Oliver Wendell Holmes, Jr.

“ Having no doubt of the comprehensive purpose of Congress we should not be ingenious to construe the California statute in such a way as to raise questions whether it could be allowed to interfere with the uniformity which has been declared a dominant requirement for admiralty law. ”

“ He sued the corporation and also the respondents, the stockholders of the same, seeking to hold the latter liable under the Constitution of the State, article 12, § 3, and the Civil Code, § 322, which provide that each stockholder shall be individually and personally liable for such proportion of all its debts and liabilities contracted during the time he was a stockholder, as the amount of stock owned by him bears to the whole of the subscribed capital stock. ”

“ The purpose of the act of Congress was 'to encourage investment by exempting the investor from loss in excess of the fund he is willing to risk in the enterprise.' (C. C. A.) 26 F. (2d) 24; Richardson v. Harmon, 222 U.S. 96, 103, 32 S.C.t. 27, 56 L. Ed. 110; Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co. v. Southern Pacific Co., 273 U.S. 207, 214, 47 S.C.t. 357, 71 L. Ed. 612. For this purpose no rational distinction can be taken between several persons owning shares in a vessel directly and making the same division by putting the title in a corporation and distributing the corporate stock. ”