Johnstown & Somerset Ry. Co. v. Hoffman
Johnstown & Somerset Ry. Co. v. Hoffman
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
Defendant appealed from a decree of the court below sustaining a demurrer to his petition to open judgment entered on a note given plaintiff, a street railway company, and assigned to the First National Bank of Davids-ville, Somerset County, the use-plaintiff.
In addition to the transactions above referred to between defendant and those representing plaintiff, defendant further avers that, subsequent to September 21, 1921, he interviewed the president of the street railway company and was by him assured that he, defendant, would not be required to pay the note, or any of them, and that the railway company would dispose of the bonds subscribed for and return the notes “soon after May 1,1922.” Notwithstanding this promise, judgment was entered against defendant on the note in question on April 4, 1922. Following argument on the demurrer to the original petition, defendant, by leave of court, filed a supplemental petition averring in substance that Sachs and Cohen were, in fact, agents of the Johnstown & Somerset Railway Company, with full authority to sell the company’s bonds and that John A. Berkey was in full and complete control of the company’s business affairs and in charge of agents selling its obligations. A supplemental demurrer was filed and the court later entered an order dismissing the petition, basing its action on the ground that defendant, by failing to repudiate the contract within a reasonable time, after having discovered the true situation of the company’s affairs, was barred by his laches from asking that the judgment be opened, and must be deemed to have ratified the contract.
This case raised no question as to the rights of intervening creditors or innocent third persons. The note in question bears date September 20, 1921, is payable in six months, and, consequently, became due March 20, 1922. The alleged agreement on the part of plaintiff was to sell the bonds before maturity of the notes; accordingly, no default occurred until the date of maturity. In view of the averment as to the promise by the president of the corporation to dispose of the bonds “soon after May 1, 1922,” it cannot, without further informa
The original petition fails to clearly aver the bond salesmen were agents of plaintiff but indicates rather they were agents of the Equitable Trust Company, alleged to be the underwriter of the bonds. This omission was corrected in the supplemental petition, which expressly avers that both Sachs and Cohen were agents of plaintiff railway with express authority to dispose of its bonds.
In our opinion, the petition contains sufficient averments to require an answer and, possibly, the taking of depositions, to bring the entire transaction before the court.
The judgment is reversed, demurrer overruled and the record remitted for further proceedings.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.