Dougan v. Evansville & Terre Haute Railroad

15 A.D. 483, 44 N.Y.S. 503
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMarch 15, 1897
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 15 A.D. 483 (Dougan v. Evansville & Terre Haute Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dougan v. Evansville & Terre Haute Railroad, 15 A.D. 483, 44 N.Y.S. 503 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1897).

Opinion

Ingraham, J.;

The complaint alleges two causes of action, the first, to recover the amount due upon certain bonds of the Evansville and Richmond Railroad Company, designated as first mortgage bonds on western division, Elnora to Columbus; and the second, to recover the amount due upon certain bonds of the said corporation designated as first general mortgage bonds. The liability of the defendant is based upon what is designated in the complaint as a written or printed guaranty, which, it is alleged, was placed upon each of the bonds mentioned, the form of the guaranty upon the bonds described in the first cause of action being, The Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad Company, for a valuable consideration, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, hereby guarantees the payment of the principal and interest mentioned in the within bond according to the tenor and effect thereof; ” and that placed upon each of the bonds described in the second cause of action being, “ For a valuable consideration, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, the Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad Company hereby guarantees to the holder of the within bond the punctual payment of the principal and interest thereof, when and as the same shall become due and payable.” The defendant demurs to the first cause of action as if it alleged two separate causes of action, and also to the first and second causes of [487]*487action upon the ground that in neither are stated facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. As to the first ground of demurrer, it is sufficient for us to say that the facts alleged in the first cause of action constitute but one cause of action, viz., to recover the amount claimed to be due to the plaintiff from the defendant upon the contract of the defendant. Whether, upon the facts alleged and proved upon the trial, the plaintiff will be entitled to a judgment for the principal of the bonds, or for the interest due at the time of the commencement of the action, is to be determined from a construction of the instrument of guaranty, and of the instruments, the payment of which was guaranteed; but whatever is due to the plaintiff is due because of the defendant’s contract, and it is to recover the amount due upon that contract of guaranty that this action is brought.

The real question presented is whether the facts alleged as constituting this first cause of action set forth a cause of action in favor of the plaintiff as against this defendant. The facts are alleged as follows: That about the 1st day of September, 1888, the Evansville and Eichmond Eailroad Company, a corporation organized and existing under the laws of the State of Indiana, executed fifteen bonds of the denomination of $1,000 each, under the seal of the corporation, signed by the president, and attested by the secretary; that in and by each of said bonds the said railroad company acknowledged itself indebted unto the Manhattan Trust Company, or the bearer thereof, in the sum of $1,000, which sum the said railroad company promised to pay to the bearer on the 1st day of September, 1928, in the city of New York, with interest thereon from the 1st day of September, 1888, payable semi-annually on the first days of March and September in each year on the presentation and surrender of the coupons annexed to the bonds; that in and by each of said bonds it was provided that, in case of default in the payment of the jirincipal and interest, in accordance with the tenor of said bonds, the said principal and interest might become collectible in the manner, to the extent and with the effect specified and set forth in a deed of trust or mortgage recited in said bond; ” and that upon each of said bonds were interest coupons for the interest thereon, maturing severally upon each first day of March and each first day of September, from the year 1889, to the date of the [488]*488maturity of the said bond, which said several coupons were in general form as therein alleged.

That the defendant, the Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad Company, being the sole owner of the entire capital stock of the said Evansville and Richmond Railroad Company, whose railroad was a part of the general system of the Evansville and Terre Haute Railroad Company (the defendant), and the said defendant, having also advanced the money to build the railroad of the said Evansville and Richmond Railroad Company, with the intent to reimburse itself for its outlays as aforesaid, from the proceeds of the sale of said bonds, and with the intent to give the said Evansville and Richmond Railroad Company credit with the purchaser and holder of said bonds, by the hands of its, the defendant’s, president, duly and lawfully subscribed and executed upon each of said bonds the contract of guaranty therein set forth; that thereafter, and prior to March 1, 1894, for value received and appropriated as aforesaid by the defendant, the said bonds, certified by the trustee and bearing the contract of guaranty as aforesaid, and with the interest coupons annexed thereto, were, in the ordinary course of business, duly delivered to the several purchasers thereof; and that subsequently fifteen of said bonds were purchased by and delivered to the plaintiff with the contract of guaranty of the defendant thereon, and with the interest coupons attached thereto. That the deed of trust or mortgage recited in each of said bonds provided that in case default should be made in the payment of the semi-annual installments of interest of any of the said bonds, according to the tenor of the said bonds and the coupons accompanying the same, and in case any such default should continue for a period of six months after demand by the said trustees, the principal of the bonds secured by the said mortgage, and the said accrued interest should, at the election of the said trustees, “ become immediately collectible from and out of the said mortgaged premises, anything in the said bonds or in said deed of trust to the contrary notwithstanding.” That the interest which became payable on the 1st day of March, 1894, was not paid, and that default was also made in the payment of the interest subsequently accruing on said bonds, and that a demand in writing was duly made by the trustees for the payment of the said interest at the maturity of the interest coupons maturing March 1, [489]*4891894, and payment thereof refused, and that such default has continued for a period of six months after such demand, and still continues, and that the said trustees have duly elected, at the written request of the plaintiff, that the principal and accrued interest of each of the said bonds, and of all of the bonds secured by the said mortgage, “ should be and the same has become immediately due and collectible, and notice of such election was duly given by the said trustees to the said Evansville and Richmond Railroad Company, and demand was duly made upon the said Evansville and Richmond Railroad Company by the said trustees for the payment of the whole debt,” and that the said company has wholly neglected and refused to pay any part whatsoever of such principal or accrued interest.

It is apparent that upon this cause of action two questions are presented : First, as to the right to recover the interest upon the bonds accruing prior to the commencement of the action as represented by the several coupons remaining unpaid; and, second, as to the right to recover the principal of the bonds which by their terms did not become due until 1928.

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Bluebook (online)
15 A.D. 483, 44 N.Y.S. 503, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dougan-v-evansville-terre-haute-railroad-nyappdiv-1897.