Van Hook v. Whitlock
New York Court of Chancery
This was an appeal by the complainants from a decree of the vice chancellor of the first circuit dismissing their bill. The object of the bill was to charge the defendants personally, as stockholders of an insolvent insurance company, with the debts of the corporation, under a clause in its charter making them personally liable to the creditors to the extent of their several shares in the capital stock of the corporation at the time of its dissolution.
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This was an appeal by the complainants from a decree of the vice chancellor of the first circuit dismissing their bill. The object of the bill was to charge the defendants personally, as stockholders of an insolvent insurance company, with the debts of the corporation, under a clause in its charter making them personally liable to the creditors to the extent of their several shares in the capital stock of the corporation at the time of its dissolution. The facts, so far as they are disclosed in the bill, appear in the report of the decision upon the pleas of three of the defendants; which…
1Opinion of the Court
The Chancellor.
I am inclined to think there was a failure of proof on the part of the complainants, as to the existence of the demands of some of them against the corporation for the purposes of this suit. To entitle them to recover against these defendants as stockholders they must show, by proof which is valid and binding upon the defend*377ants, that they had a legal demand, upon which they could have succeeded in sustaining a suit against the corporation previous to its dissolution in 1820. Even if the complainants did not now attempt to repudiate the assignment and the discharge of the…
2Cited by16 opinions
- Bloodgood v. . BruenNew York Court of Appeals · 1853
- Humphrey v. CarpenterSupreme Court of Minnesota · 1888
- Sands v. St. JohnNew York Supreme Court · 1862
- Freeland v. McCulloughCourt for the Trial of Impeachments and Correction of Errors · 1845
- Boyce v. ChristySupreme Court of Missouri · 1870
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