Graham v. Dominguez
Graham v. Dominguez
Opinion of the Court
The written documents and affidavits in this case seem to me to put the propriety of the arrest and holding to bail of the defendant beyond any question. .Exhibit No. 4, on the part of the plaintiff, is a contract signed by the plaintiff and Antonio Millan, and witnessed by the defendant, dated October 3, 1867, but shown to have been executed October 10, 1867, whereby Millan agrees to pay, or satisfactorUy secure to be paid, to the.plaintiff, within seventy-five days from October 3, 1867, the sum of 1,800,000 silver dollars, or soles de plata, or equivalent, and tihe plaintiff agrees to deliver at any place Millan may name, between certain parallels of latitude and longitude, as soon as practicable, the monitor Agamenticus, over 1,500 tons, with two turrets and four guns, fully armed and equipped in every respect for an engagement of four hours, in conformity to the regulations of the navy of the United States. Millan agrees to purchase the monitor at said price and upon said conditions, and alsoi agrees to pay to the plaintiff a further sum of $40,000 in gold, or its equivalent, when the monitor is delivered. The.contract further states that Millan has deposited with "the plaintiff “the sum of $500,000 in bonds issued by Peru and Chili as collateral security for the faithful performance of his part of this contract, which collateral security shall be returned to him when his part of it has been fulfiEed.” The contract also states that “for the true and faithful performance of all and every of the covenants and agreements herein mentioned, the parties to these presents bind themselves each unto the other in the penal sum of $500,000, as fixed and settled damages to be paid by the faffing party.”
Simultaneously with the execution of the contract, Exhibit No. 4, that is, on the 10th of October, 1867, another paper was signed by Millan and delivered to the plaintiff, also dated October 3, 1867, which paper is Exhibit No. 7, on the part of the plaintiff. That paper is as follows: “It is hereby understood and agreed between John Graham and Antonio Millan, that in case of the nonfulfillment of a contract made and entered into this day, Mil-lan will only receive $400,000 of bonds of Chili and Peru oul of the deposit made this day of $500,000 by Millan; but if Millan’s contract is carried out, Graham will return in the stipulated time the aforesaid bonds, amounting to $500,000.” This expression, “return in the stipulated time,” is explained by three other papers. One is Exhibit D, on the part of the defendant, dated October 3, 1867, and signed by the plaintiff. It reads thus: “Received from Go. Dominguez, by order of Dn. Antonio Millan, $270,000 in Chili and Peru bonds, in the following numbers, viz.” Another is a
The only question therefore is, whether the defendant ought to be held to bail by reason of having made any false representations to the plaintiff in regard to the title of Millan to the bonds and the right of Millan to dispose of them. The written papers already referred to, and the affidavits on both sides in the ease show that the defendant had the management and conduct, on the part of Millan, of all the transactions between the plaintiff and Millan, and that nothing ever transpired between the plaintiff and Millan except through the intervention of the defendant. The claim on the part of the defendant is that he was present at every interview which took place between the parties, and that he was the interpreter of everything that passed between them, for the reason that the plaintiff could not speak or understand Spanish, and could speak and understand English, and that Millan could speak and understand Spanish, and could not speak or understand English, and that the defendant could speak and understand both Spanish and English. The mere fact of depositing the bonds with the plaintiff by Millan as security to the purport stated, was a declaration and representation by Millan that the bonds were valid in his hands and that he had a right to make such a disposition of them, and the only question for consideration is whether the defendant joined in making such representation, knowing it to be untrue.
I think the connection of the defendant with Millan and with the plaintiff, and with the business transactions between them, as disclosed by his own affidavit and by the affidavit of Millan, was such as to show, prima facie, that he had all the knowledge which Millan had in regard to the bonds, and that he knowingly joined Millan in making to the plaintiff the false representation in regard to the bonds which is the foundation of the plaintiff’s action. The principle that governs a preliminary investigation as to bail, is that if a reasonable cause of action is shown, the defendant is held to bail. Paraszet v. Gautier [Case No. 10,709], My only difficulty is as to the amount of the bail. The right of action which the plaintiff has, on the papers, is to recover what the $100,000 of bonds would have been worth if they were recognized as valid by the governments issuing them. What that value is, is not shown on either side, that I have been able to find in the mass of papers. All that the plaintiff says in his affidavit is, that the whole half a million of-bonds would have been, if valid, a sufficient collateral security for $141,280; and although Messrs. Leavitt and Sarsar state that the bonds turned over to tile plaintiff have no market value, and that they are familiar with the bonds of the same issue, and have dealt in them and know their value, yet such value is not stated.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- GRAHAM v. DOMINGUEZ
- Status
- Published