Case ID: la_112/html/0867-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "MONROE, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

(36 South. 760.)
    No. 15,009.
    STATE ex rel. FEARS v. NEW ORLEANS MARITIME & MERCHANTS’ EXCH., Limited.
    (May 23, 1904.)
    MANDAMUS TO CORPORATION — INSPECTION OP BOOKS — DISSOLUTION.
    1. A stockholder in a business corporation, applying for a mandamus to enforce his right to inspect the books, has no standing after he sells his stock to prosecute an appeal from a judgment rejecting his demand; and if it be further suggested, by sworn averment, that the corporation has been dissolved since the taking of the appeal, the case may be remanded for the hearing of testimony upon the issues thus presented.
    (Syllabus by the Court.)
    Appeal from Civil District Court, Parish of Orleans; Fred D. King, Judge.
    Application by the state, on the relation of Edgar P. Fears, for a writ of mandamus to the New Orleans Maritime & Merchants’ Exchange, Limited. From an order denying a writ, relator appeals.
    Remanded for further hearing.
    Girault Farrar and Benjamin T. Waldo, for appellant. Farrar, Jonas & Kruttschnitt, for appellee.
   MONROE, J.

This case comes before the court upon an appeal taken by the relator from a judgment rejecting his application for a writ of mandamus to compel the defendant corporation to permit him to inspect the minute book of its “grain committee.” The appellant files a motion, supported by affidavit, to dismiss the appeal on the grounds:

That, since the same was taken, the relator has sold his stock and ceased to be a member of the corporation, and that the corporation has been dissolved by its stockholders, and its affairs finally liquidated.

If the relator is no longer a member of the corporation, he has no right to inspect its books; and, if the corporation no longer exists, it is probable that he has no interest in so doing.

It is therefore ordered and adjudged that this case be remanded for the hearing of testimony upon the issues thus presented.