Young v. Union Savings Bank & Trust Co.
Young v. Union Savings Bank & Trust Co.
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The plaintiff is now, and was at the time of the transactions hereinafter related, treasurer of the state of Washington. Early in the year 1897 the defendant, the Union Savings Bank & Trust Company of Tacoma, applied to him to receive a deposit of a portion of the state’s money, and was informed by the plaintiff that such deposit would be made on condition that the bank gave him satisfactory security. Undertaking to comply with said demand, the bank offered to plaintiff a' bond conditioned that it would well and truly pay on demand the money so deposited, or which might thereafter be deposited, by said C. W. Young as treasurer. The bond was in the sum of $75,000, and was executed by the bank as principal and by defendants Nicol, Thorne, Sprague, Reed, Gower, Swalwell, and Westland as sureties. Nicol, Thorne, Sprague, and Reed were trustees of the bank, Uicol was cashier, and Thorne vice-president. This bond not being satisfactory to the plaintiff, for the reason that the wives of the married sureties had failed to sign the same, it was returned to the bank for the purpose of securing such signatures. Thereafter the bank, through its cashier, Nicol, presented to the plaintiff a second bond, conditioned like the first, signed by all the signers of the first bond, excepting Swalwell, and also further signed by Minnie E. Nicol, wife of A. R. Nicol, Harriet N. Reed, wife of G. H. Reed, and M. S. Sprague, wife of Otis Sprague. This last bond was not signed by
The defendants maintain that the second bond was void for the reason announced by the court, that Swalwell and his wife, sureties in the body of the bond, and upon whose signing they relied, had not signed the bond, and that the erasure of their names was sufficient notice to put the treasurer upon inquiry; that the first bond was void and of no effect as to them because it had been rejected by the treasurer; and that, after such rejection, they had not authorized its redelivery to the treasurer. The contention of the treasurer is that judgment should have been given against the sureties on both the bonds in the amount justified to therein, for the reason that both bonds were tendered to the treasurer as security for the loan and were accepted as such by him. We think the court erred in holding the second bond illegal. It is undoubtedly the law that, if parties sign a bond with the express or implied agreement that it is to he signed by some
“Well, I have not seen this bond since it was executed, until this moment, and it has rather gone out of my mind lately. I can’t fix any date about it. I recollect the signing of it perfectly, but, beyond that, I don’t know whether I signed before or after; I can’t seem to think— there were two bonds and both were signed at the same place — both of them have got the same number of names, and at this distance it seems to be a matter — nothing to fix it by, you know, that I can now recall, whether I*367 signed my name after the other names, or whether they were all blanks, all but my name.”
And in conclusion he says:
“I can’t remember; I have had conversation on this matter at various times, on this Union Savings Bank matter, a good many times, with Mr. Thorne and Mr. Nicol and Mr. Bogle, Judge Crowley, and various other people, — -Mr. Reed and various other people, — and I can’t say who it was presented the bond to me; I do not know whether it was Mr. Thorne or Mr. Nicol, or both of them together, but I know I signed them, but the matter is not distinct enough in my mind to be able to testify to it.”
From a reading of the whole record, we have no doubt that all the sureties signed just as Mr. Gower did, simply because they were asked to, to obtain the loan for the bank, and that the reliance upon Swalwell and his wife signing was an afterthought, suggested after the action was brought, when it appeared that the name of Swalwell had been erased; for Mr. Thorne testifies that he did not know that Swalwell and wife had not signed the hond until he noticed the erasure in the copy of the complaint which had heen served upon him.
Upon the question of the validity of the first bond, it is insisted that Uicol had no authority from the sureties to redeliver, or to deliver again, that bond to the treasurer. This depends entirely upon the law of agency. It is insisted by counsel for appellant Thorne, in his brief, that, Uicol’s agency being limited, it will be held to be more restricted than the power of a general agent. That is true, without.question. But we think his power as a special agent is not shown by the testimony in this case to have heen restricted or in any manner revoked. The simple fact that the bond was not accepted by the treasurer as full security for the loan does not constitute a rejection of the bond, and even if it had been rejected absolutely
Reavis, Fullerton and Anders, JJ., concur.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- C. W. Young, as Treasurer of the State of Washington v. Union Savings Bank and Trust Company, George E. Reed
- Cited By
- 3 cases
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- BONDS — ALTERATION—RELEASE OF SURETIES. The fact that the name of a proposed surety, which had been inserted in the body of a bond, was subsequently struck out by reason of his refusal to sign, would not exonerate the sureties on the bond, when it does not appear that they had signed in reliance upon the proposed surety being joined with them on the bond. SAME-DELIVERY — AUTHORITY OE AGENT. Where the cashier of a bank, in order to obtain a deposit therein of public moneys by a state treasurer, offers the treasurer a bond signed by the bank and certain sureties, which is refused because not signed also by the wives of the sureties, and a second bond is tendered, signed by all the sureties, except one, on the first bond, and their wives', and this bond also is refused by the treasurer because it failed to contain all the sureties who signed the first bond, the delivery by the cashier of both bonds and their .acceptance by the treasurer would bind the sureties thereon, when it appears that the first bond had never been returned to the sureties, nor calléd for by them, but, during all the negotiations, had been allowed to remain in the hands of the cashier as their agent, and had been finally delivered for the purpose for which it had been originally executed.