Brumback v. German National Bank

65 N.W. 198, 46 Neb. 540, 1895 Neb. LEXIS 514
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 7, 1895
DocketNo. 6228
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 65 N.W. 198 (Brumback v. German National Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brumback v. German National Bank, 65 N.W. 198, 46 Neb. 540, 1895 Neb. LEXIS 514 (Neb. 1895).

Opinion

Nor val, C. J.

This action was brought by the German National Bank of Beatrice against the plaintiffs in error upon a promissory note, of which the following is a copy:

“$1,500. Beatrice, Neb., May 1, 1892.
“Sixty days after date I, we, or either of us, promise to pay to the German National Bank, of Beatrice, Neb., or order, fifteen hundred dollars, value received, payable at the German National Bank in Beatrice, Nebraska, with interest at the rate of 10 per cent per annum from due.
“Beatrice Rapid Transit & Power Co.,
“By N. N. Brumback, Pres.
“L. E. Spencer, Seo’y.
“L. E. Spencer.
“N. N. Brumback.
“S. K. DAvrs.
“Chas. L. Schell.”

The petition contains the usual averments. Two answers were filed, one by the Beatrice Rapid Transit & Power Company, and the other by the individual defendants. The answer of the corporation defendant avers, in effect, that it executed the note upon the ‘ understanding and agreement that plaintiff was to secure the signature of one G. M. Johnston to the note, and that the secretary and president of said defendant had no authority or power to sign said note upon any other condition, which fact was known to the plaintiff and its managing officer; that the note was only to be delivered upon Johnston’s signature to said note being obtained by said plaintiff, and that said condition has never been fulfilled or carried out. The individual defendants answer setting up that they each signed the note as surety, and upon the express understanding that it should not be delivered and was not to be a binding obligation until the same was signed by each of the individual defendants and the said G. M. John[542]*542ston; that the name of the latter was never procured, nor was the instrument ever delivered. The reply denies each averment in the answers contained. Upon a verdict being returned in favor of the plaintiff for the full amount of the note, the corporation defendant filed a motion for a new trial, and the individual defendants joined in another motion for a new trial upon substantially the same grounds, which motions were overruled, and judgment entered upon the verdict. Two petitions in error were filed, one by the corporation defendant, and one by the remaining defendants.

The first three assignments of error relate to the refusal of the court to excuse the jurors Ered Hallingsworth, M. S. Glass, and G. W. Martin, for the reason the voir dire examination of each disclosed that he was indebted to, and did business with, the plaintiff. Whether these persons were disqualified from sitting as jurors in the cause we will not stop to determine. Conceding, for the purposes of this case, that they were incompetent jurors, still a reversal cannot be had upon that ground, for two reasons: First, the record fails to show which party challenged the jurors for cause or excepted to the ruling thereon. If the challenges were interposed by the plaintiff, and the jurors were retained over its objection and exception, clearly the defendants are not in position to have the decision of the court thereon reviewed here. Again, it does not appear that the defendants either exhausted all, or availed themselves of any, of their peremptory challenges. For this latter reason alone, the error, if any, in the overruling of the challenges for cause is without prejudice. (Palmer v. People, 4 Neb., 68; Burnett v. Burlington & M. R. R. Co., 16 Neb., 332; Curran v. Percixal, 21 Neb., 434; Nowotny v. Blair, 32 Neb., 175; Blenkiron v. State, 40 Neb., 11 ; Jenkins v. Mitchell, 40 Neb., 664.)

The next three assignments, the fourth, fifth, and sixth, are as follows:

[543]*543“4. The court erred in compelling defendants to exhaust their peremptory challenges in excluding the three jurors above named.
“ 5. The court erred in restricting defendants to three peremptory .challenges.
“6. The court erred in forcing the defendants to exhaust their peremptory challenges in removing from the jury men who were under financial obligations to plaintiff.”

Not one of the foregoing assignments is well taken, inasmuch as there is nothing in the record to indicate that the defendants were limited by the court to three or any other number of peremptory challenges, or that they challenged a single juror peremptorily. Error cannot be presumed, but must affirmatively appear, in order that a reviewing court may take cognizance thereof.

Assignments 7 to 19, both inclusive, relate to the giving and refusing of certain instructions, but only three of which, seventh, ninth, and tenth, are discussed in the brief of plaintiffs in error. The others will be regarded as waived.

It is insisted that the court erred in giving the following instruction at the request of the plaintiff:

“ 1. The court instructs the jury that though you may believe from the evidence that the makers of the note signed the said note with the understanding and agreement that one Johnston should sign the same, and that they should not be bound on said note unless said Johnston signed also, yet, unless the plaintiff bank had knowledge of this arrangement it would not bind them or be a defense to said note, and your verdict should be for the plaintiff.”

A single criticism is made upon this instruction, and that is, it is inapplicable to the facts established on the trial. As to this point, counsel for plaintiffs in error, in the brief filed, says: “The undeniable evidence is that Spencer, one of the signers of the note, was made by the bank, defendant in error, its agent to secure the signatures of the other parties to the note, so that agreements or state[544]*544ments made to liim by the signers would be binding upon the bank, whether it had actual knowledge thereof or not.” We have been unable to find a scintilla of evidence from which the inference can be drawn that the bank authorized Mr. Spencer, or any one else, to procure the signatures to the note. The note in suit was given in renewal of another note of the same amount signed by all of the plaintiffs in error and one Johnston for the sum of $1,500. All the individual signers of the note in controversy were stockholders of the Rapid Transit & Power Company. Spencer, being the secretary of the corporation, obtained the signatures to the note, and in so doing he acted for and on behalf of himself and his co-signers, and not as the agent of the payee of the note. So notice to Spencer was not notice to the bank. The debt was that of the corporation defendant, the other signers being sureties merely. The fact that it was the understanding or agreement between the makers of the paper that Johnston was also to execute the note as surety before the delivery thereof, is no defense, unless the payee had notice or knowledge of the condition at the time the instrument was accepted by the bank, and the court correctly so charged. [Lombard v. Mayberry, 24 Neb., 679; Brandt, Suretyship [2d ed.], sec. 402; Deardorff v. Foresman, 24 Ind., 481; Merriam n. Rockwood, 47 N. H., 81; Stoner v. Millikin, 85 Ill., 218; Selser v. Brock, 3 O. St., 302; Rassumpsic Bank v. Goss,

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Bluebook (online)
65 N.W. 198, 46 Neb. 540, 1895 Neb. LEXIS 514, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brumback-v-german-national-bank-neb-1895.