Dinger v. Market Street Trust Co.

7 Pa. D. & C.2d 674, 1956 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 254
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County
DecidedAugust 20, 1956
Docketno. 258
StatusPublished

This text of 7 Pa. D. & C.2d 674 (Dinger v. Market Street Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Dauphin County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dinger v. Market Street Trust Co., 7 Pa. D. & C.2d 674, 1956 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 254 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1956).

Opinion

Sohn, J.,

In this case we have a series of preliminary objections. On June 29, 1955, Howard R. Dinger filed his complaint against the Market Street Trust Company, original defendant. The suit concerns the payment of six checks, on which plaintiff alleges he had stopped payment. To this com[675]*675plaint the Market Street Trust Company, on August 18, 1955, filed preliminary objections, which contain a motion for a more specific statement and also a demurrer to the effect that the complaint does not aver a cause of action, in that it does not set forth either the fact or the amount of the loss resulting from the payment of the checks contrary to the stop payment orders allegedly delivered to defendant.

The same day, the trust company filed its complaint against the payee of the six checks, Harold Gross, as additional defendant, denying that it had ever received any stop payment orders, and averring in count 1 that if it was liable to Howard R. Dinger, the said Harold Gross is liable over to it. In count 2, the trust company avers that plaintiff has informed it that he had paid Gross back $250 of the $1,500, which represented the total of the six checks sued upon and, therefore, is subrogated to the rights of Howard R. Dinger, and demands judgment against Harold Gross to the extent of $250 and costs of suit. In count 3, the trust company avers that the loan of the $1,500 is based upon an illegal transaction for the reason that at the time of the loan, Dinger was a retail liquor licensee and that Gross was an officer, director, stockholder, agent and employe of H. & J. Gross, Inc., a licensed distributor of malt or brewed beverages. Wherefore, the trust company claims that Gross could not have enforced payment at law against Dinger, that it had no knowledge of the transaction between Dinger and Gross, that it is entitled to the rescission of the payments made by it and the restoration of the status quo, and that if it is liable to Dinger, Gross in turn is liable to it in the sum of $1,500 and costs of suit.

On September 2, 1955, additional defendant, Harold Gross, filed his preliminary objections to original defendant’s complaint. It contained a motion to strike [676]*676the allegation that thé loan was illegal on the grounds that those averments are scandalous and impertinent because they allege an unlawful act, which is irrelevant to defendant’s action and not available as a ground of recovery for original defendant against him. Under the provisions of Pa. R. C. P. 1017 (&) (2), he moves that said pleading be stricken. His preliminary objections also contain a demurrer to the effect that the complaint against him by original defendant does not aver a cause of action, in that there is no loss set forth resulting from the payment of the checks and no grounds available for recovery by defendant against additional defendant and, therefore, asks that the complaint of original defendant against him be dismissed.

The same day, September 2, 1955, additional defendant filed a counterclaim against plaintiff, Howard R. Dinger, alleging that the sum of $1,500 was due him from Dinger as the result of a loan made him for the purpose of enabling Dinger to purchase used cars, that the six checks were given in repayment of that loan, and that if he, additional defendant, is liable to Market Street Trust Company upon the cause of action set forth in the complaint against him as additional defendant, then Dinger is liable to Gross in the sum of $1,500 and costs of suit.

On September 21, 1955, Dinger filed preliminary objections to additional defendant’s counterclaim, which took the form of a motion to strike additional defendant’s counterclaim. The reasons given in support thereof are:

1. Defendant having filed preliminary objections to the third party complaint joining him as additional defendant cannot file a counterclaim against plaintiff until such preliminary objections have been disposed of.

2. Additional defendant has no right to file this counterclaim because it is not founded upon the trans[677]*677action, occurrence or series of transactions or occurrences out of which the original cause of action arose, as required by Pa. R. C. P. 2256(b).

On July 12, 1955, by agreement of counsel, the depositions of Howard R. Dinger, plaintiff, were taken, and filed on August 18,1955. In his depositions, plain-. tiff admits that the loan was made him for the purpose of buying the other one-half of a licensed liquor business, and that as a consideration he was to give Gross his beer business.

This suit, as originally brought between plaintiff and defendant, is based upon the alleged failure of- the trust company to honor the stop payment orders which defendant says were not given. The liability of defendant turns primarily on whether such stop payment orders were given as required by law. By its preliminary objection, defendant first asks for a more specific complaint giving it the detailed circumstances as to what person or persons, representing the trust company, were given the notices.

The complaint sets forth that on or about September 30, 1953, plaintiff executed and delivered to Harold Gross, additional defendant, six instruments in the form of checks on his account in defendant trust company, payable to the order of Harold Gross. Prior to their having been honored by defendant trust company, plaintiff avers that, “Sometime during the spring of 1954; and before July 21,1954; (the exact date being now unknown to Plaintiff) ”, he delivered a stop payment order to the bank covering the six checks. Plaintiff avers that on July 21, 1954, defendant bank paid five of the six checks and that the sixth check was paid on or about July 27, 1954, even though as to this sixth check a second stop payment order was delivered to the bank. Plaintiff sues for the amount of six instruments which total $1,500.

[678]*678Paragraph five of the complaint, which defendant asserts is not sufficiently specific, reads as follows:

“5. Sometime during the spring of 1954 and before July 21, 1954 (the exact date being now unknown to Plaintiff)' and while said instruments were still held by the said Harold Gross and unpaid by the bank, Plaintiff orally informed Defendant not to pay said instruments or charge them or any of them to his account if, as and when they were presented for payment. At the request of one of Defendant’s employees, Plaintiff thereupon executed and gave to Defendant a ‘stop payment order’ on a form provided for that purpose by Defendant. On the said form Plaintiff identified the instruments by payee and amount and directed Defendant not to charge them or any of them to his account since they were intended to be merely promissory notes. Plaintiff handed said stop payment order to Defendant’s bookkeeper who accepted the same on behalf of Defendant without any objection as to its form or sufficiency. Plaintiff was not furnished with a copy of said stop payment order.”

Defendant objects that the complaint is not sufficiently specific because it does not set forth the exact date when plaintiff gave it the original stop payment order, because it does not identify the employe to whom plaintiff gave the oral order, or the employe who told him to execute a written order, and because it does not name the bookkeeper to whom he delivered the written order. Under section 403(2) of the Uniform Commercial Code, adopted April 6, 1953, P. L. 3, 12A PS §4-403, we find the following provision:

“. . .

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Bluebook (online)
7 Pa. D. & C.2d 674, 1956 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 254, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dinger-v-market-street-trust-co-pactcompldauphi-1956.