Horn v. Bayard
Horn v. Bayard
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiffs claim the sum of $8,982 58, with interest, as damages sustained by the corporation they now represent, in consequence of the defendants, in the month of February, 1842, suing out an attachment against the bank, and having certain bonds of the Planters’ Bank of Mississippi, and notes of the Commercial and Rail Road Bank of Yicksburg, seized and sold, when, on appeal to this court, the judgment rendered in favor of the defendants was reversed, and a judgment given against them. They allege that the value of the notes and bonds aforesaid was determined by the fluctuations in the market, and that, at the time of the attachment, and for some months subsequently they were worth the sum of about $18,500, yet the defendants had them sold, in August, 1842, at a sale by the sheriff, at a great sacrifice, and, that they only brought the sum of $9,140. The difference between these sums they claim as damages.
The defendants deny all the allegations in the petition, and especially do they deny the corporate capacity of the bank, and also the alleged capacity of the plaintiffs, as assignees.
On the trial, the institution of the suit by the defendants against the bank was proved by the record; the execution of the attachment was shown; and a reversal of the judgment which the defendants had obtained. See 4 Rob. 262. The appeal taken was a devolutive one. The sale by the sheriff was proved by the execution and return on it. Twelve of the bonds of $1,000, with coupons for $35, were .sold for $353 each; and ten others, each for said sum with a coupon, were sold for $345
The act of the legislature of the State of Pennsylvania chartering the bank was produced, and also a deed of assignment from the corporation to the plaintiffs, made in obedience to the resolutions of the board of directors, which includes the claim in controversy.
The court gave judgment for $5,145 damages, and the defendants have appealed.
Our attention has been called to two bills of exception taken by the defendants. The first states that the plaintiffs, for the purpose of proving the assignment to them, offered in evidence a document with certain certificates thereon, one of which purported to be a certificate of the prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas of the county of Philadelphia, that the deed had been approved -according to law. The defendants’ counsel objected that the copy so certified, was inadmissible to show the approval of the alleged assignment by said court. That such approval should have been shown by a certified copy of the record of said court, authenticated by the certificate of the judge and clerk, with the seal of the court; but the court overruled the objection, and admitted the deed. We are of opinion that the court did not err in admitting the certificate. The laws of Pennsylvania are in evidence, and from them we see that it is necessary that such assignments shall be approved by the court; and we also see that the prothonotaries are authorized to sign and certify the judgments of the courts of Common Pleas. Purdon’s Dig. p. 833. From an inspection of the terms
The other bill states that the plaintiffs offered in evidence for the purpose of proving the execution of the assignment to them, a document with certain certificates thereon, made part of the bill of exceptions ;
Upon the merits of the case, we are satisfied that the law and evidence sustain the judgment. The defendants illegally took out an attachment against the bank, seized its property, and had it sold at a price much below that at which it could have been sold for, if the attachment had not been issued. This
Judgment affirmed
The following certificates were appended to the copy of the assignment, which was dated the 16th of March, 1842;
“ City and County of Philadelphia, sc:
Be it remembered, that on the seventeenth day of March, in the year one thousand eight hundred and forty-two, the Court of Common Pleas for the county of Philadelphia, approved of the within deed of assignment.
o/common Pleas ^ :_v_i
Witness my hand and seal of the said court, this seventeenth ^ay ^•arc'1> 'n t'le year our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty-two. S.~Hakt,
Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas of the county of Philadelphia.
X, Richard L. Lloyd, Recorder of Deeds, &c., for the city and county of Philadelphia, do certify the above and foregoing to be a true copy of a certain instrument of writing, remaining of record in my office, in Deed-hook G. S., No. 37, page 430, &e.
Seal. 1
Witness my hand and seal of office, this 27th day of December, A. D. 1843. R. L. Llovd,
Recorder.
Pennsylvania, ?
Philadelphia County, sc. £
I, Edmond King, President of the First Judicial District of Pennsylvania, and Presiding Judge of the Court of Common Pleas, Orphans’ Court, Court of General Quarter Sessions of the Peace, for the said county, do certify that Richard L. Lloyd, Esq., by whom the foregoing record, certificate and attestation were made and given, and who, in his own-hand-writing, has thereunto subscribed his name, and caused his seal of office to be thereunto affixed, was at the time of so doing and now is Recorder of Deeds for the city and county of Philadelphia, duly commissioned and qualified, to all whose acts as such full faith and credit are, and ought to be given, as well in courts of judicature as thereout. Witness my hand, at Philadelphia, this twenty-seventh da^ of December, A. D. one thousand eight hundred and forty-three.
Edmond Kjng,
Prest. Judge of the First Jud. District.
Pennsylvania, 1 (
Philadelphia County, &e. j
I, Richard Palmer jr., Esq., Prothonotary of the Court of Common Pleas of said county, do certify that the Hon. Edmond King, Esq., by whom the foregoing certifi
j Seal. >
In testimony whereof, 1 have hereunto set my hand, andaffixedthe seal of the said court, at Philadelphia, this 27th day of December, A. D. 1843.
B. Palmer' Jk., Prothonotary.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Henry Horn and others, Assignees of the Girard Bank v. John Bayard and others
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published