Montcastle v. Baird

OPINION

SANDERS, Judge.

The pivotal question on this appeal is whether or not attorneys representing a sub-class of thirteen percent of the outstanding shares of stock of a defunct corporation should be allowed attorneys' fees and expenses out of the total common fund.

This case has its genesis back in 1939, when the charter of Elk Valley Coal and Iron Company [Elk Valley], a former Tennessee corporation, was revoked for nonpayment of taxes. At that time Elk Valley, a family corporation, along with Lendon Baird, Z. D. Baird and Winston Baird, owned several thousand acres of land adjoining each…