Habich v. Folger

ERROR to the Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts; the case being thus:The Revised Statutes of New York authorize the courts of the State, upon a corporation's mismanaging its affairs by doing certain things specified by the statutes, and plainly inconsistent with corporate duty, to declare it, on the petition of a corporator, dissolved, and to appoint receivers to take charge of and to distribute its assets.

In professed execution of the power thus given, the Supreme Court of New York did, on the 2d of February, 1866, declare that the Columbian Insurance Company, a corporation of the State, had mismanaged its affairs, and the court by its judgment declared the said corporation 'dissolved' accordingly. The court at the same time appointed two citizens of New York, George Osgood and Cyrus Curtis, receivers of its assets.

In this state of things one Folger, resident in Massachusetts, a creditor of the corporation, sued the corporation in one of the Superior Courts of Massachusetts, in the form of suit known in that State as 'trustee process;' a form apparently like that known in some other States as foreign attachment; a suit in which a writ issues against the defendant with a clause directing the sheriff to seize or attach his property, or whatever debts may be due to him, in the hands of persons named, and to summon them into court; these persons in Massachusetts being designated as 'trustees,' as elsewhere, sometimes, 'garnishees.' The trustees in the present suit were a certain Habich and others.

The record of that case showed the following facts, viz.: that the summons by which the suit was commenced was served on the insurance company in Massachusetts by levying on a chip as its property on the 18th of June, 1866 (a proceeding of form usual in the 'trustee process'); that on the first Tuesday of July the corporation entered its appearance by its attorneys, and filed an affidavit of merits; that on the 30th of July it filed an answer (signed by Joseph Nickerson as its attorney) denying that it was a corporation, and denying the material allegations of the complaint; that the trustees answered admitting a debt; that on the 3d of October, 1866, Osgood and Curtis (already mentioned as having been appointed by the court in New York, on its judgment of dissolution, receivers of the corporation) made an adverse claim, and filed a petition alleging that they were the receivers of the company, setting forth the manner of their appointment, alleging that all the credits, effects, and assets of the said company were vested in them, claiming the effects and credits in the hands of the said supposed 'trustees,' and praying to be admitted as parties to the action, this petition being signed by Edward Bangs as attorney; that on the 19th of October their prayer was granted, and that afterwards, in October, 1867, a case agreed on was presented to the court for its judgment, the trustee to be charged on his answer and the plaintiff to have judgment for the funds in the trustees' hands, if in the opinion of the court a judgment could be rendered against the corporation; but if the receivers now claiming had valid title to the funds as against the plaintiff, notwithstanding the admitted fact of a debt due him by the company, then judgment to be entered for the receivers or claimants.

There were thus before the court, the 'trustees,' the Columbian Insurance Company, by its attorney Bangs, and the receivers, by their attorney Nickerson; all, in short, who were in any manner interested as defendants in the transaction, or entitled to appear in the action.

At the January Term, 1869, the court ordered the following entry to be made, viz.:

'Trustees charged. Judgment for the plaintiff.

By the court:

G. C. WILDE, Clerk.'

At the following April Term a consent was filed by Mr. Bangs, attorney of the defendant, that the judgment be entered for the plaintiff for the sum of $3753, damages and costs, dated June 10th, 1869. On the 12th of June is made the following entry:

'Claimants withdraw.

E. BANGS, Attorney.

J. C. DODGE, Attorney for plaintiff.'

(Filed June 12, 1869.)

On the 14th of June a formal judgment for the amount was rendered for the plaintiff, reciting that the trustees were charged upon their answer and that the claimants withdrew.

Upon this judgment Folger issued a scire facias, calling on the trustees to show why he, Folger, should not have execution against them. Habich and the other defendants (not denying their debt) pleaded—

That the judgment recovered by the plaintiff against the insurance company was 'invalid,' for that before the day on which the judgment was alleged to have been recovered, to wit, &c., the company had been dissolved by a decree of the Supreme Court of the State of New York, a copy whereof, duly authenticated, the plea alleged that the defendant now exhibited.

That by the Constitution of the United States it is provided that full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the judicial proceedings of every other State, &c.

The Supreme Court of Massachusetts held, upon an examination of the proceedings in the Supreme Court of New York, and of the statutes on which they purported to proceed, that the judgment of the said Supreme Court, declaring the corporation dissolved, was in excess of the jurisdiction of the court and therefore entitled to no faith and credit in Massachusetts as a judicial proceeding; and accordingly gave judgment for the plaintiff, the original attaching creditor. From that judgment the case was brought here by Habich and the others, the debtor trustees.

The only record which, strictly speaking, was brought up here was the record of this suit on the scire facias; and the argument was chiefly on that; but reference having been made all along on both sides to the record of the suit in which the judgment on which the scire facias issued was rendered, a certified copy of the record of that original suit was handed to the court at the close of the argument, with the consent of both sides that it should be considered by it as part of the present case.

Mr. Dudley Field, for the plaintiff in error:

The only errors relied on are:

That the court erred in holding that the Columbian Insurance Company was not dissolved, and

That the company being dissolved, it had no right to enter judgment against it or the trustees.

The courts of Massachusetts had not the right to question the validity of the judgment of dissolution rendered by the Supreme Court of New York. That court had jurisdiction over the parties and the cause, and the record is, therefore, conclusive in Massachusetts.

In New York this judgment could not have been inquired into collaterally.

The Supreme Court of New York was authorized to declare the corporation dissolved.

[The learned counsel here went into an examination of the statutes of New York, and of the proceedings of the Supreme Court of that State dissolving the corporation, and contended that the dissolution was strictly according to the statute.]

If the corporation was dissolved no action could be maintained against it. A corporation dissolved is like to a person who is dead.

Mr. J. C. Dodge, contra.

Mr. Justice HUNT delivered the opinion of the court.