First National Bank v. Hahn

198 S.W. 489, 197 Mo. App. 593, 1917 Mo. App. LEXIS 188
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 6, 1917
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 198 S.W. 489 (First National Bank v. Hahn) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First National Bank v. Hahn, 198 S.W. 489, 197 Mo. App. 593, 1917 Mo. App. LEXIS 188 (Mo. Ct. App. 1917).

Opinion

REYNOLDS, P. J.

This is an action instituted in the circuit court of the city of St. Louis, on May 15, 1913, by respondent against appellant, on a judgment rendered in its favor in the circuit court of Williamson county, Illinois, in a certain action on a note to which appellant was a party, and in which respondent here was plaintiff and the appellant Hahn, with others, was a defendant. Setting out'that the amount of the judgment rendered and recovered was $2676, plaintiff prays judgment for that amount with interest from the date of its rendition, that is to say, April 30, 1913. There was a judgment for the respondent for the amount claimed less $900, which it was admitted at the trial had been paid on the judgment on July 1, 1913.

The trial was before the court and a jury, and at the conlusion of the offering and introduction of evidence the court instructed the jury that they should find the issues for the plaintiff, respondent here, and assess its damages for the amount claimed, less $900, with interest at six per cent.

Defendant asked several instructions, which the court refused to give, but in the view we take of the case it is' not necessary to set them out, as they are founded on evidence which was excluded.

The errors assigned are to the action of the court in excluding certain testimony and in refusing to permit defendant, now appellant, to prove the matters set out in his offer of proof, tending to show the bad faith of plaintiff in disposing of the collateral after the judgment had been obtained in the circuit court of Williamson [596]*596county, Illinois, which, had faith, it is alleged, amounted to a conversion of the collateral and deprived appellant of the full credit on the judgment to which, but for such action he should and would have been entitled.

Error is also assigned to the giving of the instruction for plaintiff above referred to.

The amended answer upon which the case was tried, after a general denial, by way of defense, sets up that plaintiff, “subsequent to the rendition of the' judgment which is the basis of this action, received full payment of said judgment in the following manner, to-wit: The plaintiff held as security for the note which was the basis of the original cause of action first mortgage bonds of the Colp Coal Company in the aggregate sum of $6000 par value; that said bonds are and "for a long time have been worth far in excess of the amount of this claim; that subsequent to the rendition of this judgment, which is the basis of this action,'plaintiff sold said bonds to Hogan Williford and W. L. Dunston, co-partners; that said Williford and Dunston were.buying up the bonds of the Colp Coal Company for the purpose of reorganizing said property; that said parties and the plaintiff herein well knew that said bonds were worth far in excess of the amount of said judgment; that said parties, so knowing that said bonds were of such value, nevertheless the plaintiff herein sold said bonds to said Williford and Dunston for the sum of $900, and thereafter and subsequent to the obtaining of the judgment which is the basis of this action, said plaintiff also assigned its cause of action on said judgment to said Williford and Dunston, who are now the owners of all right, title and interest of plaintiff herein and to said judgment; that said sale was made at an entirely inadequate price, and was known both by the plaintiff herein and by said Williford and Dunston to be an entirely inadequate price, with the intention and for the purpose of obtaining a large judgment against this defendant for a balance on account of said judgment; that plaintiff in equity and good conscience has been fully repaid, and that said Williford and Dunston, assignees thereof, [597]*597have also been fully paid, having obtained and converted to their own use collateral as aforesaid which was in value largely in excess of said claim, wherefore in good conscience plaintiff or its assignees should not be permitted to. obtain further judgment against this defendant.

“Wherefore, having fully answered, defendant prays judgment. ’ ’

A general denial by way of reply was filed to this.

Plaintiff introduced a certified copy of the judgment of the circuit court of Williamson county, Illinois, duly authenticated as required by the Act of Congress, and it appearing that the judgment was by confession, also introduced section 8625, chapter 110, page 4982, being in volume 5, Illinois Statutes Annotated, which authorized judgments on confession.

Defendant offered to prove an assignment of the judgement from the First National Bank of Carterville to Burkhart and “Hickman, on May 28, 1913, which had been made after the institution of this action, in consideration of the sum of $2733.10 and undertook to inquire as to whether this sum had in fact been paid. The evidence of the assignment was sought to be introduced on the ground that, by the assignment, new parties were involved who had thereby become the real parties in interest and that the action should be in their names. That was properly excluded, the assignment, as it appeared, having been made after the institution of this action. It is the settled law of the State that a change of parties in interest after the institution of the suit, does not necessarily require that the action proceed in the names of the new parties. Nor was it at all material to show what the assignees had paid for the assignment. That was a matter of interest to the assignor and assignees alone and did not tend to prove payment of the judgment by the judgment debtor. The exclusion of this evidence was correct. We notice this in view of a possible retrial of the cause.

It is also suggested by learned counsel for appellant, in his argument before us, that this action, instituted in [598]*598our court on a judgment rendered by the Illinois court, should appear to be identical with thé Illinois judgment as to parties so that satisfaction of the Missouri judgment would enable defendant to have the Illinois judgment satisfied without producing extraneous evidence to prove the fact of satisfaction. In brief, it is claimed that the judgment was joint and not several and could not be sued on against one of several defendants.alone, the other parties defendant to it not being joined. It is true that our court, in Sheehan & Loler Transportation Co. v. Sims, 28 Mo. App. 64, held that a judgment, unlike voluntary contracts between parties, is not a severable obligation, but that an action on a judgment against several parties, if sued upon, must be brought against all of those parties. This, on the ground that whatever constitutes a good defense for one of the defendants operates for the benefit of the others because the obligation is joint. Afterwards, in McElroy v. Ford, 81 Mo. App. 500, our court, on the authority of State ex rel. Ozark County v. Tate, 109 Mo. 265, 18 S. W. 1088, and Neenan v. City of St. Joseph, 126 Mo. 89, 28 S. W. 963, held that a judgment based on the several liability of two or more defendants, as was this, was so far a joint and several obligation as to sustain an action on it against one defendant alone. Our court there also cited what are now sections 1734, 2769 and 2772 in support of this ruling, particularly section 2772, holding (McElroy v. Ford, supra, l. c. 507) that this section abolished the common law governing the liability of the obligors on purely joint contracts; that the judgment, which was against several parties, was a contract of record and fairly embraced within the terms of this section. We there referred to Sheehan & Loler Transportation Co. v.

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Bluebook (online)
198 S.W. 489, 197 Mo. App. 593, 1917 Mo. App. LEXIS 188, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-national-bank-v-hahn-moctapp-1917.