Lockwood v. United States Steel Corp.

Headnote

Loehwood v. XT. S. Steel Corporation, 171 App. Div. 912 , affirmed.

Appeal, by permission, from an order of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in the first judicial depart-

merit, entered November 19, 1915, which affirmed an order of Special Term granting a motion by plaintiff for judgment in his favor upon the pleadings. The complaint alleged that the plaintiff is the executor of the will of Mary Adelaide Zuill, deceased, appointed by the Sur-, rogate’s Court of New York county; that the decedent was a resident of Bermuda; that she owned a certificate of forty shares of stock in the defendant corporation, which was actually in this state at the time of her death; that the plaintiff, in the ordinary course of administration, sold said shares, and desired to have same transferred to the purchaser; that the defendant is a foreign corporation, and maintains an office in the city of New York, where it receives stock for transfer, and where it delivers new certificates after transfer has been made; that plaintiff tendered to the defendant at the said office said certificate together with all the necessary papers, and demanded that the same be transferred on its books to the purchaser. The demand having been refused, this action followed. The defense was that the situs of the stock was either in Bermuda, where the decedent was domiciled, or in New Jersey, the home of the defendant corporation; hence the the plaintiff, as an executor appointed here, had no title to the stock.

The following question was certified: “ Is the plaintiff entitled to judgment upon the pleadings?”