Deseret National Bank v. Nuckolls
Deseret National Bank v. Nuckolls
Opinion of the Court
This action is in the nature of a creditor’s bill, brought in the name of the Deseret National Bank, of Salt Lake -City, against Heath Nuckolls and others, in the district •court of Richardson county, in which a decree was rendered for defendant Nuckolls on March 18, 1889, for $993.66, and from which decree the plaintiff appeals to this court.
In the summer of 1879 one S. F. Nuckolls was indebted to the Deseret■ National Bank in the sum of $1,000, and-as security assigned a note made payable to himself by Heath Nuckolls for the sum of $987.87 and accrued inter
“Salt Lake City, Utah, Oct. 8, 1879.
“S. H. Calhoun, Esq.: I have to-day sold the note of S. F. Nuckolls to W. S. McCormick, of this city, and given him an order on you for the Heath Nuckolls note; he will pay all costs incurred, and, we presume, have his own name substituted in the place of the Deseret National Bank. Please return us the comptroller’s certificate relative to our organization, and oblige, L. S. Hill,
“Cashier.”
The attorney received and answered this letter as' follows:
“Nebraska City, Otoe Co., Neb., Oct. 14, 1879.
“Deseret. National Bank: Yours of October 8 , announcing sale of the note in suit against Heath Nuckolls. duly received. I think suit had better go on in your naipe, and it can be treated as a trust for Mr. McCormick. Depositions will have to be taken before the first Monday
“ S. H. Calhoun.”
No further correspondence appears to have passed between these parties until September 5, 1887, but the attorney continued the suit against the defendant Nuckolls without substituting the name of the assignee and owner of the note as the cestui que trust, and on December 8, 1880, obtained judgment in favor of the bank for the sum of $1,420.23, with interest at ten per cent per annum until paid.
On September 8, 1880, execution issued on the judgment, and on June 6, 1881, and December 28, 1882, alias writs of execution were issued, and not satisfied. On' January 20, 1880, a transcript of the judgment was-filed and indexed in the clerk’s office of the district court of Richardson county. On October 14, 1885, a transcript of the issuance of executions was filed in the same office in Richardson county.
On December 13, 1884, one Albert Harmon, holding a tax lien on certain real estate owned by Heath Nuckolls in Otoe county, entered foreclosure proceedings in the district court of that county, making the Nebraska City National Bank, Lewis Dunn, and the Deseret National Bank defendants, as holding liens against the property. Mesne process was not served on the last named defendant. On April' 6, 1885, the attorney, Mr. Calhoun, filed the answer of the Deseret bank, setting up that the-judgment of December 19, 1879, was unpaid, and was a valid subsisting lien on the land described “ to the exclusion and precedence of all others.”
On April 7, 1885, a decree of foreclosure was taken in Harmon’s case, directing the sale of the land to pay the liens of the parties, that of the Deseret bank being adjudged third in order of priority, amounting to $2,234.49, bearing interest at ten per cent per annum.
On May 20, 1886, Mr. Calhoun brought the present action in the name of the Deseret National Bank against Heath Nuckolls, Robert Plawke, Isham Reavis, William E. Nuckolls, Rupert Nuckolls, Bruce Nuckolls, Paul Nuckolls, and Allen Eowler, executor of S. F. Nuckolls, deceased, as debtors of Heath Nuckolls, or as being in possession of equitable assets of which he was entitled to the possession and the proceeds. The plaintiff’s petition sets up the rendition of the judgment of December 8,1880, and the subsequent proceedings thereunder1, and was in fact a creditor’s bill against the appellee in the case to enforce the satisfaction of the judgment debt in favor'of the Deseret National Bank.
On January 4, 1888, the defendant Heath Nuckolls answered by his cross-petition and counter-claim, setting up that the plaintiff, on December 8, 1879, recovered a judgment in the district court of Otoe county for the sum of $1,423.23 and $12 costs, which remains but partially satisfied; that a transcript thereof has been filed in the clerk’s office of the district court of Richardson county, and that this suit is based thereon. He also admits the allegations of the petition in the suit of Greever and others; and further answering, by way of cross-petition, the defendant alleges that, after the rendition of said judgment, he entered into an agreement with one Allen Fowler, as the executor of S. F. Nuckolls, deceased, whereby certain litigation then pending in the district court of Otoe county, between this defendant and Fowler, as executor, and certain other matters in difference between defendant and said executor should be settled and amicably arranged, by virtue of which said executor agreed to assume and pay off the
Also on April 7, 1885, at the regular term of the district court of Otoe county, judgment and decree were rendered therein in favor of the plaintiff’s first lien upon the real estate, described in the petition, for the aggregate
On October 1, 1885, the plaintiff in the present suit, by the receipt of its attorney to the clerk of the district court, received and had in said action the sum of $798.06, the' surplus aforesaid, and has retained the same and has failed to pay the amount, or any part thereof, to defendant.
It is further alleged that at the date on which the
Subsequently, on August 1,1888, the plaintiff moved to strike the amended answer of defendant from the files, for reasons presented to the court, which were overruled. At the same time the plaintiff moved for an order on the defendant to make his answer more definite and certain, which motion was overruled. The plaintiff’s demurrer to the defendant’s cross-petition and answer, on the grounds that the same do not contain facts sufficient to maintain a cause of action, was heard and overruled.
On August 30, 1888, the plaintiff answered the cross-petition and reply to the amended answer of defendants, setting up:
1. That the action was instituted, conducted, and prosecuted, from its inception down to June 16, 1888, without the authority of the plaintiff in the suit.
2. That it was never served with process in the action of A. N. Harmon, commenced December 15,1884, or at any other time, in the district court of Otoe county against Heath Nuckolls and others; that it never made its appearance in that action, and never authorized any one to enter or make appearance in the action; that the answer filed
3. That S. H. Calhoun was not the attorney of said Deseret bank, and had no authority to file its answer or to receive said sum of $798.06 as the attorney of the plaintiff or otherwise, and plaintiff denies that said sum, or any 2>art thereof, was ever 2)aid to it, or to its attorney.
4. The plaintiff further denies any allegation in the cross-2)etition set up not in this answer admitted.
Eor a second defense to the cross-petition oi Heath Nuckolls, the Deseret bank, not waiving its defense herein-before set forth, further alleges :
1. That the action named in the amended answer and cross-petition, which lately, before the commencement of this suit, depended in the Otoe county district court, wherein A. M. Harmon was plaintiff* and Heath Nuckolls, the Nebraska City National bank, the Deseret National Bank (this plaintiff), and Lewis Dunn were defendants, it was by the plaintiff alleged that the defendant Nuckolls was the owner in fee simple of the laud described as the w^est half of the southeast quarter of section 7, township 7 north, of range 12 east, in the county of Otoe, and that the plaintiff had a lien thereon for taxes, and that the other defendants had each a lien on said land by reason of judgments which each owned and held, of record
2. That the judgment which the plaintiff then had of record in Otoe county, as a lien on said land, was the same judgment which the defendant Nuckolls, in this action, by his amended answer and cross-petition alleges was finally and fully paid off and discharged to this plaintiff on the 21st day of November, 1881.
3. That on April 4,1885, the defendant Nuckolls filed his answer in the cause mentioned, admitting that he had the title to said land, and put in issue the lien claimed by the plaintiff and those of the other defendants therein.
4. That on April 7,1885, after the separate answers of the defendants had been filed, asserting their judgment liens, the cause was finally heard and judgment entered for the plaintiff as having the first lien upon said land, for the aggregate amount of taxes paid thereon, and interest to the last date, amounting to $86.70; and as to the defendants Greenwood and the Deseret National Bank there was unpaid and due on the judgment set up in the answer of Greenwood, including interest, $262.36. which is a second lien on said real estate; and that there is due and unpaid on account of the judgment set up in the answer of the Deseret National Bank, including interest, $2,234.49, which is the third lien on said real estate, and it was adjudged' that the said lien should be enforced against said real estate and in default of the payment of the costs of this suit, within twenty days, by the defendant Heath Nuckolls, who should pay for the benefit of the plaintiff, the defendants Greenwood, and the Deseret National Bank, the aggregate amount of the three liens described, with interest from the date of the decree, and in default thereof that said real estate be sold by the sheriff of Otoe county as upon execution at law, and the proceeds applied to satisfy the
5. The Deseret National Bank further sets up that the judgment remains in full force and effect, unreversed, and has not been modified or vacated, and that the sum of $798.06 paid to the attorney, S. H. Calhoun, October 1, 1885, was paid under, by virtue, and in pursuance of the judgment aforesaid, in said Otoe county district court, and that the defendant Nuckolls ought not to be permitted to have his answer and cross-petition to sue for the recovery of said sum, forasmuch as the same was paid under and in pursuance of the orders, decree, and final judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction, and the matters, allegations, and issues in his answer and cross-petition set up and made are res adjudicata, and have been finally settled in the parties to this action.
6. That the Deseret National Bank presents herewith the complete record of the action of Harmon v. Heath Nuckolls and others, and pleads the same, and the judgment therein; in bar of the claim asserted in the answer and cross-petition of the said Heath Nuckolls, with prayer for the dismissal of the same, with costs.
This record is more extended than was required, for the purpose of presenting the questions' upon which, as I conceive, the case must be decided.
It is not deemed necessary to discuss the matters presented in the first or second points of the brief of counsel for the appellant. Although it were true, and so conceded, that the action, to reverse which this appeal was taken, was commenced in the district court without author
The cross-petition of the defendant Nuckolls was in the nature of an action in assumpsit for money had and received by the plaintiff to the use of said defendant. The plaintiff, The Deseret National Bank, set up, by way of admission in answer to the defendant’s cross-petition and counter-claim, the identical facts relied upon by the defendant therein as hereinbefore stated, in so far as the same depended upon the proceedings in the district court of Otoe county, and pleaded and relied upon the same as being judicial proceedings in and the judgment of a court of competent jurisdiction, and in a proceeding wherein it had jurisdiction as well of the subject-matter as of all the parties thereto.
It is not deemed necessary to refer to the evidence in the case other than that of the record in the action of Harmon v. Nuckolls, The Deseret National Bank, and others, stated in the cross-petition of the defendant Nuckolls, and in the answer of the bank. This record is relied upon by both parties, and appears to be complete, in due form, and sufficiently proved. The appellee, in the brief of counsel, attacks the pleading and brief of appellant as inconsistent
While, as before stated, there is an apparent inconsistency in the defenses set up in the first and'second counts of the plaintiff’s answer to the cross-petition, such inconsistency is more superficial than substantial. The tenor and effect1 of the first count are that the defendant was not represented by an attorney of its employment in the commencement and prosecution of the action, nor is it chargeable with the money set up as the foundation of the defendant’s counterclaim, because the attorney who drew and receipted for the money from the clerk’s office of Otoe county was not authorized to receive money by the plaintiff These are •the substantial facts alleged in the first count. It is true there are.other facts set up, that the attorney was not that of the plaintiff authorized to prosecute in its name, or to accept service of process for it in the suit of Harmon. •But it is not alleged that the proceedings in the Otoe •county district court, from the commencement of Harmon’s •action u.p to and including the final judgment therein, were not, in fact, had and made in a court of competent jurisdiction, nor that such proceedings were not juridical in form. And the sole object and purposes of the second count were ■and are to allege and bring before the court the fact that ■the money sued for by the defendant in his .counter-claim ■was derived from the property of the defendant, and received by the plaintiff, if at all, under due process’of law,
The fact is not to be denied that there is an apparent inconsistency in the two propositions: the plaintiff’s denial that it ever received the money, and that it received the money under the process of law. But it is equally apparent. and clear to the whole case, that, while the plaintiff received the money in the eye of the law, it never did receive it in point' of fact.
There is another view to be taken of the question. So far as the case presented is concerned the defendant stands in the attitude of a plaintiff. Although designated as the defendant, by his cross-petition and counter-claim he in reality sues the Deseret National Bank for money had and received to his use. Hence it was incumbent upon him, by his pleadings, to allege, and, by evidence, to prove, the material facts and circumstances of the receipt of the money by the plaintiff, and necessary to establish his right to the money and to demand its return to him. Accordingly by his cross-petition he set up and alleged all the material facts, lacking the arguments and conclusions contained in the first and second counts of the plaintiff’s answer, and the principal if not the sole proof in support of his cross-bill and counter-claim was the record of the judicial proceedings of the judgment in Otoe county. To state it differently and briefly, the defendant, being sued by the plaintiff in Richardson county, sets up, by cross-petition and counter-claim against th'e plaintiff, the commencement of the suit against him by Harmon in the district court of Otoe county; the impleading of the Deseret bank in the action ; the appearance of the plaintiff therein, and its lien on the property of the defendant; the decree and sale of the property to satisfy the liens of the action; the payment. into court of the proceeds, and the receipt by the plaintiff of $778.06 in satisfaction of that amount of its lien and judgment which the defendant claims to recover
A case involving the same question here presented was brought before the supreme court of the territory of Nebraska in the case of Paynter v. Mills, reported in 1 Neb., 440. So far as appears, in that report but one precedent was cited as authority, either by counsel in argument or by the court in its opinion, and that to a collateral issue. It is probable at that early day but few authorities were accessible. But the experienced and cultivated mind of the judge who delivered the opinion directed him to the same logical conclusions which had already been promulgated by the jurists of English and American law. The facts were that certain land had been entered under an act of congress, for the relief of citizens of towns on land of the United States under certain circumstances, approved May 23, 1844. The land being within the corporate limits of the city of Omaha, it was by the purview of the act made the duty of the mayor to convey the lots into which the land had been subdivided to such purchasers as were entitled thereto under the provisions of the act; and in cases of conflicting claimants to any of such town lots the mayor was “to hear and determine all questions of title according to law and evidence, and give to the person, adjudged to have the best title a deed in fee simple.” A certain lot was claimed by both John I. Paynter and George M. Mills, of Omaha. Upon a hearing before the mayor he decided in favor of the title of Mills, and conveyed the lot to him. Paynter brought ejectment for p,os
In the case of Marriott v. Hampton, 7 Term R. [Eng.], 269, the defendant formerly brought an action against the plaintiff for goods sold for which the plaintiff had before paid and taken a receipt; but not being able to produce the receipt at the trial, and having no other proof of the payment, he could not defend the action, but was obliged to submit to judgment and pay the money again, and gave a cognovit for the' costs. Subsequently, he found the receipt, and brought this action for money had and received to recover back the sum wrongfully enforced in payment. But Lord Kenyon was of the opinion, at the trial, that since the money had been paid under legal process it could not. be recovered back again, however unconscientiously retained by the defendant, and the plaintiff was nonsuited. The chief justice said: “If this action could be maintained, I know not what cause of action could ever be at rest. After recovery by process of law there must be an end of litigation, otherwise there would be no security for any person. I cannot, therefore, consent even to grant a rule to show cause lest it should seem to imply a doubt. It often happens that new trials are applied for on the ground of evidence supposed to have been discovered after the trial, and they are as often refused, but this proposition goes-much further.”
Lord Ashhurst was of the same opinion, and the other justice, upon the king’s bench, said: “It would tend to encourage the greatest negligence if we were to open a door to parties to try their causes again because they were not properly prepared the first time with their evidence.”
The court said: “ The judgment must be for the defendants, which I regret, for if the acts of the defendants as plaintiffs in the former action were willfully done, they are unjustifiable. But we must stand on the principles and process of the law. There is here a judgment which is equivalent to an act of the law, and constitutes an estoppel, and I take it that this judgment imparts an absolute incontrollable verity of all the words convey, against which neither of the parties to the suit can aver anything so long as it remains. So long as there stands a judg.ment saying that ¿628 is due, that cannot be controverted or called in question. The counsel says, if the plaintiff cannot maintain this action, he has no other remedy. But that is not the case. His client might have caused the judgment to be corrected, and the execution prevented or set aside; otherwise we are concluded by first principles. It may be that if the judgment had been first set right, this action would have afterwards lain, but there is no opinion upon this point.”
There are abundant American cases, cited by counsel for the plaintiff, to the same 'effect: Corbet v. Evans, 25 Pa. St., 310; Tilton v. Gordon, 1 N. H., 33; Le Grand v. Francisco, 3 Munford [Va.], 83; James v. Cavit, 2 Brevard [S. Car.], 174; Stephens v. Howe, 127 Mass., 164; Greenabawrn v. Elliott, 2 Cent. L. J., 439; Kirklan v. Brown’s Admr., 4 Humph. [Tenn.], 174; Binch v. Wood, 43 Barber [N. Y.], 315.
This allegation falls far short of the facts in the case of Marriott v. Hampden, supra, where the defendant knew ,,, that he had paid for the goods, but had temporarily lost the receipt; and under the rules of evidence of that day * cofild not prove the fact of payment. No cases are cited to: the text of Greenleaf, but there is a citation to Starkie 'on Evidence, 214, 215, which is not pertinent to the question, and is doubtless a miscitation.
I am of the opinion, upon the authorities, and from a consideration of the nature and conclusive character of judicial proceedings, that the claim, set up by the appellee’s , cross-petition and counter-claim, and proved by the record produced by him, is insufficient to sustain an action in the present collateral proceeding. The judgment of the district court is therefore reversed, and the counter-claim and cross-petition of the appellee are dismissed.
Judgment accordingly.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Deseret National Bank v. Heath Nuckolls
- Status
- Published