Swantner v. Meek
Swantner v. Meek
Opinion of the Court
Meek, as receiver for the City National Bank & Trust Company of Corpus Christi, recovered judgment against Myron A. Pease and G. R. Swantner as partners on a note payable to the bank for $900 principal, dated September 23, 1931, and signed Pease Insurance Agency by G. R. Swantner. Swantner alone appeals, and the sole question is whether the evidence authorizes, holding him as a partner. There is no conflict in it. Pease and his father in 1929 were officers of the bank and Swantner its-employee. Primarily to facilitate the insuring of property which the bank*held as security for loans, the Pease Insurance-Agency was started and put in charge of Swantner. The Peases gave little time to-it and got nothing from it except the premiums of insurance on some property of
We do not give the unsigned writing much weight. It does not appear to be a consummated agreement. It says nothing about the note sued on or any other past liability of the 'agency. It is not worth while to discuss whether it really contemplates an employment by Pease of Swantner at a monthly salary of $247.50 or a partnership in which Swantner is to get $247.50 per month out of the profits. The testimony is that at all times Swantner has as between Pease, the bank, and himself been only a salaried employee, having no interest in the profits of the agency. He did not personally owe the other employees for their salary and he does not owe the note given for money to pay them. It is not necessary to decide whether the agency was really an activity of the bank, conducted for its benefit, or whether if such it would be ultra vires as the receiver asserts. In any case, its assets in the hands of Pease or Swantner are liable for its obligations, and Swantner did right in so applying $50 on this note; but we see no just ground why the bank should hold Swantner personally bound by the note. He signed it for and in the name of the Pease Insurance Agency. The bank knew his connection with it as a salaried employee, and that not he, but itself, was getting its profits. That he may have held himself out as a partner to the Insurance Commission in order to facilitate executing policies for the agency would have no effect on his liability to the bank which organized and dominated the agency and knew all the facts about it. It was because the bank was taking the profits as exorbitant desk space rental that the note had to be given. We think the personal judgment against Swantner is unauthorized and reverse it, and since a jury has been waived we direct that his name be stricken from it.
Judgment reversed, with directions.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.