Behrens v. Poetker
Behrens v. Poetker
Opinion of the Court
Appellee, as receiver of the People’s State Bank of Huntingburg sued appellants upon a promissory note, and recovered judgment for $6,751.15. Appellant Charles Behrens filed a separate answer in denial, an answer of duress, and an answer of want of consideration. The two coappellants answered in six paragraphs. The fifth paragraph went out on demurrer. The first paragraph was the general denial; the second, want of consideration; the third, duress in the execution of the note as sureties for Charles Behrens, and asking its surrender and cancelation; the fourth, extortion, duress, intimidation, coercion and want of consideration, and the sixth, that the note was executed by them as sureties for Charles Behrens by way of indemnity, that no loss was suffered by the payee, and that the consideration had failed.
All the appellants jointly, Charles Behrens separately, and his two coappellants jointly, assign error in overruling their respective motions for a new trial.
The question urged here is the insufficiency of the evidence as to the consideration of the note. Appellant Behrens was a director and cashier of the People’s State Bank of Huntingburg, Dubois county, and was in charge of its business and books. On November 14, 1905, one Wulfmann had an overdraft in that bank of more than $40,000. Behrens and Wulfmann on that day each personally executed a note for $3,000 to another bank, for which notes the latter bank issued two drafts for $3,000 each on a New York bank, payable to the order of the People’s State Bank. Behrens credited Wulfmann with $6,000 on receipt of the two drafts for $3,000 each, and on the same day forwarded the two drafts for credit with two other banks, and received credit with those banks for $3,000 in each. This occurred without the knowledge of the officers of the People’s State Bank. On March 6, 1906, Behrens, without the knowledge or consent of the directors, or other officer of the bank, took from the safe of the People’s State Bank three notes belonging to
The root of the matter lies deeper, in the fact that the two notes for $3,000 each were not notes given or indorsed by the People’s State Bank. The only credit given on the books of that bank was given Wulfmann. When, therefore, appellant Behrens took from the bank the notes aggregating $5,700 and paid the notes given by himself and Wulfmann, the bank was made to pay the notes from which Wulfmann obtained the credit. Behrens now claims that in giving the credit to Wulfmann he falsified the books, and that he received nothing from Wulfmann. It seems perfectly plain that some one should have received credit for the drafts received by the People’s State Bank as proceeds of the two notes for $3,000 each, and as no one but Wulfmann received that credit, that seems to have been the true transaction. Either Wulfmann or Behrens was entitled to credit for the proceeds of the notes discounted by them, and the fact that
Looking through the form of the transaction to the substance, the honest transaction was in crediting Wulfmann. According to Behren’s theory, he did not charge any account, or credit any one but Wulfmann, at the time, and that was the correct thing to do. But, in order to escape liability on the note in suit, he now claims the credit to Wulfmann as fictitious, and that he received nothing from Wulfmann. Certainly Wulfmann had no authority to execute notes for the benefit of the bank, much less to obtain personal credit for bank liabilities, and quite certain it is that Wulfmann received credit for $6,000 on the books, in connection with the receipt by the bank of the two drafts, which were the proceeds of the two notes. It is equally certain that the bank gave nothing in return but a credit to Wulfmann, and quite as certain that Wulfmann was not entitled to credit, if the notes were executed for the benefit of the bank. Neither does it appear that Behrens had any authority to execute notes, borrow money, or rediscount notes for the bank, nor does it appear that that was a usual or customary thing to be done by him, or that he had done so at other times. There could be no good faith in giving Wulfmann a fictitious credit, but there would be good faith in giving him credit for the proceeds of the notes, because he was entitled to that credit, and the fact that the officers of the bank did not understand all the ramifications of the cashier’s fraud, which he was endeavoring to conceal, should not blind the court to the bald fact that the cashier used the money of the bank to pay his own and Wulfmann’s debt. There is no question here of the bank’s receiving the proceeds of the
The judgment is affirmed.
070rehearing
On Petition for Rehearing.
Appellants have filed a petition for rehearing, and, in their brief, counsel earnestly insist that the evidence without contradiction shows that appellant Charles Behrens was the cashier of the People’s State Bank, and as such cashier rediscounted three notes to the Crawford County State Bank for $5,700, and the former bank received the payment therefor; that the note sued on was executed to indemnify the People’s State Bank against loss by reason of its indorsement of the three notes rediscounted; that the three notes were paid by the makers thereof at maturity, and consequently there was a failure of the consideration for which the note in suit was executed.
The facts are, that on March 6, 1906, Charles Behrens, the cashier, was indebted to the Tell City National Bank in the sum of $6,000, evidenced by two notes of $3,000 each, executed by him and one Wulfmann, on November 14, 1905, due March 1, 1906. To procure funds with which to pay these notes, Behrens took from the safe in the bank vault three notes belonging to the bank, and sold them to the Crawford County State Bank, and received therefor a draft for $5,700, payable to the People’s State Bank. When this draft was received, on March 7, 1906, he remitted it to the New York correspondent of the People’s State Bank, to be credited on the latter’s account. At the same time he issued a draft of the latter bank on its New York correspondent, in the sum of $6,000, payable to the cashier of the Tell City National Bank, and sent this draft to the
In June following, the directors of the People’s State Bank discovered that Behrens had taken the three notes from the bank safe and had sold them for $5,700, and they demanded restitution. In response to this demand, the note in suit was delivered to the bank. The president of the bank testified as follows: “The note was given to reimburse the People’s Bank for certain notes that Behrens had taken out of the safe and sold to the Crawford County State Bank.” The facts before stated are shown by the evidence, beyond all doubt. The cashier frankly admitted, while on the witness-stand in the forenoon, that his purpose in selling the three notes for $5,700 was to take up his individual notes for $6,000, but in the afternoon he attempted to correct this testimony. The trial court was entirely justified in believing that his original testimony stated the truth. At the time the note in question was executed, nothing was said by the directors of the bank to indicate any apprehension on their part abodt the liability of the bank on its indorsement of the notes sold. No one questioned the. solvency of the makers of the three notes. The sole purpose of the directors, as shown by the evidence, was to procure reimbursement for the loss of the proceeds of the notes sold by the cashier.
Courts regard the substance rather than the form of a transaction, and determine its character by a consideration of all the parts thereof, rather than particular features. While it is true that the amount of the draft given for the sale of the three notes was placed to the credit of the People’s State Bank at the office of its New York correspondent, at the same time, and as a part of the same transaction, the account of the People’s State Bank with its New York
The substance of the transaction was the conversion to his own use, by the cashier, of the proceeds of the sale of the bank’s notes. It would be a reproach to the court if it lost sight of the real character of the transaction by considering only a part of it as disclosed by a method of bookkeeping, contrived to deceive and mislead. There is no error in the record. Petition for rehearing overruled.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Behrens v. Poetker, Receiver
- Status
- Published