First National Bank v. Multnomah Lumber & Box Co.

268 P. 63, 125 Or. 598
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedJune 12, 1928
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 268 P. 63 (First National Bank v. Multnomah Lumber & Box Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court 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. Multnomah Lumber & Box Co., 268 P. 63, 125 Or. 598 (Or. 1928).

Opinion

COSHOW, J.

This case presents questions of fact nearly altogether. There is but little controversy or difference of opinion about the law involved. There are over 2,000 pages of typewritten testimony, 387 pages of abstract of record, a large dry-goods box filled with exhibits, and about 900 pages of printed briefs besides the printed testimony relied upon by plaintiffs and the typewritten testimony presented by appellants as proving their contentions.

This statement suffices to show that it is not practicable to analyze in an opinion the evidence and present in detail the reasons for finding the facts as we do. Such an opinion would require altogether too much space and would be of no benefit to the profession generally. We do not feel justified in taking either the time or the space to go into detail about the evidence, analyze the testimony and express all our reasons for reaching the conclusion as to the facts. Our efforts will be confined to a general statement of our findings on the questions presented by defendants Bell and H. B. & A. Logging Company, who are the appellants.

[617]*617First, was there a conspiracy between plaintiffs and defendants Douty and Multnomah Lumber & Box Company? "We think not. In considering this question it is necessary to have in mind the situation of the parties at the time Douty assumed charge and management of the affairs of the H. B. & A. Logging Company. At that time defendants Bell and H. B. & A. Logging Company were indebted to plaintiff in the sum of over $100,000. Plaintiff had already placed in charge of the affairs of the H. B. & A. Logging Company its own employee, Weiss. Defendant Bell had made a vigorous protest and, for the purpose of persuading plaintiff to rescind this action and permit Bell to continue the management of his own affairs and the affairs of his corporations, sent for his long-time friend and some-time business associate, defendant Douty. The latter, at the request of defendant Bell, interviewed vice-president Wyld, who refused to rescind the bank’s action of placing Weiss in charge of the affairs of the H. B. & A. Logging Company. During the interview, however, Wyld, in behalf of the bank, did agree to permit Douty to take charge of the affairs of that corporation instead of Weiss, providing that Douty would guarantee the payment of the notes owing by defendants Bell and H. B. & A. Logging Company. As a result of this conference the contract of May 20, 1920, hereinabove set out in full, was entered into.

On assuming charge of the affairs of the H. B. & A. Logging Company, defendant Douty executed his notes in favor of the First National Bank for the full amount of the indebtedness of defendants Bell and H. B. & A. Logging Company to that bank. Defendant Douty executed nineteen notes for $5,000 [618]*618each and an additional note for five thousand and some odd dollars. It would he extraordinary for one who was conspiring with another to overreach and deprive a third party of his property to become personally obligated , to pay the indebtedness of the third party to the other as defendant Douty did for Bell in favor of the First National Bank in this case. That conduct indicates almost anything rather than a conspiracy between plaintiff and defendant Douty against defendant Bell. Before the bank would rescind its action in placing Weiss in charge of defendant H. B. & A. Logging Company’s affairs and permit defendant Douty to have charge of its affairs, it required defendant Douty to become personally liable for the indebtedness of defendants Bell and H. B. & A. Logging Company to plaintiff. In addition to guaranteeing the payment of the notes of defendant Bell and his logging company, defendant Douty borrowed from said bank some $70,000 to enable him to operate said logging company, and in addition to that advanced through his company, Multnomah Lumber & Box Company, a large sum of money. Plaintiff might be accused of being harsh in its demands, both upon plaintiff Bell and his friend Douty, but there is no evidence in our opinion indicating a conspiracy between the plaintiff bank and Douty against defendant Bell.

The evidence relied upon by defendant Bell to establish the conspiracy, so far as it relates to the statements of plaintiff’s officers and defendant Douty, is denied unconditionally by them. They also deny any conspiracy between them. Defendant testifies constantly that his sole object in taking charge of the affairs of Bell was to help him, if possible, and that Ms only reason for undertaking that task was [619]*619Ms friendsMp for defendant Bell and the close intimate relation between his logging interests and' those of defendant Bell. The evidence indicates very clearly that np to the time tMs suit was instituted Douty had become a very heavy creditor of defendant Bell and may lose a very large sum of money. In consequence thereof, there is nothing in the record brought to our attention or which we have found which indicates that plaintiff was trying to do anything other than collect from defendant Bell and Ms logging company the amounts it and other companies represented by Bell owed the bank. There was a written agreement entered into by plaintiff as well as defendant Bell and his co-defendant logging company at the time Bell took over the Kalama company wherein the subscribing parties to that agreement agreed to postpone for two years any litigation instituted to collect from the Kalama company. The conduct of the bank in placing Weiss in charge of defendant Bell’s affairs may be, to a degree, a breach of the spirit of that agreement, but Douty in no way participated in that breach. The action of plaintiff bank in taking over the affars of defendant H. B. & A. Logging Company resulted from the audit made by plaintiff’s accountant. That audit revealed that defendant Bell, instead of making $500 per day out of his logging operations was actually losing. It also revealed that his property was rapidly depreciating and Ms timber rapidly disappearing. TMs accountant recommended to the bank that it take the action it did. We do not find any warrant in the pledge given the bank by the H. B. & A. Logging Company for this action on the part of the bank. It could, however, under its pledge, have sold all the capital stock of the H. B. & A. Logging Company [620]*620because its capital stock had been pledged to the bank by defendant Bell. Defendant Bell probably could have prevented the bank from taking over the management of the affairs of defendant H. B. & A. Logging Company, but he did not attempt to do that by litigation. It probably was inadvisable to do it at that time. But Bell, having acquiesced, or rather having procured a different arrangement voluntarily and entered into an agreement with defendant Douty, to which agreement plaintiff bank was not a party, he cannot now be heard to say that he was coerced or compelled to enter into such an arrangement by duress. He could have stood upon his legal rights and doubtless would have done so but for the fact that from his then viewpoint he would fare better by entering into the arrangement he did than to have his affairs in litigaton. Conceding, but not holding, that the bank was harsh in its method of collecting the amount due it from defendant H. B. & A. Logging Company, yet it was within its legal rights. Defendant Bell was no more laboring under legal duress than is any other debtor who is unable to meet his obligations when his creditor is unwilling to further postpone liquidation. We find that there was no conspiracy.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
268 P. 63, 125 Or. 598, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-national-bank-v-multnomah-lumber-box-co-or-1928.