Case ID: misc_130/html/0565-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Frankenthaler, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

David Schnitzler, in Behalf of the Creditors of the Time Lite Clock Corporation, Plaintiff, v. Edward Tartell and Others, Defendants.
    Supreme Court, New York County,
    September 23, 1927.
    Corporations —■ stockholders — stockholders’ liability to creditors for amount unpaid on stock is joint — summary judgment not authorized against one stockholder.
    In an action by creditors against the stockholders of a corporation to recover on the stockholders’ statutory liability to' the amount unpaid on stock held by them, a summary judgment cannot be directed against one stockholder only, for the liability of the stockholders is joint and not several.
    Motion by plaintiff for summary judgment.
    
      Fliashnick & Sustick, for the plaintiff.
    
      Carl E. Schustak, for the defendants.
   Frankenthaler, J.

Plaintiff, a judgment creditor in the sum of $1,057.50, has sued in behalf of himself and all other creditors to recover from the stockholders of the debtor corporation the amounts unpaid on the shares of stock held by them. He now moves for summary judgment in the sum of $50,000 against one of the stockholders, claiming that said sum represents the amount unpaid on the latter’s shares of stock. The recent decision of our Court of Appeals in Bottlers Seal Co. v. Rainey (243 N. Y. 333) would seem to require the denial of this motion. It was there held that the liability of stockholders to ci editors for the amounts unpaid on their capital stock is joint, and not several. In such an action all the stockholders must be joined as defendants, except in certain situations, which are not here presented. This is, of course, inconsistent with the severance which the plaintiff seeks to obtain on this motion. Moreover, the plaintiff applies for judgment in an amount far greater than his own judgment. There is nothing to show that the total liabilities of the corporation aggregate $50,000, the amount of the judgment applied for. It is even questionable whether an action of this character comes within the provisions of rule 113 of the Rules of Civil Practice. Motion denied.