Mackenzie v. A. Engelhard & Sons Co., 266 U.S. 131 (1924)

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Mackenzie v. A. Engelhard & Sons Company


Nos. 55 and 59


Argued October 9, 1924
Decided November 17, 1924
266 U.S. 131

CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SIXTH CIRCUIT

Syllabus

1. An appeal is a proceeding in the original cause, and the suit is pending until the appeal is disposed of. P. 142.

2. Where the owner of corporate shares, the unendorsed certificate for which was held by another as collateral to a note at first prevailed in a suit brought by the latter in a Kentucky court to enforce the note and the lien, and, under permission of the judgment, withdrew the stock certificate, filed as an exhibit, and procured the shares to be transferred by the corporation to others, held:

(a) That a final judgment, entered after a reversal, sustaining the plaintiff’s claim, ordering that the shares be publicly sold, and confirming a sale so made to the plaintiff, was binding, with respect to his ownership so acquired, upon the assignees of the shares, who so took them pending the appeal, although the plaintiff had obtained no supersedeas of the original judgment, and, owing to the tactics pursued by his opponents, had bought them in at far less than their true value. P. 143.

(b) That Kentucky Civ.Code § 747, providing that "an appeal shall not stay proceeding on the judgment unless supersedeas be issued," was inapplicable. P. 143.

(c) That the plaintiff’s rights under the state judgment to have the shares with accrued dividends or their value was absolute as against the corporation (which allowed the transfer with notice of the suit), and were not diminished in equity by his failure to procure the supersedeas or to pursue the assignees of the stock (since he was not bound to do either), nor by the low price he paid for the shares. Id.

86 F. 813 reversed.

Certiorari, on petitions of both sides, to review a decree of the circuit court of appeals which modified a decree for the plaintiff, Mackenzie, in his suit to compel the defendant corporation to deliver to him a certificate for shares of its stock, or to pay him their value, and for an accounting of all dividends declared since his purchase of the shares at a judicial sale.