Pennsylvania Co. for Insurance on Lives & Granting Annuities v. Franklin Fire Insurance

Citations

• 181 Pa. 40
• 37 A. 191
• 1897 Pa. LEXIS 500

Syllabus

<p>Equity — Jurisdiction—Corporation—Stock transfer — Forgery.</p> <p>A corporation is a trustee of the capital of all its shareholders, and if it illegally cancels and destroys certificates of stock, relying upon, forged powers of attorney, it may be compelled by a-court of equity to issue to the owner of the certificates other certificates for an equal amount of stock.</p> <p>To oust jurisdiction in equity, the remedy at law must be complete; that is, it must attain the full end and justice of the case; it must reach the whole mischief and secure the whole right of the party in a perfect manner at the present time, and in the future.</p> <p>Fraud — Forgery—Transfer of stock — Corporation—Negligence.</p> <p>The rule that where one of two innocent persons must suffer a loss from the fraud of a third, the loss must be borne by the one whose negligence enabled the third person to commit the fraud, does not apply to a case where a soil by forging his father’s name to a power of attorney secures a transfer of stock, and where the only failure of duty alleged on the part of the father is the fact that he entrusted to his son the key of the box in. which the certificates of the stock were kept.</p> <p>Corporation — Wrongful transfer of stock — Power of attorney.</p> <p>On a bill in equity to compel a corporation to issue certificates .of stock in place of those which it had wrongfully canceled, relying upon a power of attorney to which a son had forged his father’s name, a master’s finding of fact that the father had never authorized the son to sign his name to transfers of stock, which has been confirmed by the court below, will not be set aside by the Supreme Court. ,</p> <p>Even it a father has authorized his son to write his name to a power of attorney authorizing a sale or transfer of a particular security, that fact will not warrant the inference that such authority has been given in another case where the son had signed his father’s name.</p> <p>Equity — Trusts and