Citizens' Bank of Wakita v. Garnett

1908 OK 96, 95 P. 755, 21 Okla. 200, 1908 Okla. LEXIS 112
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMay 15, 1908
DocketNo. 1990, Okla. T.
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 1908 OK 96 (Citizens' Bank of Wakita v. Garnett) 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
Citizens' Bank of Wakita v. Garnett, 1908 OK 96, 95 P. 755, 21 Okla. 200, 1908 Okla. LEXIS 112 (Okla. 1908).

Opinion

Hayes, J.

The Citizens' Bank of Wakita brought this action in the district court of Grant county against J. E. Garnett and *201 W. 0. Jones on a promissory note payable to the order of W. E. Lemon for the sum of $1,380, executed by J. E. Garnett as principal and W. 0. Jones as surety, and indorsed without recourse by W. E. Lemon to the Citizens’ Bank of Wakita. Plaintiff’s petition in the court below contained the usual necessary averments of a petition in an action on a promissory note.

Defendants by their answer admit the execution of the note sued on, but allege that the circumstances under which said note was executed by them to W. E. Lemon were that J. E. Garnett, prior to the execution of the note, had' been one of the stockholders and officers of the Citizens’ Bank of Wakita, and that he had sold his stock or a great portion of the same to W. E. Lemon; that at the time of the sale there was held by the said bank a note executed by J.. E. Koontz to it in the sum of $3,570; that said note was an excéssive loan made by the bank under the laws of the territory of Oklahoma; that at the time -defendants executed to Lemon the note sued upon Lemon agreed with them that the plaintiff would transfer to defendant Jones the said J. E. Koontz note, allowing him to collect the same and apply the proceeds of the collection o.f it to the payment of the note sued upon in this action; that the execution and delivery of the note in this action to Lemon was upon the condition that the Koontz aróte should be delivered to Jones; that the plaintiff knew of this agreement at and before the note sued upon was transferred by Lemon to it; that the Koontz note had never been delivered to the defendant Jones, or any one for him, and that Lemon had refused to deliver the same in accordance with the agreement without which the note sued upon was not to be binding upon the defendants. The case was tried before a jury and verdict returned and judgment rendered in favor of the defendants.

, Plaintiff demurred to the -defendants’ evidence, which demurrer was overruled by the court, and this action of the court is the first alleged error discussed by plaintiff in its brief. It is admitted that the note sued upon is a nonnegotiable instrument. Plaintiff therefore took the note subject to whatever equities de *202 fendants had against the same in the hands of Lemon. There was abundant testimony introduced by defendants to the effect that the note sued upon was executed by them to Lemon solely upon the condition that the Koontz note was to be delivered to them, and at the time of the execution of the note by them it was the understanding that it had been agreed by the officers of the plaintiff bank that the Koontz note should be delivered to Jones upon defendants executing a note to Lemon, and there is no controversy that the Koontz note has never been delivered to defendants. Plaintiff requested the court to instruct the jury as follows:

“If you find that the defendants recognized the right of the plaintiff bank to take the note sued on herein and hold the same as a part of the property and assets of the bank before or without the said Koontz note being delivered to the said Jones, then the defendants are estopped and precluded from denying the effectiveness of the note sued on.”

Plaintiff attempted bjr this-instruction to have the court submit to the jury the question of estoppel, but the court properly refused to give this instruction. No issue of estoppel is alleged in plaintiff's petition, nor is there any evidence in the record that presents such issue. It is true that two of the witnesses testified that, after the maturity of the note sued upon, defendants came to the bank and requested that the note be renewed. This evidence was competent for the purpose of contradicting the contention of defendants that there was never any delivery of the note sued upon except on condition that the Koontz note should be delivered to them by the plaintiff, but such evidence is not sufficient to sup’port an instruction on estoppel, for the reason that, if a plea of estoppel had been pleaded by plaintiff in its petition, it would not have been sufficient for it to have shown only that defendants had requested it to renew the note, but it would have been necessary for it to prove that it was misled by such conduct and request of the defendants, to its injury, or that it was induced thereby to act and did act to its injury. 16 Cyc. 744; 1 Daniel on Negotiable Instruments, 859. The evidence does not disclose *203 that the act of the defendants in going to the bank and requesting a renewal of the note, which evidence was' contradieted by the testimony of defendants, the plaintiff was induced to act or did in any way act upon same. On the contrary, the evidence discloses that it refused the request of defendants, and shortly thereafter instituted this suit. The issue of estoppel is not presented by the pleadings nor by the evidence in this case, and the court did not err in refusing to give the instruction thereon requested by plaintiff.

Plaintiff cites National Bank v. Dosbaugh, 11 Okla. 664, 69 Pac. 797, as supporting its right to this instruction. That was an action brought by Dosbaugh’s Bank against the Guthrie National Bank for a balance on a draft drawn by H. H. Iiagan in favor of Dosbaugh’s Bank on the Guthrie National Bank. Before accepting the draft and advancing any money thereon, the Dos-baugh Bank sent a message to the Guthrie National Bank asking if Hagan’s check for $10,500 was good. The Guthrie National Bank answered that Hagan’s check for the balance due Wilson was- good. On the same . day the president of the Guthrie National Bank wrote a letter to Wilson, in which he said that Hagan had made arrangements with the Guthrie National Bank to pay his check for the balance due Wilson on a cattle deal, the amount of which was not known to the Guthrie National Bank, but was about $10,500. ■ Then the draft drawn by Hagan on the Guthrie National Bank for the sum of $10,268.40 was presented to Dosbaugh’s Bank, the letter from the president of the Guthrie National Bank was exhibited to the officers of Dos-baugh’s Bank, and Wilson and Hagan made statements to the officers of the bank to the effect that the draft was. the balance due Wilson by Hagan, and, upon such statements, letter, and message from the Guthrie National Bank, the Dosbaugh Bank paid the draft. The court held that the Guthrie National Bank was es-topped by its message and the letter of credit to Hagan from denying the right of Hagan to check on it for the amount of said draft, and correctly so, for the reason that Dosbaugh’s Bank by *204 such representations had been induced to act thereon and to part with its property. But the evidence in the case at bar does not prove or tend to prove that the plaintiff was induced to part with any of its property, or to change its position in any way to its injury by reason of defendants’ requesting an extension of their note.

Plaintiff further requested the court to instruct the jroy as follows:

“If you find that the consideration for the giving of the note sued on was the extinguishing of the liability of Garnett and Lemon on the Koontz note, and that such liabilty has been extinguished, then your verdict must be for the plaintiff.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1908 OK 96, 95 P. 755, 21 Okla. 200, 1908 Okla. LEXIS 112, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/citizens-bank-of-wakita-v-garnett-okla-1908.