Bickley v. Commercial Bank
Bickley v. Commercial Bank
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This action has been before this court on appeal once before. The decision may be found in 39 S. C., 281, and by that decision a new trial was ordered. The complaint in the case was in three paragraphs, whereof the first alleged the corporate character of the defendant; the second alleged that on the 21st day of October, 1890, the plaintiff deposited with the defendant, and the defendant received from the plaintiff on deposit, the sum of eight hundred dollars, which the defendant agreed to pay to the plaintiff’s order one year after said date with interest thereon at the rate of six per cent, per annum, payable semi-annually from said date; and the third alleged that said sum of $800, and the interest thereon, was now due by the defendant to the plaintiff; that demand had been made therefor, but the defendant refuses to pay the same or any part thereof.
When the cause reached the Circuit Court, a motion was made by the plaintiff for leave to amend his complaint. This motion having been granted, the plaintiff served his amended complaint, wherein he retained the first two paragraphs of the original complaint, but having omitted the third paragraph, alleged as follows: “3. That before and at the time said sum of money was so deposited in said defendant bank by this plaintiff, one C. J. Iredell was the president of said bank, and the agent thereof to receive deposits, and issue interest-bearing certificates therefor, and, as such, advertised that said bank would receive deposits and issue interest-bearing certificates
To this amended complaint the defendant bank interposed its answer, wherein, after admitting its corporate capacity at the times alleged, and that C. J. Iredell was its president at such time, denied each and every other allegation.
Thereafter at the spring term, 1894, of the Court of Common Pleas for Bichland County, the action came on for trial before his honor, Judge Fraser, and a jury. After the plaintiff closed his testimony, the defendant moved for a nonsuit, which was refused. Defendant then introduced testimony, to which the plaintiff replied. Before the judge delivered his charge, certain requests to charge were made by defendant; some of these requests the Circuit Judge refused to charge and some were charged in a modified form. The jury having returned a verdict for the plaintiff, and after judgment was duly entered thereon, the defendant appealed from the same, and in his grounds of appeal he assails certain rulings of the Circuit Judge as to the competency of some testimony, also his refusal to grant the motion for nonsuit, also his action on requests to charge; and, finally, that he erred in failing to grant the motion for a new trial. We will consider these grounds of appeal in their natural order.
For awhile in the history of this State, we apprehend it must have been owing to the strictness observed in the courts of law as opposed to that of equity — when the principal was disclosed in the obligation signed by the agent, a recovery could not be had against the principal thereon. Fash v. Ross, 2 Hill, 294, and some cases followed in its wake. However, in the case of Robertson v. Pope, 1 Rich., 503, is was settled that -when the' principal was disclosed in the obligation made by his agent, the
Now, in the case at bar, if you depend upon the contract— certificate of deposit — which states that the plaintiff deposited $800 with “C. J. Iredell, Manager,” and is signed by “O. J.
But the defendant insists that this question has been decided adversely to the plaintiff by this court in its former decision in this case. It' was for the purpose of showing how differently the pleadings now before the court were from those in the first hearing, that we reproduce the allegations of the amended complaint. Besides, the Chief Justice, who rendered judgment in the first hearing in this court of this case, was exceedingly careful to preserve the rights of the parties. At page 291, he said: “It is very possible that if the parol testimony in question had been offered to show of what or for whom C. J. Iredell was manager, it would have been competent (inasmuch as the terms of the paper did not disclose that fact) under the cases of Mechanics’ Bank of Alexandria v. The Bank of Columbia, 5 Wheat., 326; Baldwin v. Bank of Newbury, 1 Wall., 234; Ligon v. Irvine, 1 Rich., 502; DuPont v. Mt. Pleasant Ferry Co., 9 Rich., 255. But here the evidence was offered for no such purpose. On the contrary, it was offered for the purpose of showing that the contract upon which the plaintiff sued was with an entirely different person from the one named in the paper delivered to the plaintiff as evidence of said contract — the paper showing that the contract was made with C. J. Iredell, manager, while
After reflection, we are not able to agree with the appellant, that the modification of the request to charge, as made by the Circuit Judge, would or might cause the jury to believe that it was not necessary for plaintiff to prove that there was fraud or misrepresentation on the part of the witness, C. J. Iredell, but if the plaintiff proved that Iredell had authority to act for the bank, that would justify the jury in rendering a verdict for the plaintiff. A judge, like any one else, inlaw must be judged to have meant what he actually said, or what is naturally and directly deducible from what he did say. What he did say was, that prima facie the certificate of deposit in this cause was to be held as that of Charles J. Iredell as an individual, until such prima facie view of it was removed by testimony here offered that Charles J. Iredell acted for the bank (defendant) in making the certificate of deposit. There is no duty in a judge to charge upon abstract propositions of law; he must mean them to fit the facts in testimony. This testimony did not stop at simply stating that Mr. Iredell was authorized by the bank, as its president, to receive deposits, but that he as such president and under such authority did receive deposits, not only for the plaintiff, but from other depositors in said bank. The Circuit Judge nowhere restricted the jury to an inquiry as to whether the bank had merely authorized its president, Mr. Iredell, to receive deposits. Let the exception be overruled.
There is room just here for some nice distinctions, but we do not know that we would be justified in entering upon any field save that selected by the appellants, as indicated by the substance of this exception. To business, then: The appellant sought by his request to charge, to have the Circuit Judge announce as the law governing this case, that here being a contract in the shape of a certificate of deposit, an action cannot be sustained thereon upon proof that the money was deposited by Iredell to his credit in defendant bank, as manager of the old partnership bank, unless the further facts are believed to exist, namely: that Iredell, as president, was held out by the defendant as clothed by it with authority to receive deposits, and that the deposit by plaintiff was actually made in this bank. How the judge sustained the request, except he stated that if Iredell had no connection with the bank whatever, and fraudulently got this money from the plaintiff and deposited this money in this bank, the bank.would not be liable in law, but would be in equity. Again, we cannot say that the modification as made by the Circuit Judge, when construed carefully, would naturally lead to the conclusion that the judge thought the fact that Iredell was president of the bank would establish
It is the judgment of this court, that- the judgment of the Circuit Court be affirmed.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting. It seems to me that the material questions raised by this appeal have been decided by the conclusions reached under the former appeal in this case, reported in 39 S. C., 281, adversely to the result reached in the opinion prepared by Mr. Justice Pope under the present appeal, and, therefore, I cannot concur in such result. Time will not permit any extended discussion of the several points presented by this appeal, and hence I must content myself with simply indicating, very briefly, some of my reasons for dissenting.
. Under the former appeal, it was held that it was not competent to introduce parol testimony to show that the paper offered in evidence — the certificate of deposit — constituting the evidence of the contract which constituted the basis of plaintiff’s action, was really intended to bind the defendant bank. In the former opinion, the following language is used: “It is quite clear that the terms of this paper not only do not imply, but expressly repel, the idea that the chartered bank was in any way bound thereby, or in any way referred to therein. On the contrary, the paper, in express terms, refers to and purports to bind a totally different person, for, in law, Iredell, as manager of the partnership bank, or as manager of the Depositors’ Cooperative Association, and as president of the chartered bank, are entirely distinct and different persons. So that even if it should he coneeded that Iredell, as president of the chartered hank, had the power to hind the hank hy such a paper as this [italics mine], (a concession which I am not now prepared to make),
It is true, that it was said in the former opinion that it was “very possible that if the parol testimony in question had been offered to show of what, or for whom, O. J. Iredell was manager,” it would have been competent; and although that view was expressed as possible only, yet I am free to confess that I, then, was very much inclined to adopt that view; but I must add that subsequent investigation and reflection has tended to shake my confidence in such view, as there is nothing whatever on the face of the paper even to suggest that the defendant bank may have had some connection with it — not even the appearance of the name of such bank written or printed on the margin. Inasmuch, however, as there was no evidence whatever in the case tending to show that Iredell ever in a single instance signed his name as “manager” of the defendant bank, or was ever known or regarded as such, while, on the contrary, there was evidence that he was so known and regarded in conducting the affairs of the partnership bank, and was in the habit of signing certificates of deposit made with the partnership bank, as well as with the Depositors’ Co-operative Association, “0. J. Iredell, Manager,” the question whether it was competent to offer parol evidence to show for whom, or of what, Iredell was manager, becomes an immaterial inquiry, as there it no evidence which could give rise to such an inquiry. Indeed, the undisputed fact appearing in the testimony that while the defendant bank, when it first went into operation, used some of the blank certificates of deposit prepared for the partnership bank, with the word “manager” printed at the bottom, but with that word erased or written over with the word “president,” conclusively shows that Iredell, when acting for the defendant bank, did not style himself “manager,” but president.
It is contended, however, that the case presents itself in an
It is true, that since the reformed procedure instituted by the Code, a plaintiff may unite in the same complaint equitable and legal causes of action, wheu otherwise permissible, and, therefore, in the same complaint a plaintiff may ask for a reformation of a written contract, as well as for damages sustained by reason of a breach of such contract; yet it is equally true that, in such a case, the equitable cause of action must be tried by the tribunal appropriate to that end, and the legal cause of action by its appropriate tribunal. Adickes v. Lowry, 12 S. C., 97, recognized and followed in numerous other cases. So that it seems to me that the plaintiff could not recover against the defendant any damages for the breach of the contract set out
For the reasons above indicated, without going into any of the other questions presented by this appeal, I think the judgment of the Circuit Court should be reversed, and the case remanded to that court for a new trial.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- BICKLEY v. COMMERCIAL BANK
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1'. Certificates of Deposit — Evidence.—In action to recover from a bank the amount called for in a certificate of deposit signed by the president in his individual name as “Manager,” and after proof that the president of the bank was authorized to receive money on interest, it was competent for plaintiff to prove by a witness that he had been authorized by the president to solicit interest-bearing deposits. 2. Ibid. — Ibid.—Pabol Evidence — Case Criticised. — In action against a bank on a certificate of deposit given by the president of a bank at the banking house, but signed by him in his individual name, with the word “Manager” superadded, the certificate nowheres mentioning the name of the bank, and under allegations that the president had told plaintiff at the time that the deposit was received into the bank, and under testimony showing that such president had authority to issue interest-bearing certificates of deposit, and that the bank had recognized others so issued, the plaintiff may prove by parol testimony that this certificate was the contract of the baDk. This case distinguished from the case of Bickley v. Commercial Bank, 39 S. G., 281. 3. Ibid. — Agency—Nonsuit.—There being some testimony upon the issue of agency on the part of the bank president when he signed this certificate, a nonsuit would not have been proper. 4. Ibid. — Ibid.—Third parties dealing with a bank, are not to be prejudiced by the mis-statement by an officer of the bank, of the proper designation of the office which gives to him the relation of agent of the bank. 5. Evidence — Commission—Cross-Interrogatories.—Error will not be declared in the refusal by the trial judge to exclude cross-interrogatories in a commission to take testimony, which inquired of the witness whether he had not previously testified in another cause, as set forth in voluminous extracts from such former testimony. 6. Exceptions. — Objection cannot be raised by exception to counsel’s comments to the jury on the testimony, where no ruling upon the matter was had or asked for in the court below. 1. Certificates of Deposit — Bank.—The modification in this case of a requested charge, did not impose upon the bank a liability on a certificate signed by its president as “Manager,” in the absence of fraud or misrepresentation. 8. Exceptions based upon a misapprehension of the judge’s charge, overruled. 9. Charging Juries — Bank President. — In charging as requested, that the bank would not be liable on this certificate of deposit, if the president took plaintiff’s money and deposited it to his own credit as manager of another corporation, unless the bank held out its president as authorized to receive deposits, the defendant was not prejudiced by the additional charge, that if such president had not been president, the plaintiff could have sued the bank only in a Court of Equity. 10. Ibid. — Ibid..—Representations.—Where a bank authorizes the establishment of a savings department, and the payment of interest on deposits therein, but charges no official with this department of its business, it is liable to a depositor, who paid money into the president’s hands with instructions to so deposit it on the president’s representation that he was authorized to receive the money, and which was misappropriated. 11. Charging Juries — Pacts.—There was no error in refusing a request to charge, which involved an expression of opinion on the facts. 12. New Trial — Agency.—There was no error in refusing a new trial, which was moved on the ground that there was no testimony to show that the president of the bank was authorized to sign his name as “Manager,” or that he intended by such designation to bind the bank, when there was testimony to show that in this matter the president was the agent of the bank. Me. Chief Justice MoIyee, dissenting.