CORPORATIONS - SERVICE OF PROCESS ON A SUBSIDIARY CORPORATION DOING BUSINESS IN THE STATE IN AN ACTION AGAINST A FOREIGN CORPORATION

Authors

Abstract

The Freeport Texas Company, a Delaware corporation, owned all of the stock of the Freeport Sulphur Company, a Texas corporation, except a few qualifying shares. The directorates of the two corporations were interlocking; officers of the parent corporation occupied identical positions in the subsidiary; and common offices were occupied in New York. It also appeared that the board of the Texas corporation only passed on local operating matters and ratified ordinary contracts. The sales end of the organization was operated from New York and the board had no control over it. The fixing and payment of salaries, the amount of dividends, and the custody of all the income of the Texas company were exercised at the New York office. The plaintiff, a shareholder in the parent company, petitioned for a "writ of mandate" to compel the defendants to permit an inspection of the books of the subsidiary. Service was had on the parent by serving the subsidiary on the theory that it was the agent of the parent. Held, that the service was valid. Williams v Freeport Sulphur Co. (Tex. Civ. App. 1931) 40 S.W. (2d) 817.

Recommended Citation

CORPORATIONS - SERVICE OF PROCESS ON A SUBSIDIARY CORPORATION DOING BUSINESS IN THE STATE IN AN ACTION AGAINST A FOREIGN CORPORATION, 30 Mich. L. Rev. 465 (1932).
Available at: https://repository.law.umich.edu/mlr/vol30/iss3/24