Page:United States Reports, Volume 209.djvu/450

 4 OTOBE TI, 107. mmt of tb, . U.& ="- stockholders, .bdmlng to be the directors of the ecrpo- rstion in certain meetings and by cortain resolutions, executed not being in conformity with the by-laws, and that the pro- ceedinga therein were "wholly illegal and beyond the powers sd authority of the said stockholders and directors of mid corporation;" that the corporation was o r,ni,ed 'to con- struct and operate a cotton comprem in the city of SEswnee, and that its officers and stockholders were not authorized to execute a lease for a psriod of years, vesting in anotr and foreign corporation, the rghts, duties and business of the com- pany, and that the lease was void as against the rights of plain- tiffs, being minority stockholders of the company. A copy of the lesse was attached to the petition. The petition was amended, mldng the allegations some- west fuller, and alleged that appellants Stubbs and Beatty, who assumed to. sct respectively as president and secretary of the company, and certsin other stockholders who joined with them in the negotiation of the lease, were induced thereto by certsin advants4 personal to themselves and not by the interest of the eompsny. It was also alleged test the "exi- geneles 'of the business" of the company did not demand' or justify the lease, and test its revenues for the season 1904-1905, over and above t&xes and insurance, notwithstanding negli- gent and incompetent mansment, were $7,48.89; and, plaintiffs expressed the belief, could be made greter for the yesrs covered by the lease. It was alleged that the Gulf Com- press Company was in the business of leasing and operating competing compresses for the purpose of monopolizing, as fax as possible, the business of compressing cotton in a large portion, if not all, of the cotton-raising districts of the United States, and test the lease was procured from the SEswnee Company in pursuance of sid scheme, and other leses of other compresses were so secured for like purposes, and tt the Gulf Company is in its operstion and method of conducting busine a trust, combine and conspiracy, in restraint of trade

�