Newman v. Kling
Newman v. Kling
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
If it be conceded that the amended answer of appellees should have been allowed to be filed, still there can be no reversal, for, looking through the case as made by that amended answer, we see that the result actually reached by the court below was the same which must have been arrived at if the amendment had been allowed.
The facts upon which we base this opinion are, in substance, as follows, viz.: On March 6, 1891, the appellee executed her
On February 11, 1893, and after maturity of the last note of $12,000, for whose payment appellee had given the security of the trust deed before mentioned, Kling and the appellants entered into another written contract, whereby, in consideration of advances to the amount of $24,000, made and to be made by appellants to Kling for that year ($20,000 being the balance due after settlement for the year 1892, and treated as that much cash advanced, and $4,000 to be thereafter advanced from time to time), Kling obligated himself to ship the appellants, during that year, 1,500 bales of cotton, and to pay $1.25 per bale for any deficiency in that number, and again gave a lien, having the force and effect of a mortgage, on all cotton and other pro
In February, 1894, a new note for $28,342, due November 1, 1894, was executed by Kling to appellants, which represented the balance from 1893 and was treated as so much cash advanced by appellants, together with several thousand dollars to be advanced during the year, and the net proceeds of this note, after deducting 8 per cent, discount and 2-J per cent, commission, was entered to Kling’s credit. Now, the contract between appellants and Kling, entered into in February, 1894, bound Kling to ship appellants 1,500 bales of cotton, and, in default thereof, to pay $1.25 for each bale he failed to ship, and a lien, in the nature of a mortgage, was created on cotton and other products grown or owned by Kling, to secure compliance with his obligation, and the said life insurance policy was again pledged to appellants. No reference whatever is made in this contract of 1894 to the original notes for $12,000 each, but a totally new plan for securing the note and contract
The appellee refused to carry out the agreement made by her husband and appellants, and, after final effort to induce her to join Kling in the execution of the three notes for $7,000 each, and a deed of trust to secure the same, and her final refusal so to do, one of the appellants, in view of appellee’s refusal, in answer to Kling’s inquiry as to what he must do, told Kling to “go right along as though nothing had happened.’’ The parties to the contract accordingly went right along with their business as though appellee had not refused to sign the three $7,000 notes and secure their payment by her trust deed, the appellants making advances as usual and retaining Kling’s note for $28,342 for advances for the year 1894, and this note has been sued upon by appellants in the chancery court of Yazoo county.
It seems clear to us that the contract between appellants and Kling to treat the balance remaining due by Kling, on settlement of his account for 1892, as an advance of money for the year 1893, and the discount of the note of Kling, containing this balance as well as the cash actually advanced, and the crediting Kling’s account with the net proceeds of the note of 1893, and the contract of 1894 to treat the balance of 1893, also, as cash advanced for 1894, the discount of Kling’s note of 1894, and the deducting of commissions therefrom, in addition, at 2-J- per cent., and the crediting of Kling’s account with the net proceeds, taken in connection with all the facts recited by us, show a cancellation by substitution of the notes for which appellee’s trust deed was security, despite the effort of appellants to transport bodily this trust deed and incorporate
Affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- H. & C. Newman v. Elizabeth Kling
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- CoíttbActs. Husband’s debt. Deed of trust on wife’s land. Cancellation by substitution. A married woman who has executed a deed of trust on her lands to secure the payment of the promissory note of her husband, a country merchant, is entitled to a cancellation of the same, in equity, when the cestui que ti'ust, his commission merchant, has, after the maturity of the note, without her knowledge or consent, contracted with her husband, upon new considerations and other security, that the balance due on the note shall be treated as an advance for the succeeding year, and accepted from him and discounted, with deduction of commissions, a new note including such balance and an additional advance of money then made, the net proceeds of which new note he credited on the husband’s account. These circumstances constitute, in legal effect, a cancellation, by substitution, of the note secured by the deed of trust, and it is immaterial that the cestui que trust, by agreement with the husband, retained that note as security for the new note.