Citizens Bank v. Oaks

170 S.W. 679, 184 Mo. App. 598, 1914 Mo. App. LEXIS 602
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 14, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 170 S.W. 679 (Citizens Bank v. Oaks) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Citizens Bank v. Oaks, 170 S.W. 679, 184 Mo. App. 598, 1914 Mo. App. LEXIS 602 (Mo. Ct. App. 1914).

Opinion

STURGIS, 'J.

The plaintiff sues on the following written instrument, designated by the parties and for convenience here as a note: “West Plains, Mo., Dec. 18, 1911. On or before January 2, 1912. I hereby promise to pay to the Citizens Bank of Pomona, Mo., the sum of two hundred and eighty-six dollars ($286) [600]*600being amount of balance dne to said bank by one W. A. Wible. Signed, Eugene Oaks.” Tbe petition alleges that this written promise was made and taken because one W. A. Wible owed the plaintiff the amount specified therein which was insufficiently secured and was then due; that defendant’s promise was to pay Wible’s unsecured indebtedness in the event said Wible did not pay said sum of $286, on or before the date mentioned; that Wible has never paid any part of it and that defendant has, after demand, refused to pay. The answer is a general denial, coupled with the allegation that the “note, if note it was, was given to plaintiff wholly without consideration, and : . . if there was any balance due plaintiff by W. A. Wible, . . . the same was collected by plaintiff in the sale of a certain tract of land located in Phelps county, and which was given by said W. A. Wible to said plaintiff to secure said indebtedness.” The defendant, having admitted the execution of the instrument sued on, took the laboring oar and assumed the burden of proving his defense.’ The jury under the instructions given found for defendant and the plaintiff appeals.

The appellant has filed in this court a complete transcript, as well as an abstract of the record. Our. statutes and appellate court rules require that the abstract and additional abstract, where the respondent deems it necessary to file one, should furnish the appellate court all that is necessary to be consulted in the decision of the case, whether the appeal be by the long or short form, and we consult the transcript only to determine differences as to what if shows. No additional abstract has been filed, but the parties here have referred us to both the abstract and the transcript to sustain their various contentions. We will consider the abstract only. The facts are not presented with clearness. We are not certain whether this is due to a desire to leave certain facts in a nebulous condition or because some of the facts and the business relation[601]*601ship of the parties and witnesses were so well known to those engaged in the trial as to need no proof.

We gather from the record that W. A. Wible was allowed to become indebted to the plaintiff bank to an amount much in excess of that allowed by law and that plaintiff was threatened with a loss. The then'cashier was responsible for this condition of affairs and the directors were responsible for permitting it. It is not shown with clearness the exact amount of the Wible indebtedness; it is spoken of as being originally $4800, but there was doubtless some interest due when the plaintiff bank changed cashiers and sought to collect or secure the amount owing by Wible. It is shown that the bank held a note for $3000, payable' to the then cashier, Buster, which was secured by a mortgage on some Howell county land. This note was reduced to $2500, by the directors of the plaintiff bank making their individual note to the plaintiff bank for $500, which note was subsequently paid and a credit made on the $3000 note. The balance of this $3000 note was also subsequently paid, as will be noted later. The plaintiff also took or held Wible’s note for $2500, secured by a chattel mortgage on some personal property and, as additional security for which, a note for $600, secured by a deed of trust on some land in Phelps county, Missouri, was turned over by Wible to the plaintiff bank as collateral security. It is shown that Wible later, without authority, sold and disposed of some of the personal property secured by the chattel mortgage and was about to get in trouble over this when the defendant, as his friend, arranged to have the plaintiff give him further time to make good the unsecured shortage, then fixed at $286, by defendant signing the instrument sued on in the nature of a guaranty.

It is conceded that Wible did not pay this balance of $286, unless, by reason of the purchase by plaintiff of the Phelps county land at a tax sale, it should in [602]*602this suit be charged with enough to cancel that indebtedness.

The record does not show with any degree of clearness how much the plaintiff has collected on this last mentioned $2500 note. Prom the question asked by defendant’s attorney of the bank’s president while on the stand, but not answered definitely by him, defendant seems to contend that $1000 was realized out of the sale of live stock covered by the mortgage and $140 out of a horse and buggy. Then $500 and interest was paid by the directors on their individual note, making $1640. This is all that is sho'wn to have been paid other than the full payment of the balance of $2500 on the other note secured by the Howell county land. .But, as said, this is not at all satisfactory.

The way in which defendant seeks to charge plaintiff with receiving payment out of the Phelps county land is this: The land was advertised and sold for taxes while plaintiff was holding the note and deed of trust as collateral security and was purchased by the plaintiff. This sale, however, was not brought about by plaintiff unless by its failure to pay the delinquent taxes. It is daimed that, as plaintiff could have paid the taxes and charged same against the land and could have sold the land by foreclosure of its deed of trust, it should be charged the' fair value of the land so purchased at the tax sale rather than the amount bid at the sale. We will assume that this is the law. The evidence, however, is not satisfactory as to the reasonable value of this land at the time of the tax sale, no qualified witness testifying thereto. The plaintiff bank carried it on its books at a value of $375. A witness said that it was worth about $800 at the time of the trial. Nor is it shown definitely when the tax sale took place nor for how much the land sold. One witness said it was sold about two years before the trial in December, 1913, which would make the date of the tax sale the same month as de[603]*603fendant gave the obligation sued on. If the tax sale had already taken place and the land purchased by plaintiff before the obligation sued on was executed, this puts defendant in the attitude of now claiming that the balance which Wible conceded he owed and was asking further time in which to pay and which defendant undertook to pay on January 2, 1912 in case of Wible’s default, was already paid and that there was no such balance then due. In the absence of a defense based on fraud or duress in obtaining the instrument sued on, such claim would not be allowable. [Fitzgerald v. Barker, 85 Mo. 13, 21.] The instructions given made no distinction as to whether the tax sale took place before or after the giving of the instrument sued on.

The amount that the land sold for at the tax sale is shown only in an indefinite way. There is a recital in the decree rendered in the same court in the case of Wible against this plaintiff for an accounting, tried less than a year prior to the trial of the present case, and which was put in evidence, that the land was sold to plaintiff for $275, and that plaintiff paid the taxes on the same, making a total of $296.40. A witness stated that the bank was really out only about $85; but the bank was evidently bidding against its own debt and bid $275, the costs and judgment for taxes making the $85 actually paid.

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Bluebook (online)
170 S.W. 679, 184 Mo. App. 598, 1914 Mo. App. LEXIS 602, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/citizens-bank-v-oaks-moctapp-1914.