Farmers Security Bank v. Nelson
Farmers Security Bank v. Nelson
Opinion of the Court
Tbe plaintiff sues to recover on a promissory note, $2,528 and interest from March 12, 1914. Tbe defense is that the note was given for a special accommodation to make a showing of assets and it was not to be transferred, and that plaintiff is not a good faitb purchaser; that it did not receive tbe note in due course or for value. Tbe jury found a verdict for defendant, on which judgment was entered. Though forty errors are alleged, as usual, tbe only real question is on tbe sufficiency of tbe evidence to sustain tbe verdict. Certain it is tbe note was made without any consideration. It was made to the •Northwestern Underwriter’s’ Association, a Grand Forks insurance company. He made tbe note, not that it might be transferred, but that tbe company might use it as evidence to evade tbe Blue Sky Law and to mollify tbe insurance commissioner. Tbe transfer of the note was an act of bad faith. There is evidence that defendant caused bis daughter
Then it appears that the bank did not pay for the note in cash or take it in the usual course of banking business. The note was turned over to the bank with several other notes in exchange for a lot of notes held by the bank. There is nothing to show the value of the notes, and they were all of a questionable character.
In 1909 the bank was organized by three persons, with an authorized capital of $20,000. The capital stock was divided between the three organizers thus: One took sixty-six shares; another took sixty-six shares; C. E. Yerry took sixty-eight shares and became the first president, cashier and manager of the bank. The underwriters’ company was organized about the same time as the bank. Its authorized capital stock was $100,000. Its directors and organizers were H. II. Hand, E. Sandlie, M. E. Nelson. One, Mr. Bradley, became president; H. H. Hand, secretary. In time they organized the now defunct Fire & Marine Insurance Company, which became a feeder, and obtained large bunches of farmers’ notes and transferred them to the parental company—an innocent purchaser, of course—and yet each company had the same officers, clerks, and did business in the same rooms.
Exhibit 6 shows a lot of notes, amounting to $13,399.86, marked “Notes turned over to the Insurance Company by Farmers’ Security Bank on June 2, 1914, having been taken up and settled for as per attached sheet.” Exhibit 7 purports to show a list of notes turned over to the bank June 2, 1914, by Northwestern underwriters in part payment of notes shown by exhibit 6. The bunch amounts to $8,444.20, and includes the Wibe note in suit. The same exhibit shows the insurance company was given a credit for checking account of O. E. Yerry, Treasurer of Northern Fire & Marine Insurance Company, $623.62, and for collection account, $5,290.35. Turned over to the bank same date. This is of importance as it shows that Yerry, the organizer and first president and manager of the bank, was also treasurer of the Fire & Marine Insurance Company. • It shows a kind of a marital relation between the companies and the bank. Exhibit 8 is a list of notes amounting to $85,445 which, on September 23, 1914, the underwriters
Mr. Bradley was president of the Underwriters Company and of the Fire & Marine Insurance Company. He testifies:
Q. Did your company ever sell and deliver that note to the bank ?
A, No, we did not sell the note.
Q. Did your company ever receive any value from the plaintiff bank for the note ?
A. No. (Fol. 213, 214, 233.)
It is needless to quote the testimony showing the intimate relations, winding and devious ways of those three corporations. It is clearly shown the Northwestern Company had no right to sell or transfer the note. It did not sell the note; the bank did not receive it in good faith or for value, or in due course of business. Both hy the direct and the circumstantial evidence, the verdict is well sustained.
Affirmed.
Concurring Opinion
(concurring). While I concur in the result stated in the opinion of the court prepared by Mr. Justice Robinson, I regard the statement of facts in that opinion and the discussion of the assignments of error as not sufficiently adequate to demonstrate the correctness of the conclusion. In concurring, therefore, I desire to state a little more fully the contentions upon which the appellant relies upon this appeal, together with whatever additional facts are'necessary to indicate the propriety of the affirmance of the judgment.
The first specifications relate to testimony elicited on cross-examination of a witness by the name of O’Brien, an employee of the bank, regarding some notes, aggregating between forty-nine and fifty-two thousand dollars. These were notes of the Northern Fire & Marine Insurance Company. At the time the evidence was received it was objected to on the ground that the transaction involving them was entirely distinct from that involving the note in suit. The evidence was received, however, upon the understanding that its relevancy would be
It appears that the bank took the note in suit on June 2, 1914, receiving it from the Underwriters’ association in part payment of a group of notes, owned by the hank and entered in its bills receivable account, aggregating with interest $14,692.66, which were past due and which were turned back to the insurance company. The memoranda which were made at the time in connection with the listing of the notes exchanged are strong evidence of the identity of the insurance company and the underwriters’ association for purposes of the financial transactions with the plaintiff bank. Eor instance, the list of notes turned back to the insurance company is headed as follows:
“Notes turned over to Insurance Co. (N. W. Und. Ass’n), by Farmers’ Security Bank on June 21, 1914, having been taken up and settled for as per attached sheet.”
The attached sheet is headed:
“Notes turned over to bank on June 2nd, 1914, by N. W. Und. Ass’n as part payment of notes described on first sheet.”
It is argued that the court erred in allowing one Bradley, an officer of the insurance company and the underwriters’ association, to testify concerning promises made to return the note in suit to the maker. Beading the whole of his testimony, it appears that it does no more than to present to the jury from his standpoint the true character of the transaction between the underwriters’ association and Wibe. It was properly received for such purpose. It appears that the trial court properly instructed the jury on the subject of the liability of an accommodation maker. So that, under the instructions, the jury was com-' pelled to find a verdict for the plaintiff if it had believed that it gave value for the note without knowledge that the accommodation had been
The appellant complains of evidence going to establish an admission made by one of the attorneys for the bank before the judge of the county court of Towner county in certain probate proceedings in the estate of Peter J. Wibe, deceased. It is claimed that the attorney for the bank represented to the county judge that the note in suit was an accommodation note. There is abundant evidence that the note was an accommodation note, and the plaintiff’s primary contention is that it can recover as a holder for value notwithstanding such fact. Even conceding, then, that the testimony establishing the admission of the plaintiff’s attorney should not have been received, it was clearly error without prejudice.
The appellant seems to place principal reliance upon the alleged error of the trial court in permitting the case to be reopened after both sides had rested for the purpose of taking additional evidence and of admitting thereafter the testimony of' one Agnes Olson, a daughter of the deceased. She testified that she usually wrote her father’s letters for him, and that in the latter part of March, 1914, she wrote a letter to the plaintiff bank for her father in response to an inquiry which he had received from the bank. The bank denies having written the letter of inquiry, as well as having received the letter which Mrs. Olson testifies that she wrote. The appellant constructs from her testimony the contents of the letter which, if written, substantially read:
“I am surprised to see that my notes are offered for sale as that wasn’t my understanding with the Northwestern Underwriters’ Association to sell them. So you will have to take your own risk if you buy those notes, as there is no other security behind them but the Northwestern Underwriters’ Association. I wrote Bradley to return the notes.”
An appellate tribunal, in a case of this character, is in no position to weigh evidence or pass upon the credibility of witnesses'. It is clear that if a letter such as the above was written and mailed, it has a most important bearing upon the issues in this case and we cannot deter
It is also argued in this connection that the court erred in instructing the jury that it was for them to say whether the latter amounted to a protest against the sale of the note by the underwriters’ association or whether it amounted to a notice to the bank that it was being-diverted by the association or notice that he was withdrawing his accommodation. It is said that the legal import of the letter was for the court and that it should not have been left to the jury to determine its effect. In my opinion, the appellant is right in contending that the legal import of the letter was for the court and should not have been left to the jury, but I am further of the opinion that the court would have been justified in instructing the jury that the letter, if written and received, amounted to notice that the accommodation was withdrawn and consequently to notice of a complete defense. The instruction, then, was really more favorable to the plaintiff than it should have been.
Though there are additional assignments argued, the views of the writer concerning them can readily be inferred from what has already been said. I am of the opinion that the judgment should be affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- FARMERS SECURITY BANK OF PARK RIVER, a Corporation v. C. F. NELSON, as Administrator of the Estate of Peter J. Wibe
- Status
- Published