Virginia Coal Company v. Central Railroad Banking Company of Georgia

On December 19, 1888, the Georgia Pacific Railroad Company leased its line of railroad extending from Atlanta to Birmingham, Ala., to the Richmond & Danville Railroad Company, a corporation organized under the laws of Virginia, and which owned or controlled by lease a line of railroad from Atlanta to Washington, in the Disti ct of Columbia; and thereafter the Georgia Pacific road was operated by the Richmond & Danville Company. On June 1, 1891, the Central Railroad & Banking Company of Georgia, a corporation under the laws of Georgia, owning and operating a line of railroad from Atlanta to Savannah, Ga., and which owned or controlled various other railroads or lines of steamships and a large amount of other property, executed a lease for 99 years of said railroad and various lines and property controlled by it to the Georgia Pacific Company. The lease was signed on behalf of the Georgia Pacific Company by its president, pursuant to the direction of the board of directors of the company, but it was subsequently asserted that this was done without previous authorization or ratification of the stockholders. The Georgia Pacific Company did not take possession of the property of the Central Company, or assume or exercise any control over the same, except that on the date of the lease it requested the Richmond & Danville Company to assume the control of the leased property, with which request there was an immediate compliance.

In March, 1892, a suit was instituted in the sircuit court of the United States for the Eastern division of the Southern district of Georgia by Rowena M. Clarke, a stockholder of the Central Company, to obtain a cancellation of the lease of the property of that company, and other specific relief. A temporary receiver was appointed on March 4, 1892. The Danville Company, as also the Georgia Pacific Company, appeared, and disclaimed any rights under the lease, and on March 28, 1892, the preliminary receiver, and other persons constituting the then board of directors of the Central Company, were appointed joint receivers to take charge of the railroad property and assets of the Central Company until there could be a reorganization of such board in pursuance to its charter.

As ancillary to Mrs. Clarke's bill, the Central Company, on July 4, 1892, filed a bill against the Farmers' Loan & Trust Company of New York, trustee, and other creditors, averring its inability to meet many matured obligations, and that it had defaulted on July 1, 1892, on the semiannual interest due on $5,000,000 mortgage bonds dated October 1, 1872, for which the Farmers' Loan & Trust Company was trustee; and that for these reasons the directors were unable to assume the management of the property, and requesting the court by proper process to call upon its creditors to come into court, and that the court would administer the property for the benefit of all interested. The Farmers' Loan & Trust Company assented to the continuance of the receivership; and on July 15, 1892, under the depending bill, all the receivers, with the exception of one H. M. Comer, were discharged, and Mr. Comer was continued as receiver.

Subsequently, in May, 1893, under bills filed to foreclose a mortgage executed by the Savannah & Western Railroad Company, Comer and one Lowry were appointed receivers, and directed to continue to operate the road as part of the system of the Central Company.

On January 23, 1893, the Farmers' Loan & Trust Company of New York, trustee for the mortgage bondholders of the Central Railroad & Banking Company of Georgia, filed its dependent bill in said court for the foreclosure of the $5,000,000 mortgage on the main stem of the Central Railroad from Atlanta to Savannah because of default in the payment of the interest due July 1, 1892, and the receivership was extended to that bill.

In an agreed statement of facts contained in the record, it was stipulated as follows:

'It is a fact that since the receivership the receivers of the Central Railroad & Banking Company of Georgia have expended betterments in its railroad lines from the income of the roads during the receivership a sum much larger than the entire claim of the interveners.'

On June 30, 1893, a final decree was entered, dismissing, for want of equity, the bill filed on behalf of Mrs. Clarke, it being, however, recited that the validity of the lease by the Central Company was not passed upon.

On May 26, 1892, the Virginia & Alabama Coal Company was allowed to become a party complainant in the Clarke suit, and to file an intervening petition therein. The Central Company and its receivers and the Danville Company were made parties defendant to the intervention. It was averred in the petition that the Danville Company, while operating the Central Company, purchased from the intervener, for the use and benefit of the Central in its several divisions, coal, which purchase was made in pursuance of a contract of the Danville Company, dated July 13, 1891. For coal furnished under said contract, and actually delivered to the Central Company (against which latter company, in the course of said business, the bills were originally made out), and used by said Central Company in the running of its machinery, a decree was asked for $26,607.44, as shown by a statement of account annexed to the petition.

The contract referred to in the petition reads as follows:

'Richmond and Danville Railroad Company.

'Office General Purchasing Agent. Joseph P. Minetree, General Purchasing Agent, Atlanta, Ga.

'The Virginia and Alabama Coal Company. Mr. J. R. Ryan, V. P. and G. M. Birmingham, Ala.-Dear Sir: We beg to accept your verbal offer of to-day to furnish the C. R. & B. Co. of Ga. with, say 275,000 tons of best quality engine steam coal for the next twelve months, commencing July 1, 1891, and ending July 1, 1892, at 90 cents per ton of 2,000 pounds, to be delivered on cars at mines, and to be shipped at times and in quantities to suit. Settlements for the coal delivered in any one month to be made on or about the first of the second succeeding month, and the C. R. & B. Co. of Ga. reserves the right to increase or decrease the monthly deliveries upon reasonable notice at any time. The division superintendents of the divisions for which the coal will be required will communicate with you as to the monthly deliveries, and all bills for coal furnished under this contract to be sent direct to the division superintendents. Kindly confirm this at once, and oblige, yours, truly,

'[Signed] Joseph P. Minetree,

'General Purchasing Agent.

'July 13, 1891.'

Besides asking a decree against all the defendants jointly for the amount claimed, with interest, the petition prayed for general relief. The petition was subsequently amended by averring that the Danville Company was liable under the contract of purchase, and that the Central Company was liable because the coal was bought, and actually used, for the benefit of the Central Company of Georgia.

An amendment was subsequently filed to the petition, setting up that the coal delivered by the Virginia Company had been furnished to the Central Company under the contract recited in the petition, and that said coal was furnished to the Central Company for the purpose of being used by it in the running of its machinery and the prosecution of its business; that a great portion of said coal remained on hand in the bins and storage places of the Central Company at the time of the appointment of the temporary receiver, and a large portion was still on hand when the board of receivers were appointed, and went into the possession of said receivers, and had since that time been actually used by the receivers in the running of the machinery of and the operation of the business of, the Central Company; and it was asked that an account might be taken as to the portions so used, and that it should be decreed to be a part of the operating expenses of the railroad company in the hands of the receivers, to be paid as a part of the expenses of the receivership.

On December 3, 1892, the Virginia & Alabama Coal Company, suing for the use of the Sloss Iron & Steel Company, a corporation under the laws of the state of Alabama, filed a further intervening petition, asking payment of an account aggregating $14,359.38, for coal furnished for use on the Central lines by the Sloss Company, under the contract between the Danville Company and the Virginia Company. Grounds of recovery were stated similar to those relied upon in the prior intervention, it being also insisted that, if recovery was allowed against the receiver only for the coal used by him, it should be paid for at its value at the place where used, viz. $2.50 per ton.

To these interventions the Central Company and the receivers thereof separately demurred, while the Danville Company filed motions asking that it be dismissed as a party defendant thereto. The motions were overruled, while decisions upon the demurrers were deferred until the hearing of the interventions.

The issues raised by the respective interventions were referred to a master for report and decision. At different dates the master reported, recommending judgments in favor of the Virginia & Alabama Coal Company, on its behalf and as suing for the use of the Sloss Company, against the Danville & Central Companies and the receiver of the Central, jointly and severally, for the full amounts claimed, with interest, and that upon the payment of the amount of the decree by the Central Company or its receiver, a judgment should be entered in its or his favor against the Richmond & Danville Company for whatever sum might be paid for coal delivered prior to March 4, 1892, and actually used before the appointment of a receiver. By a supplemental report the master reduced the judgment against the receiver for the benefit of the Virginia Company solely, by the sum of $5,543.10, with interest, and the judgment for the use of the Sloss Company for the sum of $2,682.80, owing to the fact that a specified quantity of the coal which had been sold and delivered under the contract had not been used on the lines of the Central Company, but by lines held to be independent roads. Exceptions were filed to the master's report, both as to his findings of fact and conclusions of law, on behalf of all parties to the intervention. The reports of the master and the exceptions filed thereto came on for hearing before the court, and on December 29, 1893, an order was entered sustaining the exceptions in part and overruling them in part. A final decree was entered on January 1, 1894, and amended on March 31, 1894, setting aside the reports and adjudging that the Virginia & Alabama Coal Company recover from the Central Company $6,171.98 for the 'amount of unpaid-for coal' in cars consigned to the officers of the Richmond & Danville Railroad Company, and which was unloaded after March 4, 1892, and appropriated by the receivers of the company, being 6,857.75 tons, at 90 cents per ton; and the Virginia & Alabama Coal Company, suing for the use of the Sloss Iron & Steel Company, was adjudged to recover of the Central Company $735.16, or 816.85 tons of coal at 90 cents per ton, being the amount of unpaid-for coal unloaded after March 4, 1892, and appropriated by the receivers. The receivers of the Central Company were directed to pay the sums so found due out of the current earnings of the Central Railroad & Banking Company in their hands.

An appeal was prosecuted from the final decree to the circuit court of appeals for the Fifth circuit, which court, on February 25, 1895, reversed the decree of the circuit court (30 U.S. App. 263, 14 C. C. A. 112, and 66 Fed. 803), and remanded the cause to that court, 'with instructions to enter a decree in favor of the interveners, the Virginia & Alabama Coal Company and the Sloss Iron & Steel Company, for the amounts respectively due them for coal delivered to the lines under the control and forming a part of the system of the Central Railroad & Banking Company of Georgia, as shown by the evidence in this cause, including the coal furnished before the appointment of the receivers and that found in the bins of the line after such appointment, and of which the receivers took possession, as well as the coal delivered to the receivers after their appointment, the amount due beig determined by the contract price; and an order that they recover from the Central Railroad & Banking Company of Georgia and the receivers of the same such sums thus found to be due. No decree will be entered in favor of the interveners for the payment of that portion of the coal which was used by the Charlotte, Columbia & Augusta Railroad Company.'

An application for a rehearing being denied, a writ of certiorari was allowed by this court.

Walter B. Hill and N. E. Harris, for appellants.

T. M. Cunningham and A. R. Lawton, for appellees.

Mr. Justice WHITE, after making the foregoing statement, delivered the opinion of the court.