Henry Billings Brown

“ By subscribing to stock in a foreign corporation, defendant subjected itself to the laws of such foreign country in respect to the powers and obligations of such corporation. Canada Southern R. Co. v. Gebhard, 109 U.S. 527, 27 L. ed. 1020, 3 Sup. Ct. Rep. 363; Relfe v. Rundle, 103 U.S. 222, sub nom. Life Asso. of America v. Rundle, 26 L. ed. 337.
In the absence of fraud the necessity for an assessment upon the capital stock cannot be made the subject of inquiry by the courts. ”

“ The court in charging the jury in this case instructed them that there was no doubt the call for this assessment had been properly proved; that the only possible question which could have arisen was whether or not certain persons were directors of the corporation at the time of the call, and that as the amended articles of the association provided that calls might be made by the directors, there was no doubt that the call in question was properly made. ”

“ His testimony showed that the plaintiff was a corporation organized with limited liability under five different acts of Parliament, from 1862 to 1880, copies of which he produced and delivered to the commissioner, stating that these copies were 'issued by authority, being printed by Her Majesty's printer, and are as such by law receivable in evidence without further proof.' To the admission of the statutes the defendant excepted upon the ground that they were not proved according to the established rules of law. ”

“ Attrill, 105 U.S. 605, 609, 26 L. ed. 1186, 1188: 'As to the wisdom of an assessment, or its necessity at the time, or the motives which prompt it, the courts will not inquire, if it be within the legitimate authority of the directors to levy it, and the objects for which the company was incorporated would justify the expenditure of the money to be raised. They will not examine into the affairs of a corporation to determine the expediency of its action, or the motives for it, when the action itself is lawful.' Bailey v. ”

“ Certainly, under the cases above cited, it would be unnecessary in order to make a prima facie case to negative these facts. There is a presumption of good faith attaching as well to foreign, as to domestic, corporations. ”