Cushing v. Building Ass'n of Society of New or Practical Psychology

134 P. 324, 165 Cal. 731, 1913 Cal. LEXIS 476
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 25, 1913
DocketL.A. No. 3119.
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 134 P. 324 (Cushing v. Building Ass'n of Society of New or Practical Psychology) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Cushing v. Building Ass'n of Society of New or Practical Psychology, 134 P. 324, 165 Cal. 731, 1913 Cal. LEXIS 476 (Cal. 1913).

Opinion

ANGELLOTTI, J.

The material facts shown by the findings of the trial court, the appeal being on the judgment-roll, are substantially as follows: '

On March 1, 1910, plaintiff loaned four thousand dollars to one Clinton Johnson, he giving to her his note therefor, dated March 1,1910, payable twelve months after date, with interest at eight per cent per annum. The note stated that such interest had been paid to maturity, March 1, 1911. The note was accompanied by a written contract of pledge of certificate No. 175 for five hundred shares of the capital stock of the corporation defendant, whose name has since been changed to “California Business Block Company,” and this certificate w’as delivered by Johnson to plaintiff with the note and contract of pledge, as collateral security for the payment of the note. The contract recited that Johnson was the sole owner of said stock, and that the par value of such stock was ten *734 dollars per share. It provided that in the event of deterioration in the market value of said stock, which was then ten dollars per share, Johnson would on notice reduce the amount of debt or increase the security in proportion to such deterioration, in default of which the note was at once to be considered dug and payable. It was provided that in case of the nonpayment of the note when due, plaintiff might sell the whole or any part of the stock, without notice to Johnson, either at public or private sale.

Johnson had acquired this stock and other stock in the same corporation from one W. R. Price. Subsequent to the giving of this note and the pledging of this stock to plaintiff by Johnson, J. M. Sewell, a judgment creditor of Price, brought an action against Johnson and Price to have the conveyance declared void as one made by Price to defraud his creditors generally, and 'particularly Sewell. Plaintiff was not a party to that action. On December 12, 1910, judgment was given in such action in favor of Sewell. On December 21,1910, Price’s interest in the stock was attempted to be sold under execution issued in the ease of Sewell v. Christie, Price et al., in which case Sewell had recovered a money judgment against Price, and Sewell became the purchaser at such sale. At the time of such purchase, Sewell had full knowledge and notice that five hundred shares of the stock purchased by him had been pledged to plaintiff by Johnson to secure the loan of four thousand dollars. It is not claimed that plaintiff had any notice that the transfer of the stock by Price to Johnson was fraudulent at the time she made the loan to Johnson and accepted the stock in pledge, or until the entry of judgment in the ease of Sewell v. Johnson and Price. She was then notified of the judgment, and prior to December 26,1910, was fully informed as to all the claims of Sewell in regard to said stock.

There was no deterioration in value of said stock or depreciation in the market value thereof from the time it was pledged “until many months after the commencement of this action, ” which was on March 6,1911. This we think is clearly the effect of the findings. Therefore, the sole condition upon which the note might be treated as due before its maturity, March 1, 1911, never occurred. Nevertheless, subsequent to Sewell’s purchase at the execution sale, and between December 26, 1910, and January 4, 1911, it was arranged between *735 Johnson and plaintiff that plaintiff might at once sell the stock to satisfy Johnson’s obligation to her, provided she sold it for enough to fully pay the note. Johnson authorized her to become purchaser at such sale. Thereupon plaintiff, without any notice to Sewell, on January 4, 1911, sold the stock at private sale to herself, for four thousand dollars, the amount due on the note, and surrendered the four thousand dollar note to Johnson as paid. The note was never in fact paid except as the same was paid by such attempted sale of such stock. Sewell was not given notice of the intended sale.

It was found that the sale without notice to Sewell was the result of a conspiracy between plaintiff, Johnson, and Price to put the stock into the name of plaintiff, so that she might use it at a stockholders’ meeting in favor of Price, to prevent his board of directors from being ousted from the control of the corporation by the Sewell faction, said five hundred shares being essential to give the Sewell faction the two-thirds of the stock essential to such ouster. It was further found that plaintiff and Johnson so agreed to the sale and the satisfaction of the note, for the purpose of preventing Sewell from taking up said note at maturity and collecting it from Johnson.

On January 6, 1911, plaintiff presented the certificate for the five hundred shares to the then president and secretary of the corporation, requesting them to acknowledge the transfer thereof to her upon the books of the corporation, and to issue in lieu thereof to her a new certificate for five hundred shares. This they refused to do.

On January 10, 1911, plaintiff offered to Sewell the privilege of receiving from her said certificate upon payment to her of said four thousand dollars, within a reasonable time, but Sewell refused to pay her any money therefor and claims to be the absolute owner of the stock.

This action is one by plaintiff against Sewell, as an individual, and against the corporation and its president and secretary, who are said Sewell and one Mary E. Sewell, to obtain a decree adjudging the rights of plaintiff and Sewell in regard to said stock; requiring Sewell, in the event that he desires to redeem the stock, to make such redemption within such reasonable time as may be fixed by the court; requiring the corporation and its officers in the event that no redemption is made within the specified time to transfer the stock to her on the *736 books of the corporation and to issue a new certificate of stock to her, and awarding her four thousand dollars against the corporation in the event that the stock cannot be issued to her. In her complaint plaintiff renewed her offer to transfer to Sewell the stock upon the payment to her by him.of four thousand dollars.

The trial court adjudged upon the facts we have set forth, that the pretended sale by the pledgee was fraudulent and void; that Sewell is not required to make any redemption of the shares of stock; that plaintiff is not the owner of said stock; “that the said stock is owned by the defendant, J. M. Sewell”; that the officers of said corporation are not required to transfer said stock on the books to plaintiff or to issue her a new certificate of stock; and that plaintiff is not entitled to judgment against any of the defendants.

The effect of the judgment clearly is to deprive plaintiff of all rights, including those of a pledgee, in regard to the stock, and to make Sewell the absolute owner thereof, free of all claim on the part of plaintiff.

Plaintiff not having any notice at the time of the loan to Johnson that he had acquired the stock from Price under such circumstances as to make the transfer fraudulent and void as against Price’s creditors, it is admitted that she was entitled, as against Sewell and other creditors who had not acquired a prior lien, to hold the stock pledged to her as security for the loan, and, upon default in the payment of the note, to enforce her lien as pledgee against the same.

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Bluebook (online)
134 P. 324, 165 Cal. 731, 1913 Cal. LEXIS 476, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/cushing-v-building-assn-of-society-of-new-or-practical-psychology-cal-1913.