217 N.W. 595 | Minn. | 1928
The action is brought by the receiver of the Four County Farmers Mill Co-operative Association to recover the amount of an assessment levied against the stockholders under the provisions of G.S. 1923, §§ 8025-8028. There are 104 stockholders joined as defendants.
The assessment has been ordered under G.S. 1923, § 8027. In an action of this character the defendants may interpose certain individual or personal defenses. McCabe Bros. Co. v. Farmers Grain Supply Co.
The procedure has since been changed. Goldman v. Christy,
Plaintiff has a common claim against each defendant except as to amount. Defendants, in the absence of specific personal defenses, have a common liability. The defendants may have such defenses as would entitle them to a jury trial. They also have certain definite rights under the general provisions of the statute as to the place of trial. The legislature has not, in our opinion, indicated any intention to change these rights. Nor do we find any language in the statute that authorizes the plaintiff to sue a stockholder to collect the assessment other than in a separate action. In the absence of statutory authority this cannot be done. Each contract involved is a separate obligation and must be separately enforced. The claim of avoiding a multiplicity of suits is without application. It would avoid none; it would merely require them to *498
be tried in a bunch. There is not present a common question to be determined between plaintiff and all the defendants which must exist in the absence of a statutory provision, as a basis for joining all the stockholders as defendants. A defendant should have a fair and unprejudiced trial without confusion from issues made by other defendants. To the extent that defendants in such actions have a common defense, the parties may consent to a consolidation. Doubtless this was the meaning of the language used in Farwell, Ozmun, Kirk Co. v. Goodhue Co. Co-op. Co.
We reach the conclusion that the demurrers should have been sustained.
Reversed.