Longworth v. East River National Bank

Headnote

Longworth v. East River Nat. Bank, 160 App. Div. 737 , affirmed.

Appeal from a judgment of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court in - the first, judicial department,

entered March 4, 1914, affirming a judgment in favor of defendant entered upon a dismissal of the complaint by the court on trial at Special Term. The action was brought to compel the issuance to plaintiff of a certificate for thirty-three shares of the capital stock of the defendant, East River National Bank, in lieu of twenty-seven shares of defendant’s predecessor, the East River ' (State) Bank, represented by a certificate in plaintiff’s 'possession and presented by him to the defendant March 23, 1911, together with a demand that the exchange be be made. Plaintiff also prays that there be an accounting as to such dividends as he may be found entitled to, as one of the defendant’s stockholders, together with judgment for the amount thus ascertained. The answer denied the material allegations of the complaint, and set up as separate defenses: 1. That, upon becoming incorporated under the National Banking Law, the defendant adopted a by-law providing that “ No stock shall be transferred while the person in whose name it stands is liable to the bank for a debt overdue.” That Burgess was indebted to defendant at the time of the blank assignment, and that his stock was, with his consent, on the 6th of April, 1867, sold by the bank to satisfy such indebtedness. 2. That three years after the incorpora- ‘ tion of defendant as a national bank and the surrender of its state charter, the certificate in suit became null and void. 3. That the plaintiff is barred by laches as well as by the Statute of Limitations.