Union Nat. Bank v. Douglass

1 McCrary's Cir. Ct. Rpts 86 | U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Iowa | 1877

LOVE, District Judge.

No doctrine of equity is more firmly established upon solid foundations of reason and authority, than the principle that the capital stock, property and assets of a corporation are to be deemed a trust fund sacredly pledged for the payment of the debts of the corporation. This doctrine was most forcibly expounded by Judge Story in the case of Wood v. Dummer [Case No. 17,944]. That ease grew out of the insolvency of the Haiowell and Augusta Bank, in which the defendant, a stockholder, withdrew from the bank his proportion of stock, when the bank was indebted on bills previously issued. Judge Story, among other things, said that he “viewed the stockholders as having the full benefit of the profits made by the establishment, and as being unable to take any portion of the fund until all the other claims on it were extinguished, and that their rights were not to the capital stock, but to the residuum, after all demands were paid; and further, that upon a dissolution of the corporation, although the billholders and stockholders had each equitable claims, yet those of the billholders had the prior equity. On the principle, then,” he continued, “that the capital stock was a trust fund, it was clear that it might be followed by creditors into the hands of any person having notice of the trust attached to it, and that as to tne stockholders themselves there could be no pretense to say that in law and in fact they were not affected by the most ample notice.” Judge Story laid down the same doctrine in Mumma v. Potomac Co., 8 Pet. [33 U. S.] 286.

In Curran v. State of Arkansas, reported in 15 How. [56 U. S.] 304, the supreme court of the United States held that on the dissolution of corporations its effects are a trust fund for the payment of its creditors, who may follow them into the hands of any one not a bona fide creditor or purchaser, without notice; and a state law which deprives creditors of this right, and appropriates the property to other uses, impairs the obligation of their contracts and is invalid; and the fact that a state is the sole owner of the stock of a corporation does not affect the rights of its creditors. And Judge Curtis, in delivering the opinion in this case, quotes with approbation from Story’s Equity the following language: “To this head of implied trusts we may refer that class of cases where the stock and other property of private corporations is deemed a trust fund for the payment of the debts of the corporation, so that the creditors have a lien or right of priority of payment on it in preference to any of the stockholders of the corporation; and no stockholder can entitle himself to any dividend or share of such capital stock until all the debts are paid; and if the capital stock should be divided, leaving any debts unpaid, every stockholder receiving his share would, in equity, be held liable pro rata to contribution to discharge such debts out of the funds in his hands.” And Judge Curtis adds, that in conformity with this doctrine the following cases were decided in the state courts: Wright v. Petrie, 1 Smedes & M. Ch. 319; Nevit v. Bank of Port Gibson, 6 Smedes & M. Ch. 513; Hightower v. Thornton, 8 Ga. 493; Nathan v. Whitlock, 3 Edw. Ch. 215, affirmed by the chancellor in 9 Paige, 152.

In Nathan v. Whitlock, 9 Paige, 152, the case was that the directors of an insurance company agreed among themselves to take a majority of the stock and to give their stock notes for the same, secured by an hypothe-cation of the stock, and after the company had become embarrassed, one of the directors agreed with the president to give him $6,000 if he would take his stock and substitute his own note in lieu of the stock note of the director, which was accordingly done. It was held to be a fraud upon the creditors of the company and the other stockholders who had paid their stock, and an action was sustain-, ed against the director upon the note delivered up. The court held that in all cases where the capital stock or assets of a corporation have been distributed to the stockholders without providing for the payment of the debts, a court of equity will allow the creditor to sustain a bill against the shareholders to compel contribution to the payment of the debts of the company to the extent of the funds obtained by them, whether directly from the company or through some substitution of useless securities for those that were good.

In Sawyer v. Hoag, 17 Wall. [81 U. S.] 610, the court said: “A nominal payment by stockholders is no payment as to creditors.” Again, in Sanger v. Upton [91 U. S. 56], the supreme court of the United States held that: “A resolution or agreement that no further calls be made is void as to creditors, and an agreement that stockholders may pay in any other medium than money, is void as a fraud upon other stockholders and upon creditors.” And further, that “the capital stock of an incorporated company is a fund set apart for the payment of debts. It is a substitute for the personal liability which subsists in private copartnerships. When debts are incurred, a contract arises with the creditors that it shall not be withdrawn or applied otherwise than upon their demands until such demands are satisfied. The creditors have a lien upon it in equity. If diverted they may follow it as far as it can be traced, and subject it to the payment of their claims, etc. Unpaid stock is as much a part of this pledge and as much a part of the assets of the company as the cash which has been paid in upon it” But perhaps the strongest application of this doctrine is to be found in the Railroad Co. v. Howard, reported in 7 Wall. [74 U. S.] 392. It will be remembered that in that case, which was a railroad foreclosure, it was quite manifest, and in fact not denied, that mortgaged property was wholly insufficient to pay the bonded debts, and that, in fact, upon a regular foreclosure there would have been nothing whatever to apply in payment of the general and unsecured creditors. The Chicago & Rock Island Railway Company proposed to purchase the mortgaged property for the sum of $5,500,000, if the title could be obtained without delay, so as to enable them to prosecute the building of the road speedily and secure a land grant which might otherwise be lost. As this was a proposition exceedingly favorable to the interests of the mortgage bondholders, they, in order to allay the apprehended opposition of the stockholders to a foreclosure, entered into an agreement to abate a certain percentage from their respective claims, in order to set aside sixteen per cent, of the purchase money for the benefit of the stockholders. The foreclosure and sale having been accomplished, the general or unsecured creditors came into equity and claimed as against the stockholders the fund arising from this sixteen per cent., and this court held without hesitation that the general creditors were entitled to 'that fund. Upon appeal, it was contended in the supreme court that there was no pretense of fraud as against the stockholders, and that the substantial rights of the general creditors weri not in the slightest degree affected, since it was admitted that the mort gaged property was insufficient to pay the-secured creditors, and that the sixteen per cent, fund resu’ted solely from their voluntary agreement to abate in favor of the stockholders a part of what they had a perfect right to demand and appropriate as against the general creditors. The supreme court, however, without dissent, affirmed the decree below. And Judge Clifford, -speaking for the whole court, said that “Equity regards the property of a corporation as held in trust for the payment of the debts of the corporation, and recognizes the right of creditors to pursue it into whosesoever possession it may be transferred, unless it has passed into the hands of a bona fide purchaser; and the rule is well settled that the stockholders are not entitled to any share of the capital stock, nor any dividend of the profits, until all the debts of the corporation are paid.” The Code of 1873, § 1072, provides that “the payment of dividends that leave insufficient funds to meet the liabilities of the corporation shall be deemed such a fraud as will subject those therein concerned to the penalties of the' preceding section, and such dividends, or their equivalents in the hands of individual stockholders, shall be subject to such liabilities.” As to the remedy here adopted, see 40 Iowa, 650; Code, §§ 1082-1084.

The defendant in the case now before the court was both a director and stockholder of the indebted corporation. As a director he aided in the passage of a resolution by which, as a stockholder, he appropriated the bonds in question, which were assets of the company, in a certain proportion to his paid up stock. This was a wrongful act on his part. It resulted in diverting to his own use a part of the trust property which he as a trustee was bound to apply to the payment of debts. This he had no right to do, so long as the debts remained unpaid. The diversion of the trust fund was a breach of trust and a fraud upon creditors. As against the creditors he thereby acquired no title to the bonds in question. A trastee can certainly acquire no title to any part of the trust fund for his own use by a breach of trust and a fraud upon creditors. The defendant, notwithstanding the transfer of bonds to himself, stood seized of them, subject to the trust in favor of creditors. The creditors had a perfect right to pursue the bonds in the hands of the defendant, and have them applied in payment of their claims against the corporation. This defendant, in the next place, as a director of the corporation, assisted in the passage of a resolution by which an assessment was made of thirty per cent, upon the capital stock of the company, and another resolution, providing that the treasurer should be authorized to receive from him and others, in payment of this assessment, the very bonds which they had wrongfully appropriated. The defendant did not own the bonds with which he paid up his stock. These bonds weré the property of the corporation, in trust for the creditors. The defendant paid what he owed the corporation by the delivery of bonds which belonged to them. He gave to the company, and to the creditors through them, in payment, a part of the company’s own assets — bonds to which he had in equity no title whatever; and this he now pleads as payment. It may be presumed that any delinquent debtor would not fail to pay his debts, if his creditors would furnish the means to do it with. Such a course of dealing would soon bring about a business millenium —a state of absolute freedom from all indebtedness. Now there certainly can be no doubt that the creditors of a corporation are entitled to have the whole of the assets of the company applied to the payment of their debts, and not merely some part thereof. In the present case both the bonds and unpaid stock were assets. The bonds were the result of work which the construction company had done for the railroad company. The money resulting from the paid up stock had been expended in the work, and ¿took the form of bonds. The bonds were beyond question assets, and so was the unpaid stock. Now what did the creditors get by the transaction in question? Did they get both the stock and bonds applied to the payment of their claims? Clearly not. They got the bonds only. The unpaid stock was extinguished by the delivery of the bonds. In other words, the stock was paid with the bonds, and nothing was realized from the unpaid stock except what the company had before, namely, the bonds. It is precisely as if this defendant, by a resolution of his own, had taken cash from the company’s treasury, and immediately paid it back in liquidation of his assessment. Suppose the sixty per cent, which had been paid by the stockholders upon previous assessments had remained in money in the treasury, and suppose the directors had ordered the treasurer to deliver of this money so much to the stockholders as would be sufficient to pay the thirty per cent, assessment. What would equity have said to such a transaction? The result of such a transaction would clearly have been the ex-tinguishment of ninety per cent, of the stock by the payment of sixty per cent. In other words, the thirty per cent, assessment would have been paid with the company’s own money. It is said that the company was solvent when the allotment of bonds was made. If so, the allotment must have resulted in the insolvency of the corporation, since we find that debts exist, amounting to $196,-631.30, for which no provision seems to be made. Such an argument is suicidal. It kills itself. Surely if the law permitted the stockholders of a corporation to pay up their stock, and then appropriate an equal amount of the assets before the payment of debts, it would open the way to the universal insolvency of corporations! Such a doctrine would give absolute impunity to fraud upon the creditors of corporations, and utterly discredit them in the financial world. The truth is that it makes no difference whatever Wheiher a corporation is solvent or insolvent, so far as the doctrine is concerned that the property is a trust fund which cannot be withdrawn or appropriated by the stockholders until the debts are paid. Judgment for plaintiff.