Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Harris
Nashville, Chattanooga & St. Louis Railway Co. v. Harris
Dissenting Opinion
dissents, as follows:
1 do not concur in all the reasoning of this opinion. If the principal, "Whitesides, paid over the money collected by him for the sale of tickets, after the bond was executed, and directed the application of the money to a prior liability of his, and the plaintiff had no knowledge of the ■misapplication, I think the surety of Whitesides would bo liable.
070rehearing
On petition to rehear,
delivered the opinion of the court:
A petition for rehearing has been filed in this case, and considered.
We hold it clear that the undertaking in the bond of April 25th, 1874, was prospective, and did not include a guaranty for previous conduct of the agent, Whitesides.
In the next place, we do not think the principle as to application of payments, as between debtor and creditors strictly, if at all, applicable to the facts of the case. It is a case of an agent for sale of tickets, whose duty it was to account for and remit proceeds of tickets sold by him to the company, his principal at Hashville. . These tickets
The question is, did he account for all sales made from the time of the execution of the bond, and remit the proceeds to tlic office .of the company at Nashville? If so, his bond has- not been broken, and surety not liable. The proof shows clearly that he did remit every cent received, but having been in default with the company to a considerable sum before the execution of the bond in this case, the company, under his direction, applied a-portion of his remittance, from April 25th, 18T4,-to last of August, 18T4, to the old debt, and thus leaves him charged with a deficit during the period covered by the bond.
Whitesides was required to report the amount of his sales, at first weekly, afterwards daily,, and to remit the money to Nashville. Tie also, reported to the general bookkeeper at Chattanooga. We think the inference inevitable, from this record, that the officers of the company knew that all his remittances were receipts for the week or day. They were sent by express, and sent as weekly or daily receipts. This was the well understood character of the remittance. Under these circumstances, we hold it would be a fraud on the surety to apply these remittances of the company’s money to the previous default. It would be a very convenient way of saving a bad debt, probably, but would be grossly unjust to the surety who had guaranteed faithful remittance for the period of the bond.
In this view of the facts, we need not discuss the question as to what would be the result in the event the company, by its officers or agents, had no knowledge that .the money was the weekly and daily collections. The view we have taken of the case is conclusive of the result, without the discussion of the other question.
Let the petition be dismissed.
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court:
The plaintiff commenced this action in the circuit court of Hamilton county, upon a bond executed by Roster Whitesides, and the defendant, on the 25th day of April, 1874. The case was tried without a jury; there was judgment for the defendant, and the plaintiff has appealed to
Plaintiff claims that the said agent is indebted to it in the sum of about $1,800. The question presented is: has there been a breach of the conditions of this bond, upon the facts as above stated? The plaintiff relies upon the well-settled general rule in respect to the appropriation of payments — that a debtor owing different debts has the right to apply the payment to either, and if he fails to do so, the creditor may apply it. We do not think this
It is a familiar principle that a surety cannot be held liable beyond the undertaking of his bond, and that the contract of the surety, is, in effect, that he is liable only for defaults during the period for which he is bound. The law governing collecting and receiving agents and officers is different from the general rule applicable to' debtor and creditor.
We think the rule stated in American Leading Oases, at page 300, is the more just and equitable: “When a collecting or receiving officer has given bond with different sureties, for successive periods, and becomes a defaulter, payments accruing, due and paid during the period to which the second bond applies, are not, as against the sureties, to be considered as applied in the order of time, so as to relieve the sureties in the first bond at the expense of those -in the second bond, but must be credited to the obli
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- THE NASHVILLE, CHATTANOOGA & ST. LOUIS RAILWAY COMPANY v. C. T. HARRIS
- Status
- Published