134 Ga. 405 | Ga. | 1910
The record is voluminous, but after careful consideration the view which we take of the case renders it unnecessary to state more of it than is expressed in the statement of facts. One question presented is: Did the petitioners for charter have the power, in December, 1909, to amend the by-laws and make rules relating to the control of the internal affairs of the order? If they did not, the action taken by them at that time was void, and the action of their appointees, the defendants whom the court refused to enjoin, was unauthorized and should have been enjoined. The question does not involve the exercise of the corporation function by a corporation, but relates to an alleged power conferred upon individuals to control a corporation. It was asserted that the charter of the corporation conferred upon the individuals who applied for it the power to retain supreme control over the internal affairs of the institution until there should be a meeting of the Eminent Household. The charter does not purport to have been granted by the legislature, but by the secretary of State under the provisions of an act of the legislature approved December 18th, 1893 (Acts 1893, p. 73 (Civil Code, § 2007 et seq.)), and the amendatory acts. The petition for charter recited, among other things, that it was desired that the petitioners for incorporation, their associates and assigns,
On the prayers of the answer in the nature of a cross-petition the court enjoined L. T. Binford from- assuming to exercise the duties of Viceroy or Eminent Consul, and restrained the other parties defendant to-the cross-petition from interfering with the performance of duties of Eminent Consul by J. B. Erost. The other prayers for injunction in the cross-petition were not passed on by the judge and are not before us. In view of the ruling announced in the first division it is unnecessary to enter into an extended discussion of the ease under the assignment of error which complains of the injunction against L. T. Binford and his associates. The record discloses that they were officers of the order, formally elected by the Eminent Council in accordance with the constitution and by
Judgment reversed.