United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Morgan v. Struthers, 131 U.S. 246 (1889)

Morgan v. Struthers

No. 234

Argued March 29, 1889

Decided may 13, 1889

131 U.S. 246

ERROR TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF THE UNITED

STATES FOR THE WESTERN DISTRICT OF PENNSYLVANIA

Syllabus

A contract between A, a subscriber to the stock of a proposed incorporated company, and B, another subscriber to the same, made without the knowledge of the remaining subscribers, by which A agrees to purchase the stock of B at the price paid for it if at a specified time B elects to sell it, is not contrary to public policy, and can be enforced against A if made fairly and honestly, and if untainted with actual fraud.

This was an action of assumpsit, brought in the court below by J. Pierpont Morgan, a citizen of the New York, against Thomas Struthers and one Thomas S. Blair, citizens of Pennsylvania, to recover the sum of $26,282.19, with interest, on a certain contract in writing, more particularly described hereafter. The defendant Blair not having been served with process, the case proceeded against Struthers alone.