Traer v. Clews

by William Burnham Woods

United States Supreme Court

115 U.S. 528

Traer  v.  Clews

 Argued: November 23, 1885. ---

Henry Clews, the defendant in error, on January 17, 1878, brought this suit in the circuit court of Linn county, Iowa, against John W. Traer and others, to recover the value of 50 shares, of $1,000 each, of capital stock in the Cedar Rapids North western Construction Company, and the dividends which had been declared thereon. The stock had been originally subscribed and owned by Clews. The construction company was organized in 1870. The dividends sued for were declared, $10,000 in December, 1873, and $500 in January, 1874, and were in the treasury of the company ready to be paid out to the holder of the stock. On November 28, 1874, Clews was adjudicated a bankrupt, and his stock in the construction company, with the dividends which had been declared thereon, passed to J. Nelson Tappan, trustee of his bankrupt estate. In February, 1875, the construction company went into voluntary dissolution and liquidation, and John W. Traer, John F. Ely, and William Green were appointed trustees to settle up its affairs and divide its assets among its stockholders, according to their interest therein. Traer, knowing that the dividends above mentioned had been declared, and the same being unknown to Clews and Tappan, his trustee in bankruptcy, on March 4, 1876, for the consideration of $1,200, through the intervention of one Armstrong, who did not disclose his agency, purchased of Tappan, the trustee, the 50 shares of stock above mentioned. Traer alleged, and it appeared, that the purchase was made by him for his wife, Mrs. Ella D. Traer. Afterwards, on December 6, 1877, Tappan, the trustee in bankruptcy, assuming, as it may be supposed, that the sale of the stock made at the instance of Armstrong was void for fraud, sold all his claims and demands on account of the stock to Clews, who, on January 17, 1878, brought this suit. John W. Traer and others, who had been officers and trustees of the construction company, were made defendants to the original petition. The defendants demurred to the petition on the ground that it did not state facts sufficient to entitle the plaintiff to the relief demanded. The court overruled the demurrer. Afterwards, the plaintiff having discovered that, on March 4, 1876, the stock in the construction company had been assigned to Ella D. Traer, on October 28, 1879, amended his petition by making her a party defendant to his suit. Upon final hearing in the circuit court for Linn county the suit was dismissed as to all the defendants except John W. Traer and Ella D. Traer, and judgment was rendered against them for $15,000. Traer and his wife appealed from this judgment to the supreme court of Iowa, which affirmed the judgment of the circuit court. By the present writ of error Traer and wife ask a review of the judgment of the supreme court of Iowa.

N. M. Hubbard and Chas A. Clark, for plaintiffs in error, John W. Traer and another.

[Argument of Counsel from pages 529-533 intentionally omitted]

L. Deane and Frank G. Clark, for defendant in error, Henry Clews.

WOODS, J.

Notes