Ketchum v. Stevens
Ketchum v. Stevens
Dissenting Opinion
In our examination and decision of this action, we are concluded upon the questions of fact by the findings, in the nature of a verdict, of the judge by whom it was tried. Where there is some doubt as to the extent of what is found—and I think there is in this case, at least in one particular—we have a right, and I think we are bound to look into the evidence, for the purpose of elucidation.
The questions in this case are, first, whether the check drawn by R & G. L. Schuyler upon the defendant’s bank, in favor of the plaintiffs, for $10,000, dated on the 29th day of June, 1854, was, when it was drawn or eventually, an absolute appropriation of so much money, in the hands of the drawee, in favor of the payees, so as to vest the title to it in them; second, if not, whether the defendant had a present right of set-off or counter-claim of the amount of, the two stock notes against the Schuylers, when a sufficient sum to meet the check had been deposited by them, and the check was subsequently
It was decided by this court, in the case of Chapman v. White (2 Seld., 412), that a check before acceptance does not operate as a transfer of its amount in the hands of the drawee, where the money had been deposited on general account and not for the specific purpose of meeting the check. Where money is deposited in the usual way, and without any specific directions, by a general dealer in the bank, it is mingled with other funds in the possession of the depositary, and, until drawn out, it is used for the ordinary purposes of the bank. It has no ear-mark nor anything to distinguish it from other moneys. The depositor has no claim upon anything specific. He is simply a creditor of the bank to the extent of his undrawn deposits. Any other principle would render the business of banking most hazardous. As it is now, when a check is presented the banker can readily ascertain the extent
Had then the bank the right to set off the amount of the stock notes of the Schuylers when the payment of the check was refused ? The notes were payable on demand.- The nominal stock was transferred as collateral security, and authority was given to sell it, on the non-performance of the promise to pay the note, without notice to the transferrers. Ho doubt the security could not be enforced until a demand of payment had been actually made. But the notes being payable on demand, a right of action existed upon them at any time, and a suit might have been sustained upon them without proving any formal demand.. It has never been doubted, I think, • that
The question whether there was a sale of the notes,' and what was intended as a collateral security by the defendant to the plaintiffs, or whether the plaintiffs paid the notes and received the supposed securities, as the agents of the Schuylers, is one of some difficulty, inasmuch as there is no distinct finding, one way or the other, by the judge. It is inferable, from his opinion, that he considered the transaction as amounting to a sale, because he speaks of and applies the rule of law in regard to “ the sale of stock pledged.” As, however, the fact is not distinctly stated in “ the finding of the facts ” by the judge, we must look into the circumstances for the purpose of adopting a conclusion. The three hundred and seventy shares of spurious stock which stood in the name of the Schuylers, when the stock notes were given, were, on the 1st of July, 1854, transferred to the defendant as president of the bank, and a correspondent entry was made in the books of the railroad company. He was the holder at the time of the negotiation between the plaintiffs and the cashier and agent of the bank, and until the transfer (if there was one) was made. When the plaintiffs applied to the bank for a transfer, or as the judge says an assignment, of the stock, they did not do so as the proposed agents of the Schuylers, nor had there been any previous communication between them on the subject. Neither did the plaintiffs express any intention to discharge the debt. They desired that it should be retained, in order to enable them to hold the collateral security. If the debt had been discharged, all right to hold the collateral security would have ceased.
There can be no doubt but that the intention of the plaintiffs was to purchase the securities, and it seems to me that the negotiator for the bank so understood it. True, he refused to make the proposed arrangement without the direction of the Schuylers. That would have been unnecesssary if the plain
That the plaintiffs made their purchase of the spurious stock, under the mistaken supposition that it was genuine, there can, of course, be no doubt. When they asked the cashier of the bank what security they had for the debt due from the Schuylers, he answered, “Hew Haven Railroad at 70.” Although there was no intention to deceive, yet the plaintiffs were in fact misled. The defendant held no such stock. I think that the rule is well established, that on a sale or transfer of written securities there is an implied warranty of their genuineness. Especially is that rule applicable where the writing evidences the title to personal property. In this case the alleged stock, if it had been genuine, would have been property, of which the certificate would have been the representative. The seller, therefore, impliedly warranted the title to the shares of stocks specified in the certificate, and such title wholly failed. I can see no reason why the implied warranty should not apply as well to cases where the assignor transfers property on which he has a lien only, or his supposed interest, as when he acts in the capacity of absolute owner; nor am I aware of any authority to show that there is any distinction.
In this case there was a mutual supposition that the certificate represented so much stock of the railroad company. It did not, but it was a nullity: so far as relates to that, the defendant parted with nothing and the plaintiffs obtained nothing. It is well settled that where there has been a sale of a nominal subject which had no existence, it may be rescinded and the purchase money recovered back. The rule is the same where there is a failure of what constituted the principal inducement of the sale, and without which it cannot be reasonably supposed the purchase would have been made. There the contract may
I conceive, that both by reason of the breach of an implied warranty, and the entire failure of what was intended by both parties, so that what was nominally transferred was of no value, the sale in this case should be rescinded. The defendant should, however, be placed in as good a condition as he was before the transfer, and therefore the $10,000 should be deducted from the money to be refunded by him.
The judgment of the court below should be reversed, and there should be a new trial, the costs to abide the event of the suit.
Allen and Gray, Js., also dissented.
Judgment affirmed.
Opinion of the Court
If the plaintiffs had, as they have alleged in the complaint, purchased of the defendant the notes which the latter held against E. & Gr. L. Schuyler, both parties to the contract understanding at the time that, although the makers were insolvent, the notes were secured by the hypothecation of three hundred and seventy shares of New York and New Haven Eailroad stock, of which hypothecation the plaintiffs were to have the benefit, then, as it turned out that there was really no stock hypothecated, the defendant having been imposed on by fraudulent certificates, I think the plaintiffs, upon offering to redeliver the certificate in season, would be entitled to call for the money they had paid the defendant, as money paid under a mutual mistake of material facts. Where there is a common mistake in respect to the existence of a thing undertaken to be sold, and it does not in fact exist, the contract for the sale is void, and any money which the purchaser has paid on account of it, may be recovered back in the equitable action for money had and received. (Story on Sales, § 148, and cases cited in note 3-7; Wheadon v. Olds, 20 Wend., 174; Westropp v. Solomon, 8 Com. B., 345; Martin v. McCormick, 4 Seld., 331.) The general rule that money paid by mis
The plaintiffs’ theory upon the facts found is, that they became the purchasers from the defendant of his demands against the Messrs. Schuyler, and of his title to the stock hypothecated to secure their payment, in consideration of advancing to him the amount of those demands; while the defendant insists that the plaintiffs paid the notes in order to release the stock from hypothecation, and that, being so released, the defendant transferred it to the plaintiffs pursuant to the written directions of the Messrs. Schuyler, such directions being procured by the plaintiffs from the Schuylers under an arrangement with them, of the terms of which the defendant had no knowledge, and with which he had no concern ; and it is upon the determination of this question that the right to recover depends. Being wholly a question of fact, it should have been settled as such by the judge, leaving it to the general term of the Supreme Court to decide whether the finding was warranted by the evidence. Instead of this course, the several items of evidence are set forth in the finding; and thus an unsettled question of fact is brought here to be determined, contrary, as I think, to the method of proceeding prescribed by the Code. Waiving, however, as the parties have done,
The defendant was authorized, if he saw fit, to sell and assign his debt against the Schuylers to the plaintiffs, or to any one desiring to purchase it. In that event it would not have been paid or discharged, for it was essential to the idea of transferring a title to it that it should be kept on foot, and not be extinguished; for a debt or a security which has been paid up is no longer the subject of a transfer. What the plaintiffs desired when they applied to the defendant’s cashier, may have been to effect such purchase and transfer to themselves, though their language was inaccurate; for the inquiry which Mr. Bement made of the cashier was whether an assignment of the securities would be made upon discharging the loan. Whether this was understood by the officers of the bank as an application thus to purchase the debt and the securities, or, as the inquiry literally purported, to assign the stock certificates after the debt had been paid, is not, I think, material; for the answer was that the defendant would do nothing without the consent or order of the Messrs. Schuylers. The language, which follows in the finding, “ that the terms of an arrangement being thus understood, subject to this condition, an order was obtained,” &c., does not add anything to what had been before stated as to the application by the plaintiffs and the answer of the defendant’s officers. But the plaintiffs then resorted to the Messrs. Schuylers, and obtained from them an order, addressed to the defendant’s cashier, requesting him to deliver the shares of stock to the plaintiffs upon their paying the notes in question, for which those shares were pledged. This direction is perfectly explicit. If the defendant was willing to assign the debt and shares to the plaintiffs, on the debtors’ consenting, such consent had not been obtained. It does not appear that such a proposition had been presented to them. If it was, they do not appear to have made a favorable answer to it. If the plaintiffs, as I have supposed probable, in the first instance contemplated a purchase of the notes, and, if the defendant was willing to
These considerations have led me to the conclusion that the plaintiffs paid the notes instead of purchasing them, and that they obtained the power of attorney from the defendant as president of the bank • (which was in substance a transfer of the shares to them), by virtue of the order of the Messrs. Schuylers, as a transfer of shares which the latter had a right to control, and not upon a purchase by the plaintiffs from the defendant.
There is no doubt, however, but that the plaintiffs entered into the transaction under a mistake of fact as to the genuine
On the argument some stress was laid upon the circumstance that the defendant had surrendered the original fraudulent certificates issued to the Schuylers, and transferred by power of attorney to the bank, and taken out a new one in his name as president, as though he had affirmed something in respect to the shares by that act. But it was well understood that this certificate was procured mediately or immediately by the Schuylers, and that neither the defendant nor the bank had any title to it, except through them. When the plaintiffs obtained the transfer from the defendant, they regarded themselves as getting the Schuylers’ stock which had been released from the pledge to the defendant’s bank, and not any new title which the latter had acquired by the new certificate. It has been often decided in regard to genuine stock, that the identity of a given number of shares is not changed by the surrender of the certificates representing them and taking out new ones in another name. (Nourse v. Prime, 4 John. Ch., 490; Allen v. Dykenr, 3 Hill, 593; S. C., 7 id., 497; Horton v. Morgan, 19 N. Y., 170.)
I am in favor of affirming the judgment of the Supreme Court.
Johnson, Oh. J., Comstock, Selden and Grover, Js., concurred.
Reference
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- Ketchum v. Stevens, President of the Bank of Commerce
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