Cohen v. First National City Bank

49 Misc. 2d 141, 267 N.Y.S.2d 146, 1966 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2342
CourtCivil Court of the City of New York
DecidedJanuary 3, 1966
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 49 Misc. 2d 141 (Cohen v. First National City Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Civil Court of the City of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cohen v. First National City Bank, 49 Misc. 2d 141, 267 N.Y.S.2d 146, 1966 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2342 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1966).

Opinion

Arnold L. Fein, J.

On or about August 16, 1963, petitioner, judgment creditor of one Florence Sutton for $724.26, caused [142]*142respondent bank to be served with a third-party subpoena and restraining order (Civ. Prac. Act, § 781). The bank responded that it was holding 32 shares of AT&T stock owned by the debtor as collateral security on a $5,830.56 loan made September 17, 1962, repayable in 36 monthly installments.

On or about April 27, 1965, $1,692 being due on said loan, at the judgment debtor’s request respondent extended payment of the balance for an additional 36 months. Following its usual procedure, the bank cancelled the prior promissory note and accepted debtor’s new note, the entire proceeds of which were used to satisfy and cancel the old note, no additional funds being loaned to the borrower. All the stock was retained as collateral.

'Contending this was a violation of the restraining order, petitioner instituted this proceeding, by petition and notice of motion, requesting judgment directing respondent to turn over to petitioner sufficient moneys to satisfy the balance of petitioner’s judgment against the judgment debtor, or directing respondent upon the expiration of judgment debtor’s original loan to turn over to petitioner sufficient moneys to satisfy Said balance or to turn oxer to a Sheriff Or City Marshal the stock held by respondent as collateral to be sold by the Sheriff or Marshal in satisfaction of the balance, or in the exent respondent disposes of the stock by virtue of a default to turn over to petitioner the balance remaining, in payment on account or in satisfaction of the judgment, and to continue the restraining provisions past August 15, 1965, until the foregoing was accomplished.

Said motion was denied (Riccobono, J., June 30, 1965), except to the extent of continuing the restraining order for a period of 36 months plus an additional two months or until the judgment was satisfied or vacated, whichever event occurs first.

On petitioner’s motion to reargue, said order was vacated and an order made (Riccobono, J., Sept. 21,1965) setting the matter down for a hearing, and final disposition, which came on before me.

The parties submitted the controversy on an agreed statement of facts, set forth in respondent’s memorandum of law. Petitioner cited no authorities whatever in support of his contention that the renewal of the loan violated the restraining order. The subpoena was served on or about August 16, 1963. The CPLR became effective September 1, 1963, The bank’s renewal loan was made on or about April 27, 1965, the critical date respecting the alleged violation of the restraining order. Under article 52 of the CPLR and its predecessor Civil Prac[143]*143tice Act sections, the interest of a judgment debtor in pledged property, including certificates of stock, is subject to restraint, execution, levy and sale, and turnover.

At all times after she turned her stock over to the bank as collateral for the loan, the interest of the judgment debtor in the stock was that of a pledgor, entitled to a return of the stock only upon payment of the balance due the bank. The bank could, at any time, sell the collateral and apply the proceeds against the unpaid balance of the loan. This was the status at the time of the service of the restraining notice on the bank, and also on the day the bank issued the new note extending the time for payment of the balance due on the old note, except that by then a lesser amount was due the bank. Except for possible provisions of the Banking Law, not necessary to explore here, the bank could have allowed the old note to remain in existence and permitted the debtor to make payments over an extended period against the unpaid balance or it could have sold the collateral and applied the proceeds to the balance. It was not obliged to do either.

That the bank, in accordance with banking custom, caused the old note to be marked paid and required a new note for the extended period, did not change the relationship. The form of the transaction did not alter its substance. The parties merely entered into a new paper transaction preserving the existing interest of each in the collateral. At every instant of the transaction debtor owed the bank the balance and the bank held the collateral to protect it.

The papers executed were only evidence of a debt; the same debt which pre-existed service of the subpoena. The taking of the original note by the bank was obviously not payment. It evidenced the debt incurred at that time. Renewal notes of the original party are likewise not payment, but merely evidence, even though the original note be marked “ paid ” (Jagger Iron Co. v. Walker, 76 N. Y. 521). In Industrial Bank of Commerce v. Shapiro (276 App. Div. 370, affd. without op. 302 N. Y. 566), money was borrowed from a bank, secured by a properly filed chattel mortgage, on an automobile. The borrower sold the automobile to the defendant, and then, without advising the bank of the sale, obtained a larger loan from the bank, collaterized by a new chattel mortgage on the automobile in the larger amount, the bank using part of the proceeds of the new loan to pay off the old loan and marking the original note paid. Thereafter the process was repeated by the borrower with a third note and chattel mortgage in a still larger amount. The [144]*144defendant, purchaser of the car, was held liable to the bank in conversion for the amount due on the original note and chattel mortgage on the date of the purchase, the court stating (p. 373): “ When the first note * * * was marked paid it was merely renewed. The fact that the second note was larger in amount does not prevent its being a renewal to the amount of the prior note. Only the excess over the previous note was paid in cash * * * the rest was just a bookkeeping trans-

action. The original debt was not extinguished. Marking the first note paid signified that the first negotiable instrument which evidenced the debt had been cancelled and superseded pro tanto by another. It is well established that a second chattel mortgage upon the same property covered by a former chattel mortgage, to secure the same debt, is not of itself a cancellation of such first mortgage, even though the second has been given to secure a larger loan (Hill v. Beebe, 13 N. Y. 556; Shuler v. Boutwell, 18 Hun 171; Gregory v. Thomas, 20 Wend. 17). * * * A debt is not honestly extinguished till it is paid in cash * * *. In this case, the first chattel mortgage, on which alone defendant is liable, stated that it was given to secure the first note, which meant presumptively that it was given also to secure the debt for which the note was given. When the first note was later renewed, the debt was not thereby extinguished.” The original debt subsisted as did the original collateral. The form of the transaction is not controlling (Cohen v. Rossmoore, 225 App. Div. 300; Garfield Nat. Bank v. Wallach, 223 App. Div. 303).

Nor is it of any avail to the judgment creditor that the bank granted an extension for payment of the pre-existing indebtedness, retaining the collateral. (Bank of United States v. Chemical Bank & Trust Co., 140 Misc. 394.) There a judgment creditor sought to obtain, as property of the judgment debtor, a deposit previously made by the debtor for continuing electrical service.

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Bluebook (online)
49 Misc. 2d 141, 267 N.Y.S.2d 146, 1966 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 2342, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cohen-v-first-national-city-bank-nycivct-1966.