Arnold v. Hart

52 N.E. 936, 176 Ill. 442
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 24, 1898
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 52 N.E. 936 (Arnold v. Hart) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Arnold v. Hart, 52 N.E. 936, 176 Ill. 442 (Ill. 1898).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Wilkin

deliveredthe opinion of the court:

This is an action in assumpsit, by appellee, against Adolph, Herman and Theodore Arnold and Benjamin F. Baker. Arthur J. Howe and Gustavus A. Bodenschatz were originally joined as parties defendant, but were not served with process. The declaration is the common counts only, alleging promises by all the defendants as co-partners, doing business as “Arnold Bros., Baker & Co.” Adolph, Herman and Theodore Arnold filed pleas admitting their liability except as to $551.24, to which they pleaded non-assumpsit and non-joint liability. Benjamin F. Baker filed pleas of non-assumpsit and non-joint liability as to the whole amount. The jury found the issues for the plaintiff and assessed his damages at $1164.48. Motion for new trial was overruled and judgment entered on the verdict for the full amount against the four defendants served. An appeal was taken to the Appellate Court for the First District, where the judgment of the trial court was affirmed. Appellants appeal to this court.

On December 23, 1892, Herman, Theodore and Adolph Arnold, Benjamin F. Baker, Arthur J. Howe and Gustavus A. Bodenschatz entered into partnership to do a general banking, exchange, insurance and mortgage business at No. 143 West Randolph street, Chicago, under the firm name of “Haymarket Produce Bank, Arnold Bros., Baker & Co. Proprietors,” commencing May 1, 1893, and expiring April 30, 1903. They continued such business until October 25, 1895, when an agreement to dissolve was entered into, which was reduced to the form of articles of dissolution November 14,1895, and signed by all the partners. By the terms of the dissolution Howe and Bodenschatz were to continue the business alone. They were to give notice immediately to the creditors of the partnership of the dissolution, and to pay all its liabilities, and were not to use the name “Arnold Bros., Baker & Co.” in continuing" the business. The new firm of Howe & Bodenschatz carried on the business at the same place until August, 1896, when it passed into the hands of an assignee.

On January 6, 1895, appellee, Hart, opened a savings account with the original firm of Arnold Bros., Baker & Co., bankers, and received at the time a pass-book, on the cover of which was printed, “Haymarket Produce Bank, Arnold Bros., Baker & Co., Bankers.” At the top of the page on which the entries of deposits and payments were made were the words: “Dr.—Arnold Bros., Baker & Co., in acc’t with Charles Hart.” In this passbook were entered by the bank the different items of deposit and of withdrawal, each with the date of its occurrence. Deposits and withdrawals were made both before and after the dissolution, and the verdict in this suit is for the total deposits less the total withdrawals, with interest for the entire period. All the deposits were made with Bodenschatz, one of the partners, or with one Peter Boyesen, a clerk in the bank both before and after the dissolution. Immediately after the dissolution the succeeding firm caused a glass sign to be hung inside the bank window and just above the old firm name of Arnold Bros., Baker & Co., as follows: “Howe & Bodenschatz, Successors to,” and also caused a large number of calendars bearing the name of Howe & Bodenschatz to be printed and left in the windows of the bank for its patrons. After the dissolution appellee signed a number of receipts to the bank for withdrawals, which were on a printed form and were in the name of Howe & Bodenschatz. Appellee testified that knowledge of the dissolution of the original partnership never came to him until after the bank’s failure; that he did not see the calendars mentioned, nor notice the change in the sign, nor read the receipts given to him, further than to ascertain that the amount stated was correct. It was not shown by appellants that the bank notified appellee personally of the change, and it is not disputed but that the pass-book remained the same throughout his entire dealings with the bank. The pass-book issued to him by appellant contained a number of conditions to which he, by accepting the same, must be held to have agreed. Among others was the right of the bank to demand and have sixty days’ notice in writing as a condition of payment on all sums exceeding $100, and thirty days’ notice on smaller sums, when in their opinion they deemed the same advisable.

Appellee bases his right to recover in this action on the liability of the defendants under the original partnership agreement. Having begun business relations with the original firm, the law presumes that he relied upon the financial ability and integrity of each ostensible partner, and as to him the original partnership continued until he had knowledge or notice of a change in the same. (Ellis v. Bronson, 40 Ill. 455; Southern v. Grim, 67 id. 106; Page v. Brant, 18 id. 37, and cases cited.) The sufficiency of the evidence, it tending to support the allegations of appellee’s declaration, is not subject to review here.

It is insisted by counsel for appellants that the facts relied upon by appellee to establish the partnership liability of appellants amounts to an estoppel in pais, and should therefore have been specially pleaded to admit proof of the same on trial. Story on Partnership (7th ed. sec. 334) says: “It is well settled at common law that an estoppel in pais heed not be pleaded, but this rule has been changed by statute in some of the States.” (See, also, Coleman v. Pearce, 26 Minn. 123, and Caldwell v. Anger, 4 id. 156.) It is also a rule that “facts are available as estoppel where there was no opportunity to plead them.” (Foye v. Patch, 132 Mass. 105; Clink v. Thurston, 47 Cal. 21; Gans v. St. Paul Ins. Co. 43 Wis. 108.) In this case appellee was not bound to anticipate the possible defense that the partnership had been dissolved, even if he knew it.

It is further contended that the suit was prematurely brought, because no demand was made on the bank, as provided by the printed conditions in the pass-book; and in any event, after the dissolution, the retiring members being solvent, the bank should have had the benefit of the sixty days’ notice provided for in the printed conditions. We are unable to find any merit in these contentions. As we said in Meadowcroft v. People, 163 Ill. 56, (on p. 82): “When a bank or banker suspends payment and closes the doors against depositors and creditors, aud discontinues banking operations, it or he waives the necessity for a demand on the part of its or his depositors.” (See Watson v. Phoenix Bank, 8 Metc. (49 Mass.) 217; Planters' Bank v. Farmers' Bank, 8 Gill & J. 449.) Counsel seem to overlook the fact that appellee’s recovery for the deposit subsequently to the dissolution is upon the liability of the original partnership. As to him, under the facts found, there was no dissolution. It is immaterial whether the retiring members were actually solvent and able to pay his claim or not. By closing the doors of the bank and proclaiming its financial inability to continue operations they thereby waived the right to insist on a demand.

Counsel insist that plaintiff’s evidence on the trial proves, at most, but an express conditional promise to pay on demand, the condition or demand being waived, and hence, to have been properly provable .on the trial, must have been specially declared on. This is, in effect, a claim that there was a variance between the allegation and proof.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Kallison v. Harris Trust & Savings Bank
86 N.E.2d 858 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1949)
Mulkey v. Anglin
1933 OK 494 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1933)
White v. Central Trust Co.
259 Ill. App. 68 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1930)
Streeter v. Junker
230 Ill. App. 366 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1923)
McNeil & Higgins Co. v. Hamlet
213 Ill. App. 501 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1919)
Milliman v. Seed
206 Ill. App. 362 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1917)
Thompson v. Harmon
152 S.W. 1161 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1912)
Overlock v. Hazzard.
100 P. 447 (Arizona Supreme Court, 1909)
Arnold v. Pfaff
94 Ill. App. 461 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1901)
Arnold v. Burgdorf
85 Ill. App. 537 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1899)
Arnold v. Pucher
83 Ill. App. 182 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1899)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
52 N.E. 936, 176 Ill. 442, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/arnold-v-hart-ill-1898.