Toombs v. Citizens Bank of Waynesboro, 281 U.S. 643 (1930)

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Toombs v. Citizens Bank of Waynesboro

No. 485

Submitted April 28, 1930
Decided May 26, 1930
281 U.S. 643

APPEAL FROM THE SUPREME COURT OF GEORGIA

1. A Georgia statute provides that, upon being required by the Superintendent of Banks to make good an impairment of capital by an assessment upon stockholders, the officers and directors of a bank shall call a special meeting of the stockholders for the purpose of making such assessment. In a case from the state court in which a stockholder challenged an assessment under the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment, held that, in the absence of a controlling decision by the state court, it cannot be assumed either that notice of the stockholders’ meeting at which the assessment was made was not required by the state law or that a notice actually given by mailing it fifteen days before the meeting, addressed to the stockholder at his address last known to the bank, was insufficient. P. 646.

2. In assailing the constitutionality of a state statute, the burden rests upon the complainant to establish that it infringes the constitutional guarantee which he invokes. If the state court has not otherwise construed it, and it is susceptible of an interpretation which conforms to constitutional requirements, doubts must be resolved in favor of the state. P. 647.

169 Ga. 115 affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment sustaining a recovery by the Bank in an action to collect an assessment from a stockholder.