Hawthorne v. Calef
Supreme Court of the United States
The Constitution of the United States ordains that “ no State shall pass any law impairing the obligation of con-, tracts.” With this provision in 'force, the State of Maine, on the 1st April, 1836, incorporated a railroad company; the charter providing that “the shares of the individual stockholders should be liable for the debts of the corporation.”
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The Constitution of the United States ordains that “ no State shall pass any law impairing the obligation of con-, tracts.” With this provision in 'force, the State of Maine, on the 1st April, 1836, incorporated a railroad company; the charter providing that “the shares of the individual stockholders should be liable for the debts of the corporation.” “ And in ease of deficiency of attachable corporate property or estate,” the provision went onto say, “the individual property, rights, and credits of any stockholder shall be liable .to the amount of his stock, for all debts of the corporation…
1Opinion of the Court
Mr. Justiee-NELSON
delivered the opinion of the court.'
The question upon the provisions of the charter of the railroad company — in connection with the sale of the property by the plaintiff to the corporation, out of which this debt accrued — is, whether a contract, express or implied, existed between him and the stockholder ?
It is asserted* in behalf of the latter, that a contract existed only between the creditors and the corporation; and that the obligation of the stockholder rests entirely upon a statutory liability, destitute of any of the elements of a contract.
Without stopping to…
2Cited by83 opinions
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- Mires v. HoganSupreme Court of Oklahoma · 1920
- Harrison v. Remington Paper Co.Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit · 1905
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