Rorke v. San Francisco Stock & Exchange Board

Searls, C. The proceeding in the court below was had under an alternative writ of mandate, issued on the application of appellant, to the San Francisco Stock and Exchange Board (an unincorporated association), commanding it to restore the applicant, Benjamin B. Rorke, to membership in said association, and to all the rights, privileges, and immunities pertaining thereto, or that it show cause, etc., why it had not done so. Respondent appeared and showed cause, whereupon a trial was had and judgment rendered in favor of the association. Rorke moved for a new trial; his motion therefor was denied, and he prosecutes this appeal from the order.

[198]The San Francisco Stock and Exchange Board is a voluntary-association of individuals, and as such is, and for over twenty years has been, engaged in the business of buying and selling stocks in the city and county of San Francisco, and has adopted and is governed by certain articles of agreement known as its constitution and by-laws, which have been agreed to and subscribed by each and all of its members, the appellant herein included. Plaintiff was a member of the board, as were S. B. Wakefield and A. W. Foster, doing business under the firm name of S. B. Wakefield and Company.

On the twenty-ninth day of July, 1885, plaintiff was suspended from membership of respondent, and on the thirty-first day of January, 1886, more than six mouths having elapsed and he not having been restored, his membership or right to a seat in the board as it is termed is claimed to have reverted to the board, and was by it sold to meet his liabilities to Wake-field and Company and other members of the board to whom he was indebted.

Plaintiff claims that the act of defendant in depriving him of membership was illegal and in contravention of its constitution and by-laws.

Prior to July, 1883, plaintiff herein had various transactions with Wakefield and Company in buying and selling stocks, and Wakefield and Company had paid out for plaintiff various sums of money in purchasing and carrying for him stocks, so that on said last-mentioned day plaintiff was indebted to the firm in the sum of $5,137.42, which he promised but failed to pay.

On the twenty-fifth day of July, 1885, there was due and owing to Wakefield and Company from the plaintiff $4,994.92, which, as the court found had been by mutual consent of the parties, continued from the time the same accrued up to the last-mentioned date.