Citizens Trust Co. v. Ward

190 S.W. 364, 195 Mo. App. 223, 1917 Mo. App. LEXIS 44
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 8, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 190 S.W. 364 (Citizens Trust Co. v. Ward) 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 Trust Co. v. Ward, 190 S.W. 364, 195 Mo. App. 223, 1917 Mo. App. LEXIS 44 (Mo. Ct. App. 1917).

Opinion

FARRINGTON, J.

The plaintiff (respondent) recovered a judgment for $6,141.65, which represents the balance due on the principal sum of a promissory note [225]*225with interest thereon, which note had' been signed by the Missouri Cotton Oil Company, a corporation, as principal, and the defendant herein together with five others as accommodation indorsers.

The amended petition alleged that plaintiff is the duly appointed Receiver of the Pemiscot County Bank; that the Missouri Cotton Oil Company on January 25, 1912, executed this note payable to itself in the sum of $10,000, and that Ward and others indorsed their names on the back guaranteeing its payment; that the note was delivered by the Missouri Cotton Oil Company, indorsed, to the Amerean Trust, Company, and a copy of the note is set out showing the indorsers thereon; that on October 24, 1912, there was remaining a balance due and unpaid on said note amounting to $5,025, and that the American Trust Company was the owner and legal holder of the note; that one A. C. Tindle was at that time the acting cashier of the Pemiscot County Bank, and was at the same time the president of the Missouri Cotton Oil Company; that this note was forwarded by the American Trust Company to the Pemiscot County Bank for collection — that is, it was indorsed on the back “Pay to any bank or banker; ’ ’ that on receipt of the note by the Pemiscot County Bank the said Tindle caused the amount due thereon to be drawn out of the funds of the Pemiscot County Bank by drawing a Jraft and forwarding the same to the American Trust Company; that neither the Missouri Cotton Oil Company nor any of the indorsers or signers of said note ever paid the balance due on the note either to the American Trust Company or to the Pemiscot County Bank; that the action. of the Pemiscot County Bank in paying its funds to the owner of said note constituted it the owner and holder of the note entitled to collect the same from the maker and indorsers of the same, one of whom is the defendant.

The defendant answered by a general denial, and by special pleas (1) that the Pemiscot County Bank never became the owner of the note and (2) that the amount that was paid by the Pemiscot County Bank was not its own funds but that the payment was out of funds on de[226]*226posit in said bank belonging to the Missouri Cotton Oil Company. The first of these special pleas raises a question of law, the second, one of fact.

If the contention of the defendant based on the first of these pleas is well taken, that is, that the Pemiscot County Bank could become the purchaser of this note even though it did forward its own funds because the note was sent to it for collection and not negotiation, plaintiff’s case must fail entirely, and we will therefore take up the consideration of that contention.

Following the defendant’s (appellant’s) reasoning, it must be admitted that the indorsement on the note “Pay to any bank or banker” is an indorsement for collection and that an indorsement fo.r collection does not transfer title. [Bank of Indian Territory v. First National Bank, 109 Mo. App. 665, 83 S. W. 537; National Bank of Rolla v. First National Bank of Salem, 141 Mo. App. 719, 125 S. W. 513.]

Appellant contends, relying on the fact that the note was in the hands of the Pemiscot County Bank for collection and for no other purpose, that when it sent the money to the owner and holder of the note the same thereby became extinguished and the signers and indorsers thereby discharged on that obligation, in support of which he cites the case of People’s & Drovers’ Bank of Washington v. Craig, 63 Ohio St. 374, 52 L. R. A. 872. That case clearly sustains appellant in his contention and the facts of that case are so like the facts in the case at bar as to make it an authority. Appellant also cites the case of Eastman v. Plumer, 32 N. H. 238, which, however, is not an authority on the question before us because in that case the maker of the note when called upon for payment borrowed the money from a third party and took it to the holder of the note, paying it over to him and receiving the note from the holder; and it was held that-the note was paid and discharged and was not kept alive for. the benefit of the person from whom the maker borrowed the money with which to pay it off. Likewise, in the case of Lancey v. Clark, 64 N. Y. 209, cited by appellant, Lincoln was primarily liable for the payment of a certain [227]*227note. He took some money belonging to tbe plaintiff in that suit and paid that money to the holder of the note. He then sent the note to the man from whom he had obtained the money, and in an action by the latter it was held that when Lincoln had taken the note np, from the holder, he being primarily liable, the note was discharged ; that had Lincoln brought suit on the note when he took it up there could be no recovery by him, and, as the note was past due, the plaintiff in the case, acquiring or getting it from Lincoln, merely stood in Lincoln’s shoes.

If the Ohio case, supra, had been a decision by the Supreme Court of this state we would hold that the plaintiff in this case has no cause of action.

But the question what is the relation of a stranger or third party to commercial paper when he puts up his money and acquires possession of the paper is one, under many authorities, of intention, the same to be ascertained from all the facts and circumstances and the condition of the parties surrounding the transaction.

In 7 Cyc. 1025, we find that if a note is paid after its maturity by a stranger it will generally be held to be a purchase and not a payment of the instrument, and that whether it is a purchase or a payment is a question of intention to be determined from the facts, acts and declarations' of the parties, and surrounding circumstances, citing a great number of decisions from nearly all the States.

In the case of Swope v. Leffingwell, 72 Mo. 348, it is held that if a stranger to a note takes it up with his money, the presumption is that it was a purchase and not a payment, and that the question whether it was a purchase or a payment is one of intention. [See, also, Kyne v. Erskine, 7 Mo. App. 591; Vansandt v. Hobbs, 84 Mo. App. 628; Allen v. Dermott, 80 Mo. l. c. 59; Lipscomb v. Talbott, 243 Mo. l, 147 S. W. 798; Prather v. Hairgrove, 214 Mo. 142, 112 S. W. 552.]

The case of Harbeck v. Vanderbilt, 20 N. Y. 395, was cited with approval and quoted from in the case of Swope v. Leffingwell, 72 Mo. 348, l. c. 358-360. In the [228]*228case of Harbeck v. Vanderbilt, it was held, in dealing with this question, that where the amount due upon a judgment is paid wholly or in part by one who is not a party to nor bound by it, the judgment is extinguished or not, according to the intention of the party.paying.

.The rule is laid down as clearly against the appellant’s contention in the case of President, Directors, etc., of the Pacific Bank v. Mitchell, 9 Metc. (Mass.) 297, as-it is in his favor in the Ohio case, supra. That ease (the Massachusetts case) is cited with approval in the case of Dodge v. The Freedmen’s Saving and Trust Company, 93 U. S. 379, 23 L. Ed. 920.

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Bluebook (online)
190 S.W. 364, 195 Mo. App. 223, 1917 Mo. App. LEXIS 44, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/citizens-trust-co-v-ward-moctapp-1917.