Hale v. Allinson

Citations

• 188 U.S. 56
• 23 S. Ct. 244
• 47 L. Ed. 380
• 1903 U.S. LEXIS 1268

Syllabus

<p>1. As construed by the highest court of Minnesota the statutes of that State do not provide that a receiver of an insolvent corporation can recover the amount of the added liability of non-resident shareholders of the corporation; nor do they provide that such liability shall be an asset of the corporation, to be recovered by the receiver and payable to its creditors when such liability is enforced and the money recovered.</p> <p>A receiver, appointed by a Minnesota Court of Equity, in the exercise of its general jurisdiction, of the assets of an insolvent Minnesota corporation, who has no title to the fund but simply acts as the arm of the court, cannot by virtue of liis appointment, or of directions contained in the decree appointing him, maintain an action in equity in a foreign State against non-resident stockholders of a corporation to enforce their double liability, nor can he maintain such an action in a Circuit Court of the United States in a District outside of Minnesota.</p> <p>The question of comity cannot avail in a case where the courts of the State in which the receiver was appointed hold that an action similar to the one brought in the foreign jurisdiction cannot be maintained by him in the courts of the State of his appointment.</p> <p>2. A single action in equity cannot be maintained in the Circuit Court of the United States in Pennsylvania by such receiver against all of the Pennsylvania stockholders of an insolvent Minnesota corporation for the statutory liability of each defendant as a stockholder, on the ground that, a single action would prevent a multiplicity of suits; nor can such an action be maintained on the ground that it is an ancillary or auxiliary proceeding brought in aid of, and to enforce, an equitable decree in an action brought in Minnesota, in which the Pennsylvania stockholders had been named as defendants with all the other stockholders, the receiver contending that such decree was conclusive as to the amount of indebtedness