Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Bank of Plymouth

237 N.W. 234, 213 Iowa 1058
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedJune 20, 1931
DocketNo. 40884.
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 237 N.W. 234 (Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Bank of Plymouth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fidelity & Casualty Co. v. Bank of Plymouth, 237 N.W. 234, 213 Iowa 1058 (iowa 1931).

Opinion

Stevens, J.

It appears from the allegations of the petition, or otherwise in the pleadings, and these facts for the purpose of *1059 this case will be taken to.be true, that the appellee E. Valentine and F. G. Ehlers were partners carrying on a banking business at Plymouth under the name of Ehlers & Company; that on or about February 13, 1923, Ehlers was appointed administrator with will annexed of the estate of Mary Langshadl, deceased, and that as such administrator he gave a bond in the sum of $18,000 with appellant surety company as sureties. The bank became insolvent in 1925, at which time there was a balance due Ehlers, as administrator of said estate, of $11,690.24. Subsequent to the insolvency of the bank, Valentine, one of the partners therein, conveyed the S.E.J4 of Section 20, Township 96 north, Eange 19 west of the 5th P. M., Cerro Gordo County, Iowa, and Lot 2, Block 9, Paul Felt’s Plat, Mason City, Iowa, to appellee Gertrude B. Huntley, his daughter. In the meantime, judgment was obtained against appellant as surety on the bond for the amount due the Langshadl estate. At the time of the commencement of this action, the appellees Valentine and Huntley were nonresidents of the state of Iowa and residents of the state of California. Original notice of the commencement of the action was served upon them in California. Gertrude B. Huntley on April 14, 1930, appeared by counsel and filed answer. The original petition, which was later superseded by a substituted petition, alleged that Valentine on or about the year 1927 conveyed to his daughter Gertrude B. Huntley all of the real estate he owned in Iowa without adequate consideration and in fraud of the rights of creditors and particularly of this plaintiff ; that there is due the plaintiff from the defendants the sum above named with interest thereon at 6% from the date of the judgment against appellant. The only property, however, that was specifically described in the petition was the 160-acre tract in Cerro Gordo County above referred to.

The answer of the appellee Gertrude B. Huntley, so far as material to the present controversy, denied that the conveyance of the real estate in Cerro Gordo County was without consideration, but admitted the conveyance of the farm property to her. After the issues had been thus joined, a stipulation was entered into on her behalf to take her own and the depositions of other witnesses in California. It was disclosed by the testimony of appellee that her father had also conveyed to her the Mason City property previously described, and that she had sold and *1060 conveyed the same to one J. C. Williams for the consideration of $19,000. Thereafter, and on the 26th day of September, 1930, appellant, with the court’s permission, filed an amended and substituted petition, making Williams a party defendant thereto. Both Valentine and Gertrude B. Huntley appeared specially to the amended and substituted petition for the purpose of challenging the jurisdiction of the court to render a personal judgment against either of them. Resistance was filed to the special appearance upon the grounds that appellee Huntley was duly served with an original notice and had entered her appearance in the actions, and signed a stipulation to take depositions, which depositions have been taken and filed; that the issues tendered by the original action involved the same subject matter as the later pleading; and that such pleading is germane thereto. Upon submission thereof to the court, the special appearance was sustained. Appellant appeals from this ruling of the court only in so far as it affects Gertrude B. Huntley. The ruling of the court sustaining her special appearance presents the- only controversy now before us. The precise question is one of first impression in this state, and the industry and research of counsel have failed to bring to our attention any ease in which the same hits been passed upon by the court of any other jurisdiction.

For many years prior to the enactment of Chapter 162, Laws of the 34th G. A., which provided therefor, special appearances were not permitted in this state. It is not claimed that the appellee Huntley was in any way originally liable to appellant for the default of Ehlers as administrator of the Langshadl estate or as a partner in the insolvent bank. The original petition charged appellee with being the fraudulent grantee of the 160-acre tract in Cerro Gordo County, and prayed that a lien for the amount of the judgment rendered against appellant on the administrator’s bond be established and confirmed on said real estate; that the conveyance thereof by Valentine to appellee be held for naught; that the rights and interest of appellant in and to said premises be decreed to be senior and superior to any right or interest of appellee’s; and that the same be sold to satisfy appellant’s claim and the judgment against it.

Judgment was also prayed against the “defendants” in the sum of $11,690.24, with interest thereon at the rate of 6% from *1061 the 31st day of May, 1928. The defendants named in the petition were Bank of Plymouth, F. G. Ehlers & Company, Bankers, B. Valentine, F. G. Ehlers, and Gertrude B. Huntley. No personal judgment was asked against appellee in the original notice of the commencement of this action, but it was stated therein that “said conveyance was thus received by defendant Gertrude B. Huntley, who, by receiving such conveyance, became also indebted to plaintiff and to plaintiff’s predecessors in right in the amount of plaintiff’s claim, $11,690.24, with interest, costs and expenses. ’ ’

It is alleged in the amended and substituted petition, in addition to other formal and necessary allegations, that the said Gertrude B. Huntley, in furtherance of the plan and scheme of her father to defraud his creditors, received a conveyance of the Mason City property above described, with full knowledge of the fraudulent purpose of the grantor, and that she has conveyed the same to J. C. 'Williams, named in said amended and substituted petition as a defendant, for a consideration of $19,000, which she has received and wrongfully converts to her own use; that, at the time of such conveyance, appellant had an equitable lien on said Mason City property; and that appellee, who has received rents and profits therefrom, holds the proceeds thereof and of the said property sale as trustee for the creditors of her grantor. It prays that she be required as such trustee to account for said $19,000, and that she be ordered to pay the same to appellant so far as may be necessary to pay its claim, and that personal judgment be entered against her therefor. It is, as before stated, to this amended and substituted petition that appellee Gertrude. B. Huntley entered her special appearance for the purpose of challenging the jurisdiction of the court to require of her an accounting or to enter personal judgment for the amount, if any, found to be due.

Although it is contended by appellant that the allegations of the original petition are broad enough to include the Mason City property, it is, of course, admitted that the only property specifically described therein is the 160-acre tract. It is provided by Section 11573 of the Code that:

“The relief granted to the plaintiff, if there be no answer, can not exceed that which he has demanded in his petition. In any other case the court may grant him any relief consistent

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Bluebook (online)
237 N.W. 234, 213 Iowa 1058, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fidelity-casualty-co-v-bank-of-plymouth-iowa-1931.