Case Name: Charles J. Close, Resp't, v. Richard K. Noye, App'lt
Court: Buffalo Superior Court
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1893-07
Citations: 58 N.Y. St. Rep. 115
Docket Number: 
Parties: Charles J. Close, Resp’t, v. Richard K. Noye, App’lt.
Judges: 
Reporter: New York State Reporter
Volume: 58
Pages: 115–116

Head Matter:
Charles J. Close, Resp’t, v. Richard K. Noye, App’lt.
(Buffalo Superior Court, General Term,
Filed July, 1893.)
COKSTITUTIOKAL LAW—COKPOJtATIONS.
Section 54, chap. 688 of 1892, is unconstitutional as to a creditor whose debt was incurred before the act was passed, though the right to amend charters of corporations was reserved by the legislature.
Appeal from a judgment in favor of plaintiff.
At the time plaintiff’s debt was incurred the liability of defendant as a stockholder of' such corporation existed to an amount equal to the amount of stock held by him for every debt of the corporation until the whole amount of capital stock was'fully paid. After the debt was incurred, Laws 1892, c. 688, § 54 was enacted, providing that stockholders should be liable for corporate debts only until the whole amount of capital stock “issued and outstanding at the. time such debt was incurred shall have been fully paid.”
Á. Moot, for app’lt; Simon Fleischman, for resp’t.

Opinion:
White, J.
I am for an affirmance of the judgment appealed from solely on the authority of the case of Hawthorne v. Calef, 2 Wall. 10, which seems to- hold that, notwithstanding the reservation by the legislature of the right to amend charters of corporations, the act of 1892 is unconstitutional as to the plaintiff in this action.
Titus, G. J., concurs.' Hatch, J., did not sit.