Barnes v. Brown
New York Supreme Court
Appeal from a judgment in favor of the defendants, entered upon a nonsnit directed at tbe Circuit, and from an order denying a motion for a new trial, made upon tbe minutestof tbe justice before wbom tbe action was tried. Tbe action was brought to recover tbe damages sustained by tbe plaintiff by reason of tbe breach of a contract made with tbe defendants Brown and Seligman.
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Appeal from a judgment in favor of the defendants, entered upon a nonsnit directed at tbe Circuit, and from an order denying a motion for a new trial, made upon tbe minutestof tbe justice before wbom tbe action was tried. Tbe action was brought to recover tbe damages sustained by tbe plaintiff by reason of tbe breach of a contract made with tbe defendants Brown and Seligman. Upon tbe trial evidence was given tending to show that on tbe 26th of March, 1872, tbe plaintiff was tbe president and a director of tbe New York City Central Underground Railway Company; that be owned sixty out of tbe…
1Opinion of the Court
Gilbert, J.:
The illegality of the transaction between the plaintiff and Brown and Seligman, does not consist of the mere fact that the plaintiff was incapacitated from acqiiiring an interest adverse to the corporation in the contract between the corporation and Byrne, but in the tendency of that transaction to a perversion of the property and effects of the corporation, and the consequent injury of its innocent stockholders and its creditors. It is not requisite that such should necessarily be the result of the transaction in order to make it illegal. It is enough that such is the tendency of…
2Cases cited4 opinions
- Bliss v. . MattesonNew York Court of Appeals · 1871
- Boynton v. . HatchNew York Court of Appeals · 1872
- Fremont v. StoneNew York Supreme Court · 1864
- Bliss v. MattesonNew York Supreme Court · 1868