Opinion ID: 2449080
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: whites' suit in the trial court for mandamus

Text: The refusal of the Company to permit the Whites to inspect the books precipitated the filing of a suit in the trial court by the Whites wherein they sought a writ of mandamus to compel the Company to allow the Whites immediate access to all books, records, minutes, records of shareholders and other books and records of [the Company]. The Whites alleged in their mandamus petition that they were stockholders of record and had been for more than six months, owned over five per cent of the stock in the Company, and had proper purposes for wanting to inspect the books; thereby complying with the requirements for inspection of the books by a shareholder as established by Art. 2.44, V.A.T.S. Bus. Corp. Act. The purposes given in the request for inspection were as follows: The proper purposes of such examination are: a determination of the causes and reasons for the precipitous decline in profits of the corporation; to assist and help the management of the corporation to reverse the adverse trend of the company's business and operations during recent years; to ascertain the unprofitable aspects of the company's business and operations; to examine generally into all expenditures in order to determine their reasonableness and wisdom; to determine whether excessive compensation is being paid to officers, directors or others close to management; to determine the extent to which stockholders have participated in stockholders' meetings and action taken at such stockholders' meetings, and generally to inquire into the details of the corporation's operations and practices for the purpose of protecting their investment.