Case ID: ohio-st_63/html/0547-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "By the Court.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

The State ex rel. The Attorney General, v. The Home Co-operative Union.
    
      For what purposes corporations may be formed — Section 8285, Revised Statutes — Companies for dealing in real estate are for profit.
    
    Companies incorporated under section 3235, Revised Statutes, for the purpose of dealing in real estate are-necessarily for profit, and must be so organized.
    (Decided December 18, 1900.)
    In Quo Warranto.
    It appears from the pleadings and the agreed statements of facts that' the defendant is incorporated under section 3235, Revised Statutes, as a corporation created for the purpose of dealing in real estate on the co-operative plan. It has no capital stock and consequently none divided into shares, being organized, as claimed, not for profit, but to assist its members in acquiring homes by sums contributed by its members for such purpose. The articles of incorporation are as follows:
    Witnesseth, That we, the undersigned, all of whom are citizens of the State of Ohio, desiring to form a corporation not for profit, under the general corporation laAvs of said state do hereby certify:
    First. The name of said corporation shall be The Home Co-operative Union.
    Second. Said corporation shall be located and its principal business transacted at Lima, in Allen county, Ohio.
    Third. The purpose for which said corporation is formed is, first, to purchase real estate on a cash basis by co-operation and sell same to purchasers on long time and easy monthly payments without interest and without profit, providing only for actual expenses, which are limited to a stated amount. Second, to encourage better financial standing among the Avorking classes and promote the general welfare — s'aid corporation to be not mutual in character, but co-operative, without capital stock, under section 3235, Revised Statutes of Ohio.
    In Witness Whereof, We have hereunto set our hands this 19th day of July, A. I)., 1899.
    Philander Conklin,
    James E. Wickham,
    Frederick P. Hofmann,
    O. H. Hollister,
    A. H. Smith,
    J. V. Smiley,
    J. H. Spitler,
    J. N, Hutchinson.
    
      
      John M. Sheets, Attorney General; J. E. Todd, Assistant Atty. General, and L. W. Bennett, for relator.
    
      J. N. Hutchinson; L. D. Heller and Henderson & Sprague, for defendant.
   By the Court.

The organiza tio® of incorporated companies for the purpose of dealing in real estate under section 8235, Revised Statutes, is necessarily for profit, and such companies must have a capital stock divided into shares as all other corporations for profit. The defendant is not so organized and the prayer of the petition must be sustained. Such corporations expire by limitation of the statute in twenty-five years; and it would not be possible for the defendant to conduct its business in the period limited by the statute so as to avoid loss to a large number of its members.

Judgment of Ouster.