Page:North Dakota Reports (vol. 1).pdf/83

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HENNESSY v. GRIGGS, ET AL.
59

jority of the stock of the corporation; and, no doubt, such was the intention of the parties.

The corporation expended over $40,000 in the purchase of materials, and construction of the. works. This money the court finds was furnished by Griggs and Eshelman, but it is found by the court to be a debt of the copartnership. Plaintiff, Hennessy, never paid in any money to the firm capital. His theory of the case is that the copartnership capital to be furnished by Griggs, Eshelman, and Hennessy was nominal only; that in fact said parties were to pay in no money, but that their services as copartners were to be received as such capital; that the works were to be constructed with the $25,000 to be raised from outside parties by Griggs, and when the corporation should be formed the copartners would receive their shares of capital stock, paid up, and non-assessable, without the expenditure of any money whatever. But such is not the contract. The capital was to be furnished; that is, supplied, provided, paid in. The services rendered by plaintiff were only such as the law required of a partner; and, in the absence of an express contract, no compensation therefor could be claimed.

Plaintiff became one of the incorporators of the corporation defendant. That corporation was formed under the articles of copartnership, and in pursuance thereof, and was formed to succeed the copartnership in all things, property, franchise, business, contracts, obligations, and liabilities. The two could not co-exist; and, as between the partners and the incorporators, the existence of the corporation worked eo instanti the dissolution of the copartnership. There no longer existed any rights or obligations which the partners, as such, could enforce, the one against the other. Nor can plaintiff be heard to say that the corporation defendant is not the corporation contemplated by the copartnership articles, because the capital stock is greater, and the incorporators five, instead of three. He signed the articles of incorporation fixing the amount of capital stock, and specially naming the five persons as incorporators and directors. He must be held to have assented to such alteration. Nor could his rights be in any manner injuriously affected thereby. If he performed the contract on his part, he was still