Great Western Telegraph Co. v. Purdy

Citations

• 162 U.S. 329
• 16 S. Ct. 810
• 40 L. Ed. 986
• 1896 U.S. LEXIS 2208

Syllabus

<p>Upon a bill in equity by subscribers for shares in a corporation to compel it to issue shares to them, and to set aside as fraudulent a contract by which it had agreed to transfer all its shares to another person, a decree was entered, setting aside that contract, and ordering shares to be issued to the plaintiffs, and a new board of directors to be chosen. Upon a bill by other stockholders, afterwards filed by leave of court in the same cause, and entitled a supplemental bill, alleging fraud and mismanagement of the new officers and insolvency of the company, and praying for the appointment of a receiver, the court, without notice to the plaintiffs in the original bill, appointed a receiver, and made an order for a call or assessment upon all stockholders of the company. Held, that this order, although conclusive evidence of the necessity of the assessment as against all stockholders, did not prevent a plaintiff in the original bill, when sued by the receiver, in the name of the corporation, for an assessment, from pleading the statute of limitations to his liability upon his subscription.</p> <p>In an action brought in a state court, by a corporation against a subscriber for shares, to recover an assessment thereon under an order of assessment made by'a court of another State upon all the stockholders, in a proceeding of which he had no notice, a judgment of the highest court of the State for the defendant, upon the grqund that, by its construction of a general statute of limitations Of the State, the cause of action accrued against him at the date of his contract of subscription, and not at the date of the order of assessment, involves no Federal question, and is not revieWable by this court on writ of error.</p>