Morrell

Defendants were stockholders in a corporation which, on October 16, 1922, executed and delivered to a payee therein named eight promissory notes in the sum of $1,000 each. In due course these notes were indorsed to plaintiff. The corporation became defunct, and plaintiff thereupon commenced this action to recover from these defendants as such stockholders their proportionate share of the indebtedness created by said notes. Judgment was given in favor of defendants, and plaintiff has appealed.

As frequently held, the liability of each stockholder in a corporation is to be measured by the proportion which the amount of his stock bears to the whole of the subscribed capital stock of the corporation (Thomas v. Wentworth Hotel Co., 158 Cal. 275 [ 139 Am. St. Rep. 120 , 110 Pac. 942 ]); and in an action to enforce the liability of the stockholders it is incumbent upon the plaintiff therein to prove the whole amount of the outstanding subscribed stock on the date the indebtedness was incurred, so as to enable the court to determine the proportionate liability of each stockholder Knowles v. Sandercock, 107 Cal. 629 [ 40 Pac. 1047 ]). In the present case the trial court found that the…