85 Miss. 636 | Miss. | 1904
delivered the opinion, of the court.
We think this case falls squarely within the principles announced in Fosdick v. Schall, 99 U. S., 235 (25 L. ed., 339); Burnham v. Bowen, 111 U. S., 776 (4 Sup. Ct., 675; 28 L. ed., 596); and So. R. Co. v. Carnegie Steel Co., 176 U. S., 257 (20 Sup. Ct., 347; 44 L. ed., 458), all of which relate to railroads; and Drennen & Co. v. Mercantile Trust & Deposit Co., 115 Ala., 592 (23 South. Rep., 164; 39 L. R. A., 623; 67 Am. St. Rep., 72), and Dickinson v. Saunders, 120 Fed. Rep., 16 (63 C. C. A., 666), which relate to private corporations. The supreme court of Alabama, adverting to the distinction sought to be drawn there, as in this case, between the application of the principle to public or quasi public corporations, on the one hand, and private corporations, on the other, said in the case in 115 Ala., 23 South. Rep., 39 L. R. A., 67 Am. St. Rep.: “To state the proposition yet more concretely, the equity arises and is rested upon one or another of the three following categories or states of fact: First, that the gross earnings of the corporation before the receivership, to which its operatives and laborers and persons furnishing necessary supplies are, upon all the authorities, entitled in preference and priority to the bondholders, have been diverted from the payment of their wages.and accounts and paid to the bondholders or are in the hands of the receiver, to be paid to the bondholders, or to be expended by him in the further operation of the corporation’s works for the benefit of the bondholders, or have been expended, either before or after receiver appointed, in the improvement and betterment of the mortgaged property, whereby the security of the bonds is increased, to the obvious advantage and benefit of the bondholders. Or, second, that whether, strictly speaking, there has been any diversion of gross earnings from the employes, directly or indirectly, to the bondholders, or not, the operatives and laborers have performed services and labor in the improvement and betterment of the mortgaged property, so that such labor and services have inured directly to the
Affirmed.