UNITED STATES SUPREME COURT DECISIONS ON-LINE

MILLS V. SCOTT, 99 U. S. 25 (1878)

99 U. S. 25

U.S. Supreme Court

Mills v. Scott, 99 U.S. 25 (1878)

Mills v. Scott

99 U.S. 25

Syllabus

1. The statute of Georgia of March 16, 1869, requiring actions for the enforcement of rights of individuals under acts of incorporation or by operation of law which accrued prior to June 1, 1865, to be brought before Jan. 1, 1870, does not apply to claims against the estate of a deceased person, so as to exclude the time which a previous statute allowed to administrators to ascertain the condition of the estate and to creditors to file their claims.

2. A court of equity is the proper tribunal to ascertain the proportion of indebtedness chargeable to a stockholder of a bank on his personal liability. But as by the law of the state, as declared by its highest tribunal, an action of debt will lie where the amount of the bank's outstanding indebtedness and the number of shares held by the stockholder are known and can be stated, the extent of his liability in such cases being fixed and the amount with which he should be charged being a mere matter of computation, a similar action at law will be sustained in such cases in the circuit court of the United States. clubjuris

Page 99 U. S. 26

3. where an error in the amount recovered is apparent upon the record, and it could not have been remedied by an amendment of the pleadings, this Court will of its own motion, in the interests of justice, direct that it be corrected, and, if necessary, order a new trial or further proceedings for that purpose.

The facts are stated in the opinion of the Court.


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