Woolverton v. Taylor’s Empirical Analysis

Citation profile

7 federal appellate · 1 district · 35 state decisions

Most-quoted passages

The sentences later courts lift from this opinion, ranked by how many decisions quote each — the parts of the opinion doing the work. These counts are smaller than the citation total above because most of the 45 citing decisions cite the case generally; a passage count includes only decisions quoting that exact language verbatim.

1. ““If the indebtedness of any stock corporation shall exceed the amount of its capital stock, the directors and officers of such corporation, assenting thereto, shall be personally and individually liable for such excess, to the creditors of such corporation.””

   2 later decisions quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. Hart-Parr Co. v. Pratt · 244 Ill. App. 56 - Albert Pick & Co. v. Warshauer

2. ““The statute certainly does not mean that the officers shall only become liable for one act of assenting to excessive indebtedness during the life of the corporation. The amount in excess may continue to he increased from time to time by different officers, running over a period of years. By a single hill for the benefit of all the creditors against all these officers that excess may he recovered, and made a fund for the payment of all the debts. * * * The officers, if liable at all, are liable to all the creditors of the corporation,— those existing prior to the contract creating the excessive indebtedness, those whose debts are created thereby, and also those who may afterwards become its creditors. As to the subsequent creditors, could it he said the cause of action accrued before they became creditors? The action must he for their benefit as well as that of all others, and yet they may not have become creditors of the corporation until more than five years after the first assenting to the excessive indebtedness.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. James H. Rice Co. v. Libbey

3. ““The remedy for this violation of duty as trustees is in its nature appropriate to a court of chancery. The powers and instrumentalities of that court enable it to ascertain the excess of the indebtedness over the capital stock, the amount of this which each trustee may have assented to, and the extent to which the funds of the corporation may be resorted to for the payment of the debts; also, the number and names of the creditors, the amount of their several debts, to determine the sum to be recovered of the trustees, and apportioned among the creditors, in a manner which the trial by jury and the rigid rules of common law proceedings render impossible.””

   1 later decision quote this exact passage · from the majority
   e.g. 244 Ill. App. 56 - Albert Pick & Co. v. Warshauer