Corbus v. Alaska Treadwell Gold Mining Co.

Citations

• 187 U.S. 455
• 23 S. Ct. 157
• 47 L. Ed. 256
• 1903 U.S. LEXIS 1665
• 2 Alaska Fed. 9

Syllabus

<p>Before a court of equity will in any way help a party to thwart the intent of Congress, as expressed in a statute, it should affirmatively and clearly appear that there is an absolute necessity for its interference in order to prevent irreparable injury.</p> <p>If the party primarily and directly charged with a tax is unable to make a case for the interference of a court of equity no one subordinately and indirectly affected by the tax should be given relief unless he shows not merely irreparable injury to the tax debtor as well as to himself, but also that he has taken every essential preliminary step to justify his claim of a right to act in behalf of such tax debtor.</p> <p>The fact that this court entertained the bill of equity in Pollock v. Farmers' Loan & Trust Co., 151U. S. 429, does not determine to what extent acourt of equity will permit a stockholder to maintain a suit nominally against. the corporation, but really for its benefit; and where a bill is filed by a stockholder to enjoin the officers of a corporation from paying a tax as required by a statute of the United States, this court wilj examine the bill in its entirety and determine whether, under all the circumstances, the plaintiff has made such a showing of wrong on the part of the corporation as will justify the suit, and if it appears that the suit is collusive or that the plaintiff has not done everything which ought to have been done to secure action by the corporation and its directors, and justify under the assumption of a controversy between himself and the corporation his prosecution of a litigation for its benefit, the bill will be dismissed.</p>