El Dora Oil Co. v. Gibson

LANGDON, J.

Defendant McDonald appeals from a judgment against him upon a bond made and executed by him, jointly with the other defendants, to stay the execution of an order of the superior court appointing a receiver of the El Dora Oil Company pending an appeal from said order, which appeal has been dismissed.

The circumstances connected with the execution of this bond are disclosed by the findings of the trial court, from which we recite the following facts:

In a certain action, wherein T. B. Fredendall, G. A. Lathrop, T. J. Green, L. C. Merideth, Monroe Thurman, and N. L. Hall were plaintiffs and El Dora Oil Company, John Shrader, E. S. Good, Trusten Clark, D. W. Staten, Herman Friedman and J. L. Campbell, Henry M. Jackson and John Schrader, copartners doing business under the firm name and style of Ohio Valley Construction Company, a corporation, were defendants, then pending in the superior court of the state of California, in and for the county of Los Angeles, said superior court on the seventeenth day of January, 1914, made and entered- an order appointing J. A. Kibele receiver of said El Dora Oil Company and authorizing, empowering, and ordering the said Kibele to take possession and control of all the property and assets of the said El Dora Oil Company, and to conduct, operate, and manage its business and to conserve the assets thereof. Said action was instituted, prosecuted, and maintained by the plaintiffs therein named in the interest and on behalf of the said El Dora Oil Company and all of its stockholders in like situation as the plaintiffs, and in the supplemental and amended complaint in said action, it was alleged by the plaintiffs, and the facts were and are that said E. S. Good, Trusten Clark, D. W. Staten, Herman Friedman, and John Shrader were the directors of the said El Dora Oil Company, and that at the time said action was instituted, and for a long time prior thereto, the defendants therein named, E. S. Good and John Shrader, absolutely and entirely controlled the actions, conduct and management of the board of directors of said company, and that

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the defendants therein named, D. W. Staten, Trusten Clark and Herman Friedman, were, as directors of said El Dora Oil Company, absolutely and entirely subservient to the will, control, and direction of the said Good and Shrader, and cast their votes on all matters connected with the conduct, management and affairs of the said El Dora Oil Company as instructed and directed to do by the defendants Good and Shrader. The defendants E. S. Good, John Shrader, J. L. Campbell, and Henry M. Jackson were, at the time of - the commencement of said action, handling and treating the funds and moneys of the said El Dora Oil Company as if same were their own, and were disbursing the same without any regard for the rights of the said El Dora Oil Company or its stockholders, and that they threatened and would continue to do so unless said receiver for said company were appointed.