Brown v. Lehigh Coal & Navigation Co.
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania
Certificate from the Court at Nisi JPrius. This was a proceeding in equity founded on a bill filed January 7th 1864, by John A. Brown, and sixteen others, holders of scrip of The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, against said corporation, to compel a distribution to said scrip-holders of dividends out of the accumulated profits of the company equal to the dividends paid annually to the stockholders from 1855 to 1864. The case was in substance this: The Lehigh Navigation…
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Certificate from the Court at Nisi JPrius. This was a proceeding in equity founded on a bill filed January 7th 1864, by John A. Brown, and sixteen others, holders of scrip of The Lehigh Coal and Navigation Company, against said corporation, to compel a distribution to said scrip-holders of dividends out of the accumulated profits of the company equal to the dividends paid annually to the stockholders from 1855 to 1864. The case was in substance this: The Lehigh Navigation having in January 1841 suffered by a disastrous flood, it became necessary that it should execute a mortgage, to enable it…
1Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered, by
Strong, J.
The rights of the complainants must be determined by the contract under which alone they can claim, and that contract is found in the scrip issued by the company. It is to be observed, before proceeding to consider what its provisions are, that it was a contract made by the company with its stockholders, and with all of them, assuring to each an advantage exactly proportioned to his interest in the property of the company. It was a distribution of rights, whatever the rights may have been, among the corporators. And the present complainants,…
2Cited by1 opinion
- Commonwealth Ex Rel. Cartwright v. CartwrightSupreme Court of Pennsylvania · 1944