Clark v. . Henrietta Mills

When defendant issued to plaintiff her certificates of stock it, by the stipulations printed thereon, contracted to pay her “a fixed, annual, guaranteed, cumulative dividend,” of 7%, payable quarterly “before any dividend shall be set apart or paid on any stock preferred or common, heretofore or hereafter issued by this corporation.”

Under this contract plaintiff became vested with a property right in and to such dividends as they accrued, which property right cannot be divested without her consent, either by a subsequent reorganization or by legislative enactment. Patterson v. Hosiery Mills,…