Samuel Freeman Miller

“ On the contrary, the clear impression left upon reading the bill is that it is an attempt to have a plain common-law action tried in a court of equity, and the rights of parties decided in a court of the United States who have no right to litigate in such a court, and that there is no sufficient reason in the bare fact that Mr. Steel is a stockholder in the corporation, which justifies such a proceeding. ”

“ Oakland, 104 U.S. 461, in speaking of this perfunctory effort to induce the trustees of the corporation to act, it is said: 'He (the plaintiff) must make an earnest, not a simulated, effort with the managing body of the corporation to induce remedial action on their part, and this must be made apparent to the court. If time permits or has permitted, he must show, if he fails with the directors, that he has made an honest effort to obtain action by the stockholders, as a body, in the matter of which he complains. ”

“ It does not contain an allegation that the plaintiff was a shareholder at the time of the transaction of which he complains, although the allegation on that subject includes a part of the time in which the city of Quincy failed to pay for its gas ”