Equitable Trust Co. v. A. C. White Lumber Co.

41 F.2d 60, 1930 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2107
CourtDistrict Court, D. Idaho
DecidedMay 3, 1930
Docket1106
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 41 F.2d 60 (Equitable Trust Co. v. A. C. White Lumber Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Idaho primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Equitable Trust Co. v. A. C. White Lumber Co., 41 F.2d 60, 1930 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2107 (D. Idaho 1930).

Opinion

CAVANAH, District Judge.

The Equitable Trust Company, an Oregon corporation, and Earl C. Bronaugh, as trustee, on October 30, 1929, instituted this suit to foreclose a mortgage upon all of the property of the defendant A. C. White Lumber Company, an Idaho corporation, and on November 2, 1929, Lauritz S. Franck was appointed receiver. Thereafter, on December 9, 1929, upon petition of certain resident and foreign creditors having claims against the lumber company, and after the lumber company admitted their validity and consented to the appointment of a general receiver, the powers of the receiver were enlarged to a general receiver. Upon a report of the receiver, made on November 2, 1929, attention was called to the existence of certain warehouse certificates, executed by the Western Lumber Warehousing Company, covering lumber stored in the yard of tho lumber company at Dover, Idaho, securing a balance due on indebtedness evidenced by promissory notes of the lumber company, and authority was then requested and granted to permit the receiver to issue receiver’s certificates to pay the prior incumbranees against the lumber. There appeared then to be approximately $34,000 in notes of the lumber company outstanding, secured by warehouse receipts, and of which more than one-half were paid by the receiver ont of funds received from the receiver’s certificates, leaving a balance unpaid of $14,966.62. Some time in January, 1930, counsel for the lumber company protested to the receiver making any further payments on the balance of tho indebtedness secured by the warehouse certificates, on the ground that the transactions out of which the indebtedness evidenced by the notes arose are usurious, and the warehouse receipts hypothecated by the lumber company to secure the payment of the loans are invalid. After such protest, the receiver applied for an order of tho court, which was granted on January 25, 1930, directing him to deposit in the clerk’s office the balance of $14,966.62 and interest, pending the determination of the protest, and directing all creditors and parties claiming any interest therein to appear in court on February 10, 1930, and show cause why said sum so deposited should not be paid to the warehousing' company.

At the hearing on the order to show cause, the warehousing company and the Federal Securities Company filed their petitions, praying for an order requiring the clerk of the court to pay to them the said balance of $14,966.62, on the ground that the court did not have jurisdiction to appoint the general receiver, and that the warehouse receipts covering the fund involved are valid, and the holders thereof have a preferred lien upon the fund now in the custody of the clerk. Considerable testimony was taken, in which it appears that, after negotiations between the warehousing company and the defendant lumber company, a plan of financing the lumber operations of the lumber company was developed, in which the warehousing" company was granted permission to occupy a portion of tho lumber yard of the lumber company for the purpose of storage of finished lumber, owned by the lumber company. !No compensation was paid as rental by the warehousing company. The lumber company agreed to pay to the warehousing company for the lumber piled in its yard 15 cents per thousand feet per month for the first million feet of lumber so piled, and 7% cents per thousand feet per month on any stock of lumber in storage over one million feet, said compensation to be computed not only on lumber actually covered by warehouse receipts, but also all lumber piled in the yard. In addition to these charges, the lumber company paid to the warehousing company 6 per cent, per annum on the principal of each of the seven loans made, and one-half of 1 per cent, of tho loans every ninety days, and in addition thereto paid a monthly salary of $200 during a portion of said period, and thereafter a monthly salary of $150, for a *62 man kept at the yard, all o£ which payments aggregated $10,638.16 during the period in which the loans were made. There was a further sum paid by the lumber company of $438.75 as premium on a policy of life insurance issued on the life of E. R. MeCory, president and treasurer of the lumber company, in favor of the securities company as additional security for loans made by it. Based upon these facts, the receiver and intervening creditors contend that the loans and the entire transaction is tainted with usury, and that the warehouse receipts are invalid and insufficient to create a lien entitling the holder thereof to any rights as lien claimants on the lumber therein described in preference to unsecured creditors, in that the lenders of the funds receive as interest thereon a sum in excess of 10 per cent, per annum allowed under section 2552 of the Idaho Compiled Statutes.

Before considering the question as to the validity of the warehouse receipts, it becomes necessary to first ascertain whether or not the court has jurisdiction to determine the issue concerning the validity of the receipts, for both the securities company and the warehousing company challenge the jurisdiction ■of the court, upon the ground that the order of the court of December 9,1929, appointing Franck a general receiver, is invalid, because the appointment was made on petitions of simple contract creditors who had not reduced their claims to judgment, and therefore neither he nor intervening creditors have any right to appear and contest the title of the securities company or the warehousing company in the fund deposited. It will be observed from the record that petitions were filed by resident and nonresident creditors of the defendant, requesting the appointment of the general receiver, and the defendant lumber company not only admitted the validity of the mortgage indebtedness, but consented to the appointment of the receiver ■originally upon the bill to foreclose the mortgage, and also on December 6, 1929, to the appointment of the general receiver, and thereafter, when the order for the appointment of the general receiver was made, it ■again consented in writing to the entering of the same.

The general rule that a receiver cannot be appointed on a bill filed by an unsecured creditor who has not reduced his claim to judgment is inapplicable where the debtor answers and expressly consents to the appointment of the receiver, admits the indebtedness and its insolvency, and fails to object seasonably, and the objection by others under such circumstances to the jurisdiction of the court will be treated as waived. This principle applies with equal force to a creditor of a defendant corporation when brought in, for, if not, a most absurd result would ensue if, when a debtor corporation has submitted itself to the jurisdiction of the court, a creditor could come in, or, when brought in, might reopen the matter of jurisdiction over the debtor corporation. Here we have the securities company and the warehousing company, without objection, permitting the general receiver to go into possession of all of the property of the defendant, transact large business, dispose of the assets of the corporation, assume obligations, and pay to them more than one-half of their claims without intimation of lack of authority or any objection to the proceedings. Acting as such, they cannot now be heard to say that they did not have knowledge of the appointment of a general receiver, because the record shows that they did, as they had dealings with him for some time in regard to their claims and accepted payments thereon made by him until the protest was made to the receiver to discontinue doing so.

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Bluebook (online)
41 F.2d 60, 1930 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2107, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/equitable-trust-co-v-a-c-white-lumber-co-idd-1930.