American Finance Corp. v. Bourne

1942 OK 61, 123 P.2d 671, 190 Okla. 332, 1942 Okla. LEXIS 81
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedFebruary 10, 1942
DocketNo. 30352.
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 1942 OK 61 (American Finance Corp. v. Bourne) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Finance Corp. v. Bourne, 1942 OK 61, 123 P.2d 671, 190 Okla. 332, 1942 Okla. LEXIS 81 (Okla. 1942).

Opinion

BAYLESS, J.

American Finance Corporation, a corporation, instituted suit in the district court of Woodward county against R. F. Bourne, and appeals from the judgment rendered in favor of Bourne.

Plaintiff’s petition alleges that Bourne executed and delivered his promissory note, for a good and valuable consideration, to the Flag Company, and before maturity, for a good and valuable consideration, the payee negotiated the note to plaintiff, who was an innocent purchaser, and is now the owner and holder thereof. It is alleged that certain stocks were pledged, that default in payment at maturity was made, that the collateral was sold and the proceeds applied. Judgment was sought for the balance due.

Defendant’s amended answer concedes the execution and delivery of the note and the pledging of the collateral, but denies the plaintiff is a bona fide holder, and sets up certain defenses. Plaintiff’s reply controverts the defenses set out in the answer.

The sole issue presented to us relates to the negotiability of the note. The parties have so stipulated.

Defendant contends the note is made nonnegotiable by the inclusion therein of certain provisions relating to the collateral and acceleration of the due date. We quote the provisions:

“If the maker or any one of the makers hereof shall fail to furnish additional security upon the demand of said company, said company is authorized to declare all indebtedness owed to it by the maker or makers hereof immediately due and payable without giving notice of said declaration.”

The brief of plaintiff is useful as a disclosure of the history of the case, but the argument therein directed to the effect of a quoted portion of the note on its negotiability is beside the point, for defendant disclaims in his brief any reliance on that particular language and insists that other language destroys its negotiability. We direct our attention to the issues set out in defendant’s brief, the answer thereto in plaintiff’s reply brief, and the supplemental briefs of the parties.

Defendant calls attention to section 11300, O. S. 1931, 48 O.S.A. § 21, setting out the requirements of a negotiable instrument, and directs attention particularly to provision 3 thereof, reading (an instrument to be negotiable):

*333 “3. Must be payable on demand, or at a fixed or determinable future time,” and argues three propositions that properly touch that point.

Defendant also calls attention to certain language relative to the use and replacement of the collateral by the holder of the note, and insists this language affects the negotiability of the note under section 11304, O. S. 1931, 48 O.S.A. § 25, as being “an order or promise to do any act in addition to the payment of money.”

Defendant contends that the language of this note is equivalent to the language of the note declared nonnegotiable in Harrison v. Fugatt, 179 Okla. 367, 65 P. 2d 1200, because it authorizes holder to accelerate the due date simply by declaring he “deemed himself insecure”; and to the language condemned in Sommers v. Goulden, 147 Okla. 51, 294 P. 175, 72 A.L.R. 265, as authorizing the holder to demand additional collateral without any condition or limitation as to amount other than the caprice of the holder; and to the language in the note declared nonnegotiable in Jennings v. Securities Inv. Co., 151 Okla. 32, 1 P. 2d 687, because it authorized the holder to declare all indebtedness due, and to sell the collateral, without notice or making demand for performance.

Plaintiff takes issue with defendant as to the analogy between this case and those, and argues further that the language of the note before us carefully avoids placing in the holder the power to capriciously accelerate the due date of the note, thereby rendering its time of payment uncertain by dependency upon nothing more certain than the holder’s whim.

The parties seem in accord in recognizing that a note containing language providing for the power of acceleration of the due date upon the caprice or whim of the holder is thereby rendered nonnegotiable. 7 Am. Jur. 878, ch. II, subdivision E (4), and annotation at 72 A.L.R. .268.

The case containing language raising an issue nearest applicable to this language of this note is. Sommers v. Golden, supra. There the note provided:

“In case of depreciation in the market value of any security pledged for this obligation, the maker agrees to deposit on demand additional collateral so that the market value shall always be at least 20% more than the amount of this note, . . .”

—the due date might be accelerated for the failure of the maker to comply. In the note before us acceleration is permitted if the makers “shall fail to furnish additional security upon demand.”

In the Sommers Case we held the note was not rendered nonnegotiable by the language quoted, because there was thereby set up a test by which the holder’s right to demand could be judged, the depreciation in market value, and a standard by which the amount of additional security demand-able could be judged, a market value of 20 per cent more than the amount of the note. No caprice or whim could prevail when thus judged. We said: “This does not leave the payee or holder of the note an option to declare the note due at any time as in his judgment might seem best,” thereby inferring that the unrestrained power to declare maturity had the opposite effect. See West Point Co. v. Gaunt, 150 Tenn. 74, 262 S. W. 38, 34 A.L.R. 862.

In the case of Harrison v. Fugatt, supra, the language of the note authorized acceleration merely on a feeling of insecurity. That is almost the test here included, except that in this note the holder was not even required to declare the nebulous state of deeming himself insecure. We cited Oklahoma State Bank v. First National Bank, 108 Okla. 272, 236 P. 581, wherein we said concerning a similar note:

“For reversal, it is first contended that the trial court erred in instructing the jury that said note was nonnegotiable. The first part of the instrument *334 sued on contains all the elements of a negotiable note. . . . Certain recitals are •contained in the face of the note whereby it was to become due upon the performance or nonperformance of certain •acts by the maker thereof. . . . The trial •court took the view, and it is the contention of the defendants in error, that this clause in the note is contrary to the third provision of section 7671, Comp. Stat. 1921 (§11300, O. S. 1931, 48 O.S.A. § 21) which is a part of the Uniform Negotiable Instruments Act, and that therefore said note was nonnegotiable. . . . The question, therefore, lor our determination is: What is the ■effect on negotiability where the payee is given an option to declare a note due before maturity, independent of any default on the part of the maker? . . . The . . . rule is announced in the following cases: . . . Nickell v. Bradshaw, 94 Ore. 580, 183 P. 12, 11 A.L.R. 623. . . .

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Bluebook (online)
1942 OK 61, 123 P.2d 671, 190 Okla. 332, 1942 Okla. LEXIS 81, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-finance-corp-v-bourne-okla-1942.