Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 10.djvu/260

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234 HARVARD LAW REVIEW. utes for enforcing the stockholders' liability is an action of con- tract to be brought against the stockholders severally. As such, it can be enforced anywhere. That is the interpretation of the Kansas statutes by the Kansas Supreme Court, and that is bind- ing upon all other courts. In the light of these later decisions, therefore, the following principles should be added to those already deduced as govern- ing our courts in these cases, in order to frame a successful declaration. 5. The laws of the State creating the liability, both the statute law and the judicial interpretation thereof, must be pleaded as facts. 6. The remedy prescribed by such laws must be transitory. Although it is generally stated that the statutes of other States creating a stockholder's liability can operate in Massachusetts only by comity, it may be that such statutes have a stronger claim for recognition here. It may be that they come within the pro- tection of the United States Constitution, Art. IV. Sec. i, which provides that '* Full faith and credit shall be given in each State to the public acts, records, and judicial proceedings of every other State. And the Congress may by general laws prescribe the manner in which such acts, records, and proceedings shall be proved, and the effect thereof." It was said by Waite, C. J., in Chicago & Alton Ry. v. Wiggins Ferry Co.,^ that this clause

  • ' implies that the public acts of every State shall be given the

same effect by the courts of another State that they have by law and usage at home." The case of Huntington v. Attrill,^ Glen V. Garth,^ and Flash v. Conn,* would seem to support that contention. It may be also that such statutes as those of Kansas come within the meaning of section one of the Fourteenth Amend- ment to the United States Constitution, which provides that " No State shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States." Inasmuch, however, as the Supreme Court of Massachusetts now seems ready to take cognizance of such cases by comity, when they are properly presented, it is unnecessary to invoke the aid of the United States Constitution. William Reed Bigelow. Boston, 1896. 1 119 U. S. 615, 622. 8 147 U. S. 360. 2 146 U. S. 257. * 109 U. S. 371.