Brown v. Kildea

Citations

• 58 Wash. 184
• 108 P. 452
• 1910 Wash. LEXIS 914

Syllabus

<p>Corporations—Officers—Inspection of Books—Statutes—Penal Statutes. Rem. '& Bal. Code, §§ 3701, 3702, requiring corporations to keep a stock book and allow an inspection thereof and of papers filed, and providing that any officer failing to do so shall forfeit and pay to the injured party a penalty of not less than $100 or more than $1,000, and all damages resulting therefrom, is a penal statute in so far as the penalty is concerned, and to be strictly construed; since the penalty is not given as compensation for any injury, and was intended as a punishment, allegation and proof of actual injury being unnecessary.</p> <p>Same. Construing strictly that portion of Rem. & Bal. Code, § 3702, imposing a penalty in favor of the “injured party” upon any officer of a corporation who shall refuse to exhibit to a stockholder or creditor the stock book or any papers “placed on file,” in order to subject an officer to the penalty there must be a demand for inspection of the book named or a designated paper or papers lodged with and kept by the corporation pertaining to the corporate business, and the demand must be made by a party having an interest in such inspection; a demand to inspect the “books and papers” not being sufficient.</p> <p>Costs—On Appeal—Poe Printing Briefs. Where the case was a simple one and could have been presented in a brief of 75 pages, costs of printing a brief of 240 pages will not be allowed in excess of the usual sum for a brief of the smaller size.</p>