately after such drawing the company should cause the numbers ol the bonds drawn for redemption to be published in New York and Chicago newspapers, and that every bond so drawn should become redeemable on the first day of December next thereafter. There was no evidence that any such drawing was ever made, and the Trust Company did not institute their foreclosure proceedings upon the theory that any of the bonds, by their terms, had matured.
There was, however, a provision that the mortgage should become enforcible, if the trustees should declare the princi
It appears that one James Flanagan, who was a bondholder, brought suit against the company on January 22, 1895, upon six coupons. The action appears to have been brought directly or indirectly through the legal firm who were also counsel of the defendant company. Summons was issued, returnable January 28, 1895, and served upon the president of the company at five o’clock p.m. on the day it was issued (22d). On the same afternoon, the president appeared before the justice of the,peace and consented to an immediate trial, which resulted in a judgment for $180. Execution being sworn out, it was issued and placed in the hands of the constable at about half-past five o’clock of the same day. Later on the same day the trustees gave notice to the-company that, by reason of such execution having been unpaid, they declared the principal and interest upon the óiíé thousand bonds'named and described in the trust deed to be immediately payable, and upon the same night the trustees took possession of the .property of the-company in the vicinity of Chicago, the officers and agents of the company making no resistance. It- also appeared that the president of the company had been in consultation with the attorneys of the trustees about foreclosing the mortgage and taking possession of the property, for several days prior to January 22.
Upon this state of facts the master, to' whom the case was referred, reported that the contentioiy of the defendants, that the procurement of the Flanagan judgment wаs the result of a collusion of the company, was not supported by the testimony.' This was also the opinion both of the Circuit Court and of the Court of Appeals.
"We have no doubt that this judgment was collusive in the» sense that it was obtained by the plaintiff and consented to by the defendant company for the purpose of giving the trustees a legal excuse for declaring the principal and interest of
If the law concerned itself with the motives of parties new complications would be introduced into suits which might seriously obscure their real merits. If the debt secured by a mortgage be justly due, it is no defence to a foreclosure that the mortgagee was animated by hostility or other bad motive. Davis v. Flagg, 35 N. J. Eq. 491; Dering v. Earl of Winchelsea, 1 Cox Ch. 318; McMullen v. Ritchie, 64 Fed. Rep. 253, 261; Toler v. East Tenn. &c. Railway, 67 Fed. Rep. 168.
The reports of this court furnish a number of analogous cases. Thus, it is well settled that a mere colorable conveyance of property, for the purpose of vesting title in a nonresident and enabling him to bring suit in a Federal court, will not confer jurisdiction ; but if the conveyance appear to be a real transaction, the court will' not, in deciding upon the
The law is equally well settled that, if a person take up a
Iona fide
residence in another State, he may sue in the Federal court, notwithstanding his purpose was to resort to a forum of which he could not have availed himself if he were a resident of. the State in which the court was held.
Cheever
v.
Wilson, 9.
Wall. 108, 123;
Briggs
v.
French,
In this connection it is claimed that the Trust Company was premature in declaring the principal and interest of the mortgage to be due, although the mortgage provided that such declaration might be made if the company should not “ forthwith,” upon execution being sued out, discharge or pay it. It is insisted that the company was entitled to a reasonаble time in analogy to certain cases which hold that in insurance companies the word “forthwith” carries this signift
2. That the bonds 'were not put in evidence prior to the decree of foreclosure and salе. This objection is unsound. The foreclosure suit was by mortgagees in possession. The bill averred and the answer of the company admittéd the issue of one thousand bonds of one thousand dollars each, with the accompanying interest coupons, and the answer of the intervenors admitted that these bonds were issued and certified by the Trust Company, and only denied that
all
of them were duly issued, negotiated and sold, and that they were valid and outstanding obligations. The testimony for both parties showed that the entire number were certified and issued by the company, and the master also made a finding to the same effect. He also found that they were valid
When, after a sale, the case is referred to a master for .proof of claims against.the proceeds of sale, they must of course be brought into court for payment and'cancellation, and the title of each holder must then be proved.
3. .That the bonds were not negotiable. This objection is also unsound; Thé bonds were payable “ to the bearer, or, when registered, to the registered owner thereof; ” were declared to be due on or before December 1, 1901, and were redeemable by annual drawings conducted under the supervision of the Trust Company. It was hot known which bonds it would redeem in any one year, as this was to be determined by drawings; but its promise was to redeem all of them before December 1,1901. Considering the nature of corporate bonds, and the difficulty of redeeming so large a number and amount upon any one day, we do not think the fact that they were
It is at least doubtful whether the fact that these bonds were or were nof negotiable is a material one; but assuming it to be such, we think they were negotiable within the meaning of the law.
4. That the Circuit Court should have allowed the answer to be amended for the purpose of showing that the organization of the defendant company, and the execution of the bonds and mortgage, were parts- of a scheme to form a trust or unlawful combination in restraint of trade. After the answer of the defendant company and the original answer of the appellants — who had been admitted as defendants by leave of court — were filed, and all the proofs had been taken, appellants filed an amendment to their answer, setting up that the bonds and mortgage were parts of a combination or trust in restraint'of trade, and in direct violation of the act of Congress of July 2, 1890, “to protect trade and commerce against unlawful restraints and monopolies,” and also in violation of the act of the general assembly of Illinois “ to provide for the punishmеnt of persons, partnerships or corporations forming trusts, pools and combines, and mode of procedure and rules of evidence in such cases,” approved June 11,1891. The answer set out the facts at length, averring that there were seventy mills engaged in the manufacture of straw paper, all in competition with each other, and that the company obtained control of. forty of the mills and operated sixteen. This amended answer was filed without objection from court or counsel, and still remains as part of the pleadings in the case.
Prior, however, to this amendment being filed, and on January 10, 1896, Charles A. Miller filed his petition to be
But admitting everything that can be claimed for the combination in this connection, we do not see: how it can affect materially the foreclosure of this mortgage. If this were a proceeding in quo warranto to attack the organization of the corporation, or an indictment under the statute of Illinois,' or an action >against a member of the combination to enforce any of the provisions of the original contract, the validity of such, contract would become an important question. But in a suit to foreclose a mortgage upon the property of the concern, it is difficult to see how the purpose f6r which the corporation was originally organized can become a material inquiry. So long as the corporation- existed, ;it had the power to create a mortgage, and when that mortgage became due the trustee had a right to foreclose. This trustee was no party to the alleged combination, and the fraud, if any existed, was wholly extrinsic to the mortgage. It would- seem a curious defence if a mortgagor could set up against the mortgage that the property covered by it was used for an illegal purpose unknown to the mortgagee, as, for instance, gambling, and therefore that' the mortgage was invalid..
5. That the court erred in holding that the evidence did not support the contention of the petitioners, that there is a liability, enforcible in this cause, against the bondholders holding stock that is not paid for, to the Columbia, Straw Paper Company, amounting to $2,113,000, and which indebtedness should be set ■ off against the indebtedness on each bond. This proposition involves the real mеrits of the case. The gravamen of the petitioners’. contention is that the bondholders should be held for the difference between the amount paid by Stein for the. thirty-nine mill properties, namely,. $1,887,000 of stock,' and the amount for which he subse: quently turned them over to the paper company, namely, four millions of dollars in stock, the difference being $2,113,000.
In October, 1892, there were about seventy straw paper mills doing business in the Northwestern States, and having a practical monopoly of the manufacture of straw paper. .
Some efforts had been made to combine them in a single corporation, but they had proven unsuccessful, when, in February, 1892,- the scheme was revived by one Stein, who represented a firm of New York capitalists; certain other capitalists in Buffalo, who were represented by one Beard, and still others in Chicago.
As the. result of certain conferences between Stein and some others who had previously endeavored to obtain options, Philo D. Beard and Thomas T. Ramsdell undertook to obtain options for the purchase of these mills, to be turned over to a corporation to be organized by Beard and Ramsdell with a capital stock of $4,000,000. The options did not specify the number of mills that were to join, although it seems to have been understood that the entire seventy were to be gotten in if possible, but as a matter of fact Beard and Ramsdell obtained options upon only thirty-nine. The options show clearly that it was intended to. turn the properties over to the new corporation. For these' properties they agrеed to pay $2,788,000, part in cash ($766,00.0),'part in preferred stock ($629,000), part in common stock ($1,258,000) and part in notes ($135,000) of the new company. The stock payments thus aggregated $1,887,000.
Instead of calling the mill owners together and organizing a new corporation, Beard and Ramsdell turned over the options to Stein; and articles of incorporation, were drawn by a member of the New York firm under the laws of New Jersey, which were executed by Beard, one Taylor, a clerk in' the office of the New York firm, and one Heppenheimer, a New York lawyer residing in New Jersey, each of these subscribing for four shares, aggregating twelve shares out of a total issue of 40,000 shares. These articles of .incorporation were filed in the office of the Secretary of State on December 6, 1892. The three incorporators met immediately in Hoboken as stockholders, and elected themselves as' directors with six
Immediately thereafter, and on December 10, 1892, Stein, who held all the options, assuming to act • as an independent. owner, though he had obtained the options for the benefit of the company, and had promised to pay for them in the stock of the company, made a proposition in writing drawn by a member of the New York firm to this board of directors to sell the thirty-nine mills to the рaper company for $5,000,000, being an advance of $2,113,000 over what he had agreed to pay for them. This proposition was drafted lay the New York firm, and the stockholders upon the day the proposition was received had another meeting and instructed themselves as directors to accept. They authorized Beard as president to enter into a contract with Stein, which was accordingly done. Stein and wife acknowledged it before a clerk in the office of the Chicago firm.
This board of directors served for only two weeks, when they were succeeded by another board composed of Beard, Stein, Heppenheimer and others mostly in their interest.
For the next month the members of the Chicago firm were busy in getting the mill owners to deposit their title deeds and abstracts, but nothing appears to have been said to them of what had occurred in New York. The New York firm, engaged itself in raising money to pay for -the bonds, and deposited over $800,000 with the Trust Company, to be disbursed to the mill owners, which money should be checked out by its personal agent, who proceeded to make settlements with the mill owners and take over their properties by giving cheques payable to Stein, who indorsed them over. Stein testified that he did not understand the plan, but left everything to an agent to attend to, though it involved Stein paying out one million in cash and four millions in stock. The
It appears that 957 shares of preferred and Mil shares of common stock went directly into the hands of Beard; 859 shares of the preferred and 1357 shares of common stock to the New York firm; to the friends of this firm 120 shares of preferred and 810 shares of common stock; to the Chicago firm, 172 shares.of preferred and 515 shares of common; to a trustee, 1110 shares of preferred and 2232 shares of common ; to Stein, himself, 270 shares of preferred and 2377 shares of common. No money consideration passed from Stein or from any of these parties to the company for any of this stock.
It thus appears that the syndicate. received 3788 shares of preferred and 11,751 shares of common stock from the treasury of the company, aggregating 18,159 shares of the par value of $1,851,900. As it took but $1,887,000 of the stock at par to acquire the mills, this leaves $258,100 • unaccounted for. This is explained in the testimony of Sherwood, where he says that this stock went to the promoters and' their, friends. Add this $258,100 to the $1,851,900 above stated, and it amounts to $2,113,000, which is thе total capitalization of $1,000,000, less the $1,887,000 that went to the mill owners.
* As thus organized the corporation began business. It raised the price of paper six dollars a ton, which invited competition, and a new corporation was organized by the New York firm under the laws of New Jersey, called the Paper Commission Company. The sole function of this company was to sell the product of the Straw Paper Company, and the other paper mills which had not given options, the Straw Paper Company paying the new company a' commission of twenty-five per cent for selling all its paper, reducing the net price realized by the Straw Paper Company to less than it had obtained when selling its own paper.
The mill owners, although the largest stockholders, never seem to have been treated as.a factor in these оperations, and in some way or other the syndicate got possession of $2,113,000 in stocks and bonds, which they appeared to have used in furtherance of their own interests.
(1.) That the options were to be secured for the benefit of a. corporation to be organized by Beard and Ramsdell; and that the mill owners were to be paid principally in the stock of such corporation;
(2.) That Stein, the successor of Beard and Ramsdell, had no title personally to the property he pretended to sell, but that he held it as trustee for the corporation to be organized;
(3.) .That the'corporation was organized by three parties who held but twelve shares out of forty thousand shares, one of the three being a clerk in the office of the New York firm and the other two acting in their interest;
(4.) That a member.-of the New York firm drew the proposition by which Stein offered to sell these properties to a corporation, in which the member himself was the only responsible stockholder;
(5.) That the owners of the mill properties knew nothing of the organization of the corporation, or of its acceptance of Stein’s proposition to sell his properties to the Straw Paper Company -;
(6.) That the stock was fixed at $5,000,000 upon the idea that seventy mills would join, in the combination, but as a matter of fact only thirty-nine joined; that but $2,788^000 was paid for these properties, and that $2,113,000 of stock was distributed among the parties who got up the corporation without any distinct consideration being, received;'
(7.) That the mill owners received stock which was worth but one half the value of that which they supposed they would receive.
Assuming these facts to have made out a case of fraud in the organization of the Straw Paper Company, and in the purchase of the mill properties, it is difficult to see how they affect the validity of the bonds as a whole, the righ’t of the trustee to foreclose, or how they can entitle the complainant to compel the bondholders, so far at least' as they were innocent holders, to set off their indebtedness to the paper company for stock, against the indebtedness of the company upon the bonds.
The company did, in fact, go through the form of an organ
The testimony also showed that the bonds were all paid for in full, and there is no testimony to the contrary. The decree of the Circuit Court also found that all of the bonds were duly issued, negotiated аnd sold, and were outstanding and valid obligations of the company, and the affirmance of that decree by the Court of Appeals showed that also to be its
In addition to this, however, the contract with Stein provided that the stock to be issued to him should declare upon the face of the cеrtificates to be fully paid and unassessable, and we know of no principió.upon which it can be held that innocent bondholders can be required to deduct from the face of their bonds the amount unpaid upon their stock. The very authorities which hold that the declaration, that the stock is fully paid and unassessable is not binding upon creditors, also hold that the corporation cannot-repudiate it and proceed to collect either from the person receiving the stock or his transferee the unpaid'part of the par value. Thus in
Scovill
v.
Thayer,
There is no doubt that, if this were a suit by creditors to enforce payment oí the unpaid portion of the stock subscription, the fact that the-stock certificates declared that they were fully paid and unassessable would be no defence; but it is a suit of stockholders in the right of the corporation, and as between the corporation and its stockholders the' declaration that .the shares are fully paid up and unassessable is a valid one. If an action by the corporation would not lie to recover the unpaid part of the subscription, then such unpaid part can-, not be deducted from the bonds.
Somewhat different considerations apply to those who took part in the organization of the company, and in the purchase of the thirty-nine mills, and who received the bonds and stock of the paper company, with notice of the fraudulent character of the scheme. We are not disposed to condone the offences of those who, through Beard and Bamsdell and their assignee, Stein, as their agents, purchased these plants for $2,788,000, and immediately thereafter went thi’ough the form of repurchasing of their own agents (in fact, of themselves) the same properties at $5,000,000. These men stood in the light of promoters of the-Straw Paper Company. A promoter is one who “ brings together the persons who become interested in the enterprise, aids in procuring subscriptions and. sets in motion the machinery which leads to the formation of the corporation itself.” Cook on Stock and Stockholders,' sec. 651. Or, as defined by the English statute of. 7
&■
8 Yict. chap.: 110, sec. 8, “every person acting,.by whatever name, in the fo'rtn-.
“ In those cases where the scheme of organization gives the promoters the power of selecting the directors who are to represent the company in the proposed purchase, they are bound to seleof competent and trustworthy persons who will act honestly in the interest of the shareholders. A purchase made from the promoters under these circumstances will' not bind the company unless it was a fair and honest bargain.” Morawetz on Corp. sec. 546; The.
New Sombrero Phosphate Co.
v.
Erlanger,
L. R. 5 Ch. Div. 73;
Brewster
v.
Hatch,
• It is difficult, however, to see how justice can be done by a reversal of the decree appealed from. This is a decree ordering a foreclosure and sale of the property to pay the bonds, to which' the' bondholders are clearly entitled. It finds that all the bonds were duly issued, negotiated and sold, and that they are outstanding and valid obligations of the company, and that they are now held by a large number of persons who have become the owners thereof for a valuable consideration. These bonds must ultimately be presented for redemption from the proceeds of sale, and we see nothing in the. decree appealed from to prevent an inquiry being, instituted as to their validity in the hands of their present holders. We are .clearly of opinion that, so far as they were purchased for a valuable consideration by innocent holders, they are not subject. to the set-off claimed. The question whether, so far as they are held by parties cognizant of the alleged fraud, they are-subject to a set-off, is not one which properly arises in this case, where the bonds must be treated as an entirety, but is a defence applicable to each individual bondholder. Whether the corporation, or those who sue in its behalf, may hold them liable for the par value of the stock or are confined to a rescission of the transaction, is a question upon which we express no opinion.
We are therefore of opinion that the decree of foreclosure and sale appealed, from must be affirmed. ■