Bills v. Silver King Mining Co.

Citations

• 106 Cal. 9
• 39 P. 43
• 1895 Cal. LEXIS 564

Syllabus

<p>Corporations—Stock Held in Trust—Dividends—Estate of Deceased Owner—Demand and Refusal—Statute of Limitations.—Where stock of a mining company was issued in the name of a trustee as the agent of another person, and the administratrix of the beneficial owner of the stock applied to the officers of the corporation for information as to the dividends upon the stock, who informed her that all dividends on the shares of stock had been paid to the trustee, and that no money was due or owing on account of any dividends declared during the lifetime of the beneficial owner, and the administratrix of the beneficial owner allowed the estate to be distributed and closed without reference to the dividends of the corporation, and without further demand for an inspection of its books or papers, or effort to discover whether it was true that the dividends had been paid to the trustee, the statute of limitations for a recovery of the dividends from the corporation on behalf of the distributees of the estate began to run from the time of the refusal of the corporation to pay any dividends to the administratrix, at which time the corporation put itself in a state of hostility to the estate of the deceased beneficiary with respect to any alleged obligation in the matter of the dividends, and no further demand or refusal was necessary to set the statute in motion.</p> <p>Id.—Discovery of Fraud—Laches.—The statute of limitations for the recovery of dividends from a corporation cannot be avoided on the ground of fraud, in a ease where the facts are sufficient to put a person of ordinary intelligence and prudence on inquiry as to the truth, and where there is gross laches in not making any effort to discover the real facts with respect to the dividends, which might have been discovered by the use of slight diligence.</p>