Case Name: Proprietors of Newburyport Bridge versus Charles W. Story
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1827-11-08
Citations: 6 Pick. 45
Docket Number: 
Parties: Proprietors of Newburyport Bridge versus Charles W. Story.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 23
Pages: 45–45

Head Matter:
Proprietors of Newburyport Bridge versus Charles W. Story.
Nov 8th.
April term 1828
Assumpsit. The plaintiffs prpved that they were incorporated (by St. 1825, c. 164) for the purpose of building a bridge over Merrimack river; that the defendant, on the 14th of March, 1826, and before the first meeting of the corporation, subscribed the agreement upon which the action was brought, to take thirty shares in the stock of the corporation, and to pay the assessments when called for by the treasurer of the corporation, agreeably to the act of incorporation and the by-laws which might thereafter be made, provided the same should not exceed forty dollars on a share. The corporation was organized on the 24th of March, and an assessment of five dollars was laid, which the defendant paid. An assessment of ten dollars was afterwards laid, to recover which this action was brought.
The 5th section of the act of incorporation provides, that the stock shall be “ divided into one thousand sharesand the counsel for the defendant contended, among other things, at the trial, that it was incumbent on the plaintiffs to show that the stock had been so divided. But in this they were overruled. They likewise offered to prove that the whole number of shares had not been taken up , but this evidence was rejected.
A verdict was found for the plaintiffs.
Saltonstall and Shillaher, for the defendant.
Cushing, for the plaintiffs.

Opinion:
Per Curiam.
In this case, it not appearing that when the sum demanded was assessed, the number of shares prescribed in the act of incorporation had been taken up, nor that there was authority under the act to lay an assessment for any purpose before the subscription should be full, under which circumstances this assessment would be void, the verdict must be set aside and a new trial granted. Reporter.