First Nat. Bank of Blanchard v. Richburg

1919 OK 91, 181 P. 145, 75 Okla. 1, 1919 Okla. LEXIS 1
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedMarch 25, 1919
Docket8062
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 1919 OK 91 (First Nat. Bank of Blanchard v. Richburg) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First Nat. Bank of Blanchard v. Richburg, 1919 OK 91, 181 P. 145, 75 Okla. 1, 1919 Okla. LEXIS 1 (Okla. 1919).

Opinion

HARRISON, J.

This appeal comes from the county court of McClain county. It was an action by J. W. Richburg, as trustee. for the Blanchard Grocery Company of Blanchard, Okla., assignor, against the First National Bank of Blanchard, Okla.

The facts are that said firm- on October 28, 1908, being in failing circumstances, transferred its entire stock of groceries, notes, accounts, etc., to H. G. Cook, in trust for its creditors. Cook at the time was indorser of the grocery firm’s nqte to the First National Bank of Blanchard for $400. In December, 1908, the defendant in error, J. W. Richburg, then representing the Williamson-Halsell-Fraser Grocery Company, a creditor of said grocery firm, induced said firm to make an assignment, which it did, naming Rich-burg as trustee. One condition in the written assignment, which condition appears to have been agreeable to all creditors, was that the balance of $298 due the First National Bank of Blanchard be a preferred claim, and be paid as such, which condition was also agreeable to Cook, the indorser of the note.

Another condition was that Richburg, the trustee, should take charge of the business, replenish the stock, and pay dividends to creditors with money collected, and that the money be kept on deposit with the First National Bank, and dividends to creditors be paid through said bank.

Upon such conditions Richburg took charge of the stock of goods, proceeded to sell same *2 out in the course of ordinary retail trade, and to replenish the stock from time to time, and to keep the money on deposit in said First National Bank, and to pay bills and dividends through said bank, and, pursuant to the condition in the instrument of assignment, paid the balance of $298 due on the $400 note, on which Cook was indorser. The bank accepted such payments, and applied them to the satisfaction of said note. Bichburg, as trustee, continued thereafter to deposit such amounts as he collected from said grocery business with the said First National Bank of Blanchard.

On January 28, 1909, said bank, without any notice to Bichburg, the trustee, charged the trustee’s account with the sum of $292.15, an amount which the bank claimed was due it from the grocery company for overdraft. Bichburg, the trustee, having no knowledge of such charge against his trustee account, thereafter drew a check, as he had authority to do under the conditions of said instrument of assignment, against his trustee’s account in said bank, payment of which check was refused by said bank, and the check went to protest, the protest fees amounting to $1.38. The trustee objected to the bank’s refusal to pay his check, and to the bank’s applying his trust funds to the payment of said overdraft, and demanded of the bank that the amount applied in payment of said overdraft be paid back to him as trustee; and, upon refusal of the bank to pay back to him the amount applied on said overdraft, Bichburg, as trustee for all creditors, brought this suit to recover the amount applied by the bank on the overdraft and the additional sum of $1.38 protest fees charged on the trustee’s check, which the bank had refused to pay.

The bank answered the plaintiff’s petition, claiming that it had the right to charge the trustee’s account with the amount of said overdraft on the ground that one of the conditions upon which it, as one of the creditors of the Blanchard Grocery Company, had given its consent to the assignment, and agreed to the execution of the instrument of assignment, was that the overdraft be treated as a preferred claim. The decisive issue, therefore, was whether such overdraft be treated as a preferred claim; the bank claimed that said claim was to be so treated; the trustee denied this, and claimed that he had heard nothing about the overdraft, except that it was to be taken care of, and that there was no condition in the trust deed that such overdraft should be a preferred claim; that the only preferred claim mentioned in the instrument of assignment or trust deed was that the balance of $298 due on the $400 should be a preferred claim. The trust deed, contains the following conditions, to wit:

“It is further agreed between the parties hereto that the claim of the First National Bank of Blanchard, Oklahoma, for the sum of,$298.00, balance due on the note of $400.00, which is indorsed by H. G. Cook of Norman, Oklahoma, is a preferred claim against said stock of merchandise, and the same is to be first paid out of the proceeds of the sale of said stock as .provided herein.”

This is the only provision in the instrument which in any manner refers to the preferred claim. The instrument itself, as appears from the record, was executed and became effective subsequent to all oral agreements and conversations in regard to what its provisions should contain.

It appears, farther, that said instrument of assignment was acknowledged before W. H. Alkire as notary public, who was also vice president and bookkeeper for said First National Bank. It appears further that said First National Bank acquiesced in and assented to such assignment to the extent that it kept on deposit the trust funds and paid the trustee’s checks issued in payment of bills in the course of business and accepted without objection the trustee’s checks in payment of the balance due on said $400 note, and applied same on the payment of said balance as a preferred claim, thereby availing itself of all conditions in the assignment favorable to itself. It appears also that one of 'said checks, for $125, was issued on November 27, 1908, and the last one, for $174, issued January 9, 1909, both being applied by said bank in payment of the preferred claim mentioned in the instrument of assignment, without any protest or objection on the part of said bank, and without any mention to Bichburg, the trustee, as to the overdraft being understood to be a preferred claim. It further appears that, after the execution and delivery of the instrument of assignment, no mention was ever made to Bichburg as to the- overdraft being a preferred claim until after the bank, without authority of the trustee, had applied trust funds on deposit with the bank to the payment of said overdraft, and that the trustee never knew of said transaction until his check against the trustee’s account was turned down and allowed to go to protest by said bank.

The court heard testimony on the question as to whether the bank gave its consent to the assignment upon condition that the overdraft be a preferred claim. The cashier of the bank and the vice president of the bank testified that the bank gave its consent upon *3 the express condition that the overdraft be paid as a preferred claim. Richburg, the trustee, denied this, and the court, after hearing the testimony on this point, decided that .

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Bluebook (online)
1919 OK 91, 181 P. 145, 75 Okla. 1, 1919 Okla. LEXIS 1, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-nat-bank-of-blanchard-v-richburg-okla-1919.