Bruce v. Smith

44 Ind. 1
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1873
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 44 Ind. 1 (Bruce v. Smith) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bruce v. Smith, 44 Ind. 1 (Ind. 1873).

Opinion

Worden, J.

This was an action by the appellant against the appellee. The cause was once put at issue and submitted to the court for trial, and after the evidence had been adduced and argument had, the submission was withdrawn on the application of the plaintiff, on his payment of the costs. The record states that the defendant excepted to this action of the court, but no bill of exceptions was filed, nor does it appear otherwise upon what ground the submission was set aside.

The plaintiff then amended the third and fourth paragraphs of his complaint, and also filed an additional paragraph, being the fifth.

Demurrers were severally sustained to each of these par[3]*3agraphs for want of sufficient facts, and the plaintiff excepted. The plaintiff dismissed the first and second paragraphs of his complaint, and, the demurrers being sustained as to all the others, there was final judgment for the defendant.

The appellant assigns as error the sustaining of the demurrers to the third, fourth, and fifth paragraphs of his complaint. The appellee assigns, by way of cross error, the setting aside of the submission of the cause.

The third, fourth, and fifth paragraphs of the complaint are as follow:

3. George W. Bruce, further complaining of the said defendant, Jeremiah Smith, says that on the 5th day of March, 1870, he sold to defendant two shares of turnpike stock in the Winchester and Union City Turnpike Company, each share being for the sum of twenty-five dollars, for which the defendant then and there agreed to pay the plaintiff twenty-five dollars; and in full performance and execution of said contract on the part of the plaintiff he then and there delivered to the defendant a certificate of stock for the said two shares of stock, a copy of which said certificate is filed herewith and made a part hereof, and marked ‘ Exhibit A,’ which said certificate the defendant received and accepted as a full performance of the said contract on the part of the plaintiff; but he says defendant has failed and refused to pay said twenty-five dollars or any part thereof; wherefore the plaintiff demands judgment for forty dollars.

“4. The plaintiff further complaining of the defendant, says, that on the 5th day of March, 1870, he contracted and agreed with the defendant to sell him two shares of turnpike stock in the Winchester and Union City Turnpike Co., each share being in the sum of twenty-five dollars, and the defendant in consideration therefor undertook and' expressly agreed with the plaintiff to pay him twenty-five dollars; and the plaintiff then and there offered to execute and perform said contract and to transfer said stock, and has been ready and willing at all times to perform said contract; but defendant wholly failed and refused to comply with his contract, [4]*4in this, that he has wholly failed and refused to pay the said twenty-five dollars or any part thereof, whereby the plaintiff has been damaged twenty-five dollars, for which he demands judgment.

“ 5. The plaintiff) further complaining of the defendant, says that on the 5 th day of March, 1870, he sold to the defendant, Jeremiah Smith, two shares of turnpike stock in the Winchester and Union City Turnpike Company, each share being for twenty-five dollars, for which defendant then and there agreed to pay plaintiff twenty-five dollars; and the plaintiff then and there delivered to defendant the certificate of stock held and owned by him for said two shares of stock, a copy of which is filed herewith and marked ‘ Exhibit A,’ which defendant accepted, and the plaintiff then and there offered to transfer the said two shares of stock to defendant, and defendant refused to pay the said price of twenty-five dollars or-any part thereof; wherefore the plaintiff demands judgment for fifty dollars.”

A copy of the certificate of stock mentioned in the third and fifth paragraphs is set out, but it need not be here transcribed or noticed, further than to say that it contains the following statement, viz.: “This stock is transferable only on the books of the company as provided in the bylaws.”

The appellee claims that the third paragraph of the complaint is bad, for the reason that a material averment thereof is shown, by the pleading itself, to have been untrue, and therefore not well pleaded. The averment alluded to is, that, “in full performance and execution of said contract on the part of the plaintiff, he then and there delivered to the defendant a certificate of stock for the said two shares of stock, * * * which said certificate the defendant received and accepted as a full performance of the said contract on the part of the plaintiff.” This averment, it is claimed, was shown to have been untrue, because the certificate set out shows that the stock was transferable only on the books of the company. This obiection to the paragraph, in our opinion, is destitute;. [5]*5of any foundation. The transfer of the stock certificate to the defendant vested in him the equitable title to the stock. Upon this point we quote the following passage from the opinion of the court as delivered by Mr. Justice Story, in the case of Black v. Zacharie & Co., 3 How. 483—513:

“ It is true that the charters of the Carrollton Bank and of the Gas Light and Banking Company provide that no transfer of the stock of these corporations shall be valid or effectual until such transfers shall be entered or registered in a book or books to be kept for that purpose by the corporation. But this is manifestly a regulation designed for the security of the bank itself, and of third persons taking transfers of the stock without notice of any prior equitable transfer. It relates to the transfer of the legal title, and not of any equitable interest in the stock subordinate to that title. In the case of The Union Bank of Georgetown v. Laird, 2 Wheat. 390, this court took notice of the distinction between the legal and equitable title in cases of bank-stock, where the charter of the bank had provided for the mode of transfer. The general construction which has been put upon the charters of other banks containing similar provisions as to the transfer of their stock, is, that the provisions are designed solely for the safety and security of the bank itself, and of purchasers without notice; and that as between vendor and vendee a transfer, not in conformity to such provisions, is good to pass the equitable title and divest the vendor of all interest in the stock. Such are the decisions in the cases of The Bank of Utica v. Smalley, 2 Cow. 777, 778; Gilbert v. Manchester Iron Co., 11 Wend. 628; Commercial Bank of Buffalo v. Kortright, 22 Wend. 362 ; Quiner v. The Marblehead Social Ins. Co., 10 Mass. 476; and Sargent v. Franklin Insurance Co., 8 Pick. 90.”

The fact that the legal title to the stock did not pass to the defendant by the delivery to him and the acceptance by him of the stock certificate in no manner shows the allegation that it was thus delivered and accepted by the defendant as a full performance of the contract on the part of the [6]*6plaintiff to be untrue.

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

Related

Haworth v. Hubbard
44 N.E.2d 967 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1942)
McConnell, Admx. v. Thomson, Tr.
3 N.E.2d 986 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1937)
Friedman v. Citizens Natural Gas, Oil & Water Co.
147 N.E. 294 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1925)
Thornburg v. Lawrence
123 N.E. 430 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1919)
Boone v. Boone
160 Iowa 284 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1912)
Hill v. Kerstetter
86 N.E. 858 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1909)
Boone v. Van Gorder
74 N.E. 4 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1905)
McCleary v. Chipman
68 N.E. 320 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1903)
Plunkett v. Black
19 N.E. 537 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1889)
Earl v. Howell
14 Abb. N. Cas. 474 (City of New York Municipal Court, 1884)
Vincennes National Bank v. William M. Cockrum
1 Ind. L. Rep. 507 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1881)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
44 Ind. 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bruce-v-smith-ind-1873.