Davenport v. Dows

1873 United States Supreme Court case

Davenport v. Dows
Supreme Court of the United States
Decided March 18, 1873
Full case name	Davenport v. Dows
Citations	85 U.S. 626 (more) 18 Wall. 626; 21 L. Ed. 938; 1873 U.S. LEXIS 1336
Court membership
Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase Associate Justices Nathan Clifford · Noah H. Swayne Samuel F. Miller · David Davis Stephen J. Field · William Strong Joseph P. Bradley · Ward Hunt
Case opinion
Majority	Davis, joined by a unanimous court

Davenport v. Dows, 85 U.S. (18 Wall.) 626 (1873), is a US corporate law case concerning the derivative suits in Delaware.^[1]

Facts

Judgment

Justice Davis said the following.^[2]

These rights the individual shareholder is allowed to assert in behalf of himself and associates, because the directors of the corporation decline to take the proper steps to assert them. Manifestly the proceedings for this purpose should be so conducted that any decree which shall be made on the merits shall conclude the corporation. This can only be done by making the corporation a party defendant. The relief asked is on behalf of the corporation, not the individual shareholder, and if it be granted, the complainant derives only an incidental benefit from it. It would be wrong, in case the shareholder were unsuccessful, to allow the corporation to renew the litigation in another suit involving precisely the same subject matter. To avoid such a result, a court of equity will not take cognizance of a bill brought to settle a question in which the corporation is the essential party in interest unless it is made a party to the litigation.