The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-05-03
SAME OLD COON WITH ANOTHER
RING AROUND HIS TAIL"

/ dred thousand dollars. OF the stock
the State of North Carolina and the
counties of Lenoir, Craven and Pam
leo own something like one and a
half million dollars. Private parties
own the balance. That stock during
| the past twenty-five years has sold
| at prices ranging from two dollars to
twenty-five dollars a share until the
election of Governor Aycock. Dur
Mr.. Bryan the stock has steadily ap-
| preciated i'll value until it now COM
mands fifty dollars a share. With
| that commercial evidence of the value
of the property, an application was
| recently made, as the result of con-
spiracy, by a person who owned no
stock in the road to place the prop
erty in the hands of a receiver. The
application was granted, one of the
conSpirators was appointed receiver.
Later the judge who granted the or
der expressed himself as highly in
dignant,' and the receivership was
vacated and the property returned to
the management of it's owners. Since
| then nothing has been done to change
| the situation except that commit
tee of honest men has been appoint
| ed to examine into the physical ana
| financial condition of the road. NOW
| comes forward the same attorney VINO
represented McBee and F1nch, ana
makes another application for re-
ceiver. this time appearing for anoth-
er New York man whose stock is said
| to be really owned by him. The last
| time Finch visited Raleigh he was ac-
companied by the New York attorney
of the stakeholder in whose name the
present suit is brought. 1t was then
believed that Finch, Day, Fleming and
the New York stakeholder were
Matching UP another receiverShip
suit. The expected has happened.
There is reason to believe the present
suit is inspired by the same ''HIGHER
UP" parties who were behind the
original grab, and that it would never
have been heard of but for the con-
spiracy proceedings. In fact this APP
plication is 1.-The same old coon with
another ring around his tail"
Already this paper has quoted from
| ceedure which is open to a minority
stakeholder in any company to pursue
when not satisfied with the manage
| ment of the property. The rule laid
down in American and English
| Cyclopaedia of Law, 26. Stock and
Stockholders, page 9S4, as follows:
"While the holder of a single share
/ of stock is entitled to redress for any
j real grievance that he may have suf-
! fered, still, care must be taken that
| the majority are not deprived of their
rights by a small number of dissen-
! tients, and where the complainant
owns but a small proportion of the
| entire stock of the corporation, he
| will be required to make out a very
| clear case in order to entitle himself
to relief. A preliminary injunction
will not be granted at the suit of a
minority stakeholder where it is ap-
| parent that it's issuance would result
| in a greater injury to the majority
stockholders than its refustl would
occasion to the complainant"
/
| it IS declared:
But whenever it is made 10 appear
| that stockholders suit, although
! ncminally on behalf of the corpora
| ton, is not brought in good faith for
| the protection of the corporate rights,
| but is in reality originated and prose-
cuted by another corporation for it's
own benefit, the court will refuse to
! entertain the bill"
Judge Simonton, in South
Carolina case, declared that a
minority stakeholder should first
demand of the majority the
change of management he deemed
necessary and exhaust every effort
within the corporation to secure what
he deemed proper management before
he would have a right to apply to
have the business taken out of the
hands of it's majority owners. In the
case of Ranger VS.. Champion Cotton
Press Company ct al, brought before
Judge Simonton in the Circuit court
of South Carolina on the 10th of
July, 1892, Judge Simonton refused
to appoint a receiver in a case much
stronger than the one in which Judge
Purnell is asked to appoint a receiver.
In that case, Lewis Ranger repre-
senting thirty-nine shares in a COM
pany in which there were 12O shares,
asked for the appointment of a re-
ceiver on the ground that B. F. Nc
Cabe, the president, refused to ac-
count for some twenty-five thousand
dollars entrusted to him by the COM
pany to be used in the promotion of
it's interests, the application of this
money by his own use. and his re-
peated and obstinate refusal to give
complainant an inspection of the
| books of the company or any infor-
nation whatever of its affairs 1t
| was alleged that McCabe was insol-
vent and that after the inauguration
of the suit he mortgaged all his real
estate with manifest intent to defeat
! the claim of the company. Judge
| Simonton said these facts presented a
| grave condition of things, but he de-
| oil, to int n n .