Corbin v. Boies

34 F. 692, 1888 U.S. App. LEXIS 2347
CourtUnited States Circuit Court
DecidedApril 30, 1888
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 34 F. 692 (Corbin v. Boies) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Corbin v. Boies, 34 F. 692, 1888 U.S. App. LEXIS 2347 (uscirct 1888).

Opinion

Geesham, J.

On March 80, 1882, William A. Boies, Benjamin B. Fay, Lucius W. Conkey, and Julius K. Graves, formed a limited partnership under the firm name oí Boies, Fay & Conkey, to carry on the business of wholesale grocers for five years, at Chicago. Graves, a special partner only, was a resident of Dubuque, Iowa, where he remained; and, whether the business proved profitable or unprofitable, interest was to ho paid on his capital of $50,000, at the rate of 20 percent, per annum. Fay and Graves were brothers-in-law, and the former became financial and chief manager of the firm. In August, 1882, about five months after Graves became a limited partner, an inventory was taken of the assets, from which the book-keeper made a statement, showing the firm’s finaiioial condition. This statement embraced all the hills receivable, and although some of the debts due to the firm wore then uncollectible and worthless, no deduction was made on that account. If such deduction had been made it would have appeared that the liabilities exceeded the assets. If the partners did not then know that the firm was insolvent, they must have known it was seriously threatened with insolvency and bankruptcy. This statement has nor, been produced, and Fay testified that a copy of it which was furnished him by the book-keeper had been lost or destroyed.

The Illinois statute1 under which this limited partnership was formed provides that it shall not be lawful for any such firm, or any member thereof, in contemplation of bankruptcy or insolvency, and with the intention of preferring or securing one or more creditors to the exclusion of others, to make any sale, transfer, or assignment of their properly or effects, or to confess any judgment, or create any lien on the vroperty or assets, and that all preferences so made shall be utterly void. Instead of suspending business in August, 1882, and holding [694]*694the assets as a special trust fund for the payment of its debts ratably among its creditors, as the firm should have done, it continued in business. Graves came to Chicago, and assumed Fay’s duties as financial manager, that the latter might go east and buy more goods on the firm’s credit. During the four or six weeks that Graves thus remained in the store, he had access to and examined the private ledger and other books and papers, which disclosed the firm’s condition. An account was kept with the First National Bank of Chicago, of which L. J. Gage -was vice-president and general manager, and in September, during Fay’s absence, Graves called at the bank and told Gage that he would be personally responsible for all checks drawn by the firm’s cashier during Fay’s absence, and when the latter returned he assured Gage that, should the firm have trouble, the bank would be protected. The Commercial National Bank of Dubuque, of which Graves was a director, kept an account with the First National Bank of Chicago, and Graves and Gage had a personal acquaintance, if they were not personal friends. The evidence shows that in September, after Graves had promised that all the firm’s checks should be paid, the bank permitted the firm to overdraw its account. On the 14th of October the firm needed money to pay an overdraft at the bank, and to meet paper which would soon become due, and Gage accommodated the firm with a demand loan of $10,000, for winch amount he took the judgment note of the partners, with warehouse receipts for merchandise recently bought on the firm’s credit, as collateral security. It is claimed that three days later, — October 17th, — the four partners signed an agreement dissolving the limited partnership, and that two days still later, Boies sold his interest in the firm to Fáy & Conkey, on which day Boies, Fay & Conkey — Graves having retired three days before — signed the following agreement:

“It is hereby stipulated and agreed by and between the parties hereto that the partnership heretofore existing between William A. Boies, Benjamin B. Fay, and Lucius W. Conkey, under the firm name of Boies, Fay & Conkey, is this day dissolved by mutual consent. The said dissolution shall date from the 1st day of November, 1882, and legal notice thereof shall be published on or before the 10th day of November, 1882.”

This paper or notice was published for the first time in the Chicago Daily Evening Journal, on December 2d; and the paper bjr which it is claimed the limited partnership was dissolved two days before, was published on the same day in the Chicago Legal News, a legal publication read by few besides lawyers. On the 18th of October, the day after the alleged dissolution of the limited partnership, the bank, through Gage, made another demand loan of $10,000 to the limited partnership, receiving as security other warehouse receipts of the same character. At the time of the alleged dissolution of the limited partnership, and the sale by Boies of his interest to Fay & Conkey, a large amount of the limited partnership paper was about to mature, and the firm was still purchasing goods; and the testimony shows that the partners deemed it unwise to then give notice of the alleged withdrawal of Graves and Boies. The business was continued in the name of the limited partnership, [695]*695with Graves’ knowledge, and chocks were signed in the firm name until December 2. From October 6 to December 6, the over-drafts ranged from $557 to $10,126; and from December 4 to December 16, the bank paid checks drawn in the name of the limited partnership, payable to Graves, amounting to a large sum, and up to December 6, at least, charged such payment to the account of Boies, Fay & Conkey. The goods which were pledged to the bank were part of the purchase made by Fay after the firm had become insolvent, and they were hauled direct from the freight depot to a warehouse, instead of to the store or warehouse of the firm. On December 7, the bank, .through Gage, made a demand loan of $8,000 to Fay & Conkey, taking in pledge therefor part of the new goods bought in the name of the limited partnership. Anote of Boies, Fay & Conkey, payable to Graves, for $5,000, was protested at Dubuque on the 14th of December, and sent to the First National Bank of Chicago for collection; and on January 20, 1883, Gage, for the hank, discounted customers’ notes for Fay & Conkey, amounting to $3,459; and on the same day, with the firm’s money, Graves paid the bank, through Gage, two notes of the limited partnership for $5,000 each, due in seven and nine days, respectively, before maturity; the bank then holding, with the knowledge of Gago, a $5,000 note of Fay & Conkey, indorsed by Graves, and payable two days later, and also other notes of Fay & Conkey, unindorsod and unsecured, for more than that amount. It will thus be seen that paper of the limited partnership, which was not then due for seven and nine days, was paid in preference lo a note of Fay & Conkey, on which Graves was liable as indorser, as well as unsecured notes of Fay & Conkey. This payment was made after it had been determined that the firm should suspend, and prefer part of its creditors; and on the same day Graves and Fay & Conkey went to the office of Flower, Remy & Gregory for legal advice, which firm then was, and for some time had boon, the general counsel of the bank and of the insolvent firm. During the consultation which occurred with Mr. Itemy, ho visited the bank, and on his return stated that Gage would be satisfied with a judgment in favor of the bank for $40,-000, for which amount a judgment note was accordingly prepared, and signed by Fay & Conkey.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
34 F. 692, 1888 U.S. App. LEXIS 2347, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/corbin-v-boies-uscirct-1888.