Oxford Democrat. [volume] (Paris, Me.) 1833-1933, 1913-11-18
The Fights of One stakeholder


More importance than appears on the
surface may attach to case heard in
Portland recently by Justice Haley, from
whose decision an appeal has been taken
to the law court.
A man holding one share Of stock in a
large power company organized under
the Maine law, but doing business in a
western state, applied to the clerk of the
corporation in Portland for permission
to copy certain portions of the records
of the company. This was refused. He
thereupOn petitioned the court for a
writ of maudamus &c compel the clerk to
allow such copying of the records. AT
ter hearing Judge Haley granted the
petition, and an appeal was taken.
The case is somewhat colored by the
fact that the petitioner is an investment
broker, and that what he wanted
was to get list of the stockholders,
possibly for his personal use in So
that was not his ostensible purpose.
But this is question of motive, and
whether true or not, can hardly affect
his rights as stakeholder, even though
he owns but one share.
1t may not at first glance appear that
there is any particular Importance to
this matter, yet it involves the question
whether stakeholder has any rights
that the officers who manage the corpo-
ration are bound to respect. Not so very
many of US, to be sure, are in the stock
holding list, yet business is getting more
and more into corporations all the time,
and the stock of at least some of the
larger corporations is being distributed
among a constantly increasing number of
small holders.
Ii is we'll understood that few men
holding the offices of corporation, even
though they may own much less than a
majority of the stock, are able to con-
troll its affairs absolutely, without re-
gard TO the interests of the other stock
holders, and the big business of the
country, as far as its management is con-
cerned, is concentrated in the hands OF a
comparatively few men. Whether this
concentration of control is good thing
or not may be debatable, but it is a
fact.
A stakeholder in stockholders meet
ing has little more function than voting
for board of directors, generally on a
slate already made up; indeed, frequent
ly the small stakeholder is an unwel-
come guest. A man who had secured a
small block of Standard Oil stock few
years since went into stockholders
meeting, after some difficulty in locating
il 1.-THE meeting was in New Jersey, not
at 20 Broadway and was well aware that
his presence caused embarrassment to
the managers. In the stockholders
meeting of another mammoth corporation
only recently stockholder not connected
with the management-not a small stock
holder, but man of large wealth who
owned a considerable block of stock
ventured the suggestion that the corpora
ton investigate the conditions Of labor in
its numerous plants, and the suggestion,
though eventually acted upon, was re-
ceived by the management of the con-
Germ with unconcealed annoyance, as
something that the man had no business
to make.
As an illustration of the concentration
of control of the records, it is fact that
the records of one of the largest of the
corporations are, or were formerly, kept
in massive double-locked volume, two
of the officials having the separate keys,
so that not even the directors could in
spect the records except in the presence
of these two men.
In the case cited, Judge Haley de-
cides that any stakeholder has the right
to inspect the records at all reasonable
times, and to make copies of such parts
of them as concern his interests as a
stakeholder, the list OF stockholders be-
ing one of those parts. II the full court
so CONSTITUTES the law as to reverse Judge
Haley's decision, 1t will indicate that the
process of concentration of control OF
capital is materially aided by the organ
izstion of Maine corporations, and that
any stockholder who is not in the direc-
tOrate of the corporation should expect
little consideration.