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Stackpole v. Seymour

Henry Stackpole & another v. Silas Seymour & another

Stackpole v. Seymour, 127 Mass. 104 (1879)
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Court
Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court · State Highest Courts
Decided
June 27, 1879
Judges
Gray
Citations
127 Mass. 1041879 Mass. LEXIS 27
Headnotes
A purchaser of shares in a railroad corporation, at a sale for non-payment of an assessment thereon, is not entitled to a writ of mandamus to the officers of the corporation to compel a transfer to he made on its books and a certificate issued to him.
Summary
Petition for a writ of mandamus to compel the president and treasurer of a railroad corporation to transfer to the petitioners, on the books of the corporation, certain shares of its capital stock, which it was alleged they had purchased at a sale by the corporation for the non-payment of an assessment thereon, under the St. of 1874, o. 372, § 45, and to issue to them a certificate thereof. Hearing before Lord, J., who reserved the case for the determination of the full court.

Syllabus and headnotes are prepared by the reporter or publisher, not the court, and are not part of the opinion.

Opinion of the Court — Gray

Text extracted by OCR from a scanned original; check the original for exact wording.

Gray, C. J.

Independently of the objection that the corporation has not been made a party to the proceeding, nor had any notice thereof, this is not a proper case for granting a writ of mandamus. No public interest or corporate right is in question. If the petitioners have suffered any private injury by an illegal refusal to record the transfer and issue to them a certificate of the shares which they have purchased, they have an adequate and complete remedy by action for damages. Murray v. Stevens, 110 Mass. 95 , and cases there cited.

In American Railway-Frog Co. v. Haven, 101 Mass. 398 , the application, as observed in the opinion, was not by a private stockholder, but by the corporation itself to protect it in the enjoyment of its chartered rights and to secure to it the benefit of a legal organization. The Queen v. Shropshire Union Railways, L. R. 8 Q. B. 420, was submitted on a case stated, no question of the form of remedy was made, and the judgment in the Exchequer Chamber, ordering a writ of mandamus to issue, was contrary to the judgment in the Queen’s Bench, and was reversed in the House of Lords. L. R. 7 H. L. 496.

Petition dismissed.

How later courts describe this case

No later court has written an explanatory parenthetical about this case yet.

1882–1883: 11884–1885: 11898–1899: 11902–1903: 11910–1911: 11912–1913: 11914–1915: 11938–1939: 118822026peak 1882 · 1

Relies on it most ⓘ

  1. Longyear v. Hardman219 Mass. 405 (1914)
  2. Selectmen of Gardner v. Templeton Street Railway Co.68 N.E. 340 (Mass. 1903)
  3. State ex rel. Lyons v. Bank of Conception163 S.W. 945 (Mo. Ct. App. 1913)
  4. Second National Bank v. First National Bank76 N.W. 504 (N.D. 1898)
  5. Townes v. Nichols73 Me. 515 (1882)
  6. Dennett v. Acme Manufacturing Co.76 A. 922 (Me. 1910)

Most recent

  1. Brown ex rel. Cassera v. Caulkins6 Conn. Super. Ct. 283 (1938)
  2. Longyear v. Hardman219 Mass. 405 (1914)
  3. State ex rel. Lyons v. Bank of Conception163 S.W. 945 (Mo. Ct. App. 1913)
  4. Dennett v. Acme Manufacturing Co.76 A. 922 (Me. 1910)
  5. Selectmen of Gardner v. Templeton Street Railway Co.68 N.E. 340 (Mass. 1903)
  6. Second National Bank v. First National Bank76 N.W. 504 (N.D. 1898)

Citing references are not a citator: they show that a later opinion cites this case, not whether it followed, distinguished, or overruled it. Check negative history before relying on this case.

Authorities cited 2

DepthCaseCited by
Am. Ry.-Frog Co. v. Haven, 101 Mass. 398 (1869) 37
Murray v. Stevens, 110 Mass. 95 (1872) 14

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