Sheehy v. Shinn

Citations

• 103 Cal. 325
• 37 P. 393
• 1894 Cal. LEXIS 773

Syllabus

<p>Salb of Stocks on Margin—Future Delivery—Construction of Constitution-Question of Law—Evidence.—The court must decide the question, as matter of law, as to what the framers of the constitution intended by the provision of section 26 of article 4, to the effect that “all contracts for the sale of shares of the capital stock of a corporation or association, on margin, or to be delivered at a future day, shall be void, and any money paid on such contracts may be recovered by the party paying it by suit, in any court of competent jurisdiction,” and the construction of this provision does not depend upon the evidence of the witnesses in a particular case as to what the terms “ on margin, or to be delivered at a future day, ” mean, according to the usage of brokers and other dealers in stocks' during the years immediately preceding the adoption of the new constitution.</p> <p>Id.—Judicial Notice—Legal Terms.—The courts take judicial notice of the true meaning of all legal expressions, including all the terms used in the constitution or in acts of the legislature.</p> <p>Id.—Self-executing Provision—Void Contracts—Jurisdiction.—The provision of section 26 of article 4 of the constitution of 1879 is self-executing, needing no act of the legislature to give it its intended effect; and contracts of the class designated are rendered void by the constitution itself, and money paid in pursuance of them is recoverable by actions commenced in the superior or justice’s court, according as the amount claimed is more or less than §300.</p> <p>Id.—Meaning of “Margin”—Retention of Stock as Security-Right of Sale.—The word “margin” as most frequently employed in this state at the time of, and for many years prior to, the adoption of the constitution, meant the sum deposited by a purchaser of stock with his broker paying a certain percentage of the purchase price of the stock, the broker agreeing to advance the balance of the purchase price upon condition that he should hold the stock