First National Bank of Waterloo v. Exchange National Bank of Seneca Falls

179 A.D. 22, 164 N.Y.S. 1092, 1917 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5965
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMarch 7, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 179 A.D. 22 (First National Bank of Waterloo v. Exchange National Bank of Seneca Falls) 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
First National Bank of Waterloo v. Exchange National Bank of Seneca Falls, 179 A.D. 22, 164 N.Y.S. 1092, 1917 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5965 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1917).

Opinion

Clark, J.:

Plaintiff’s objection to the reading of the evidence of Leonard Storey, deceased, given upon a former trial, upon which objection decision was reserved, is overruled, with an exception to plaintiff. .

This action is brought to foreclose a lien claimed to be held by plaintiff on 461 shares of the capital stock of the Waterloo Wagon Company, Limitéd, and 253 shares of the capital stock of the First National Bank of Waterloo, all of which stocks are and have been since February 20,1899, in the possession of defendant Exchange National Bank of Seneca Falls.

The plaintiff’s lien, if it has any, exists by virtue of a written agreement made February 15, 1902, between the [24]*24First National Bank of Waterloo and Francis Bacon, by which Bacon, the then owner of said stocks, and which were in the actual possession of defendant Exchange National Bank as collateral security for the payment of any indebtedness owing to said bank by the Waterloo Wagon Company, Limited, or Francis Bacon, transferred to the First National Bank of Waterloo all of said stocks “ as a continuing collateral security for the payment to it of any indebtedness or liability of any kind, absolute or contingent, due or not due, now existing or that may hereafter exist, arise, accrue or be contracted on the part of himself or of the Waterloo Wagon Company, Limited, to said bank, * * * and said shares of stock upon their surrender by the Exchange National Bank shall be deposited with the said First National Bank of Waterloo.”

. The plaintiff brings this action to enforce its lien under that agreement for the purpose of collecting certain obligations which it has against Francis Bacon, the payment of which is claimed to have been secured by the pledge of these stocks.

Defendant Zartman, trustee in bankruptcy of Francis Bacon, contends that this action cannot be maintained for the reason, among others, that if the instrument above quoted is a chattel mortgage it is invalid, because of the conceded fact that it was never filed, and that if it is regarded as a pledge it is invalid, because the stocks were at the time the instrument was made, and ever since have been, in the possession of the Exchange National Bank of Seneca Falls, and were never delivered to the plaintiff in this action, and that there cannot be a pledge of these stocks without a delivery thereof.

I cannot agree with the learned trustee in bankruptcy in that regard. While it is true that under ordinary circumstances it is necessary to' have a delivery of the article sought to be pledged before a pledge is complete and effectual, still in a transaction like this, where stock certificates were the subject of the attempted pledge, and where they were in the possession of another party for a specific purpose as collateral security, and where no delivery of possession was at that time possible, the plain intent of the parties to have these stocks pledged for the purpose stated in the agreement between [25]*25plaintiff and Francis Bacon, dated February 15, 1902, should not be defeated.

These certificates represented stocks, but were not the stock themselves, and it being at that time impossible to deliver them because of their being held by the defendant Exchange National Bank, a valid pledge was made by the written transfer executed by the owner of the stocks to this plaintiff, February 15, 1902.

The intention of the parties should be carried out if that intention can be ascertained from the instrument which was executed by them. A careful reading of it leads to the conclusion that the parties intended that these stocks should be pledged to the plaintiff as a continuing collateral security for the payment to it of any indebtedness of any kind then existing, or that might thereafter exist on the part of the Waterloo Wagon Company, Limited, or Francis Bacon, to said bank, and it must, therefore, be held that the instrument of February 15, 1902, was a valid pledge, and not a chattel mortgage, the circumstances surrounding this case justifying the conclusion that it was also the intention of the parties that the temporary possession by the Exchange' National Bank of the stocks in question was also regarded as the possession of the plaintiff to whom the stocks were pledged by Bacon, February 15, 1902. (Wilson v. Little, 2 N. Y. 443; First National Bank of Waterloo v. Bacon, 113 App. Div. 612; Jones on Pledges [2d ed.], § 83; 31 Cyc. 791, n. 67.)

The obligations owing to plaintiff by Francis Bacon, and which it seeks to enforce under the security of the pledged stocks above referred to, are as follows:

First. A promissory note, executed by Francis Bacon, for $4,010, dated April 11, 1901, upon which no payments, either of principal or interest, have been made.

Second. Another note executed by Francis Bacon, for $497, dated February 4, 1902, and several times renewed, the last renewal being dated June 14, 1909, upon which there is claimed to be unpaid $200, with interest from June 14, 1909.

Third. Another promissory note executed by Francis Bacon, for $800, and several times renewed, the last renewal bearing date February 27, 1911, upon which there is now claimed to be unpaid $860.80, with interest from March 8, 1909, [26]*26less a credit of $203.30, with interest from August 30, 1908.

Fourth. Fifteen and a fraction of the corporate bonds of the Waterloo Organ Company, of $500 each, the payment of which was guaranteed by the bond of Francis Bacon and others, May 24, 1900, upon which organ company bonds there remains unpaid $7,893.56, with interest from September 21, 1900, less payments of $1,716.32, August 15, 1908, and $817.23, August 16, 1909.

The Waterloo Organ Company was adjudged a bankrupt July 2, 1902, and Francis Bacon was adjudged a bankrupt May 2, 1904, and the defendant George E. Zartman was appointed and is now acting trustee of the estate of said Francis Bacon.

By his answer the trustee disputes the validity of any of the obligations against Francis Bacon sought to be enforced by plaintiff in this litigation, alleging as to the $4,010 note that it was given with the agreement indorsed thereon that it was not to be paid until the maker was prepared ” to meet it, and that each of the other notes sought to be enforced has been paid, either in whole or in part, and that the guaranty bonds executed by Bacon and others did not include, and were not intended to include, these bonds of the Waterloo Organ Company, and these various claims will be considered in the order in which they have been referred to in the pleadings.

The $4,010 note executed by Francis Bacon to the First National Bank of Waterloo, April 11, 1901, contained on the back thereof the following statement signed by the cashier of plaintiff’s bank: “ This note is taken for note of [Waterloo] Water Company, dated Oct. 2, 1894, on which Francis Bacon is a guarantor, and with the understanding that the bank will not demand its payment until Mr. Bacon is prepared to meet it,” and defendant trustee urges that that note cannot be enforced, for the reason that it is established that never since the note was given has Francis Bacon been prepared ” to meet it.

The intention of the parties ought to control in a matter of this kind, and if the contention of the trustee in bankruptcy was upheld, it would mean that although that note was a perfectly valid one, and given for a sufficient consideration,

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179 A.D. 22, 164 N.Y.S. 1092, 1917 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 5965, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-national-bank-of-waterloo-v-exchange-national-bank-of-seneca-falls-nyappdiv-1917.