Merchants Refrigerating Co. v. Fenchel Realty Co.
Merchants Refrigerating Co. v. Fenchel Realty Co.
Opinion of the Court
This is a motion to strike out the defendant’s amended answer as sham in part and frivolous in part, and for the entry of summary judgment.
After reading the pleadings and affidavits, I have reached the conclusion that the first seventeen paragraphs of the amended answer must be stricken out as sham.
The first special defense is payment through the sale of collateral security. This is evidently sham because there is nothing whatever in the defendant’s affidavit, submitted with this motion, to support it. The second special defense is to the effect that the defendant “had no power in law to make the contract in question, or to make or execute the notes in question, because the said act of the said corporation in doing the same was ultra vires.’1 This defense is clearly frivolous under the cases of Chapman v. Iron Clad Rheostat Co., 62 N. J. L. 497, and Camden and Atlantic Railroad Co. v. Mays Landing Railroad Co., 48 Id. 530, which are authorities for the proposition that when a person contracting with a corporation has fully performed his part of the contract and cannot be restored to his former status ox be honestly dealt with, otherwise than by holding the corporation to the per
Counsel for the defendant, in his brief, seems to argue that Daniel Fenchel, although president of the defendant corporation, had no authority to execute the notes in question, and that the transaction was for his own personal benefit. It is a sufficient answer, however, to say that such a situation is not raised by the said second special defense which states only the defense of ultra vires.
The entire answer will therefore be stricken out for the reasons above stated, and although I do not have authority as a Supreme Court commissioner to order summary judgment, nevertheless this memorandum may be taken to Mr. Justice Campbell with my recommendation that summary judgment-be entered in the sum of $6,708.35, together with lawful interest thereon as set forth in plaintiffs’ affidavit.
An order may be presented to me striking out the entire answer as already indicated.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.