First National Bank v. Myers

86 S.W.2d 181, 191 Ark. 382, 1935 Ark. LEXIS 285
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedOctober 7, 1935
Docket4-3975
StatusPublished

This text of 86 S.W.2d 181 (First National Bank v. Myers) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas 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. Myers, 86 S.W.2d 181, 191 Ark. 382, 1935 Ark. LEXIS 285 (Ark. 1935).

Opinion

Mehaffy, J.

On January 27, 1934, the appellees began this suit against the Jim Fork Coal Company, a corporation engaged in the business of mining coal in Sebastian County, Arkansas. Their cause of action was for labor performed in the mine of the mining company.

The law provides that any person or persons working in any mine of the State of Arkansas or in any quarries, either stone or marble, shall have a lien on the output of any such mine or quarries and the lien shall attach to all the machinery, tools and'implements. Section 7293, Crawford & Moses ■ Digest.

Thereafter an amendment was filed on February 1, 1934, making E. J. Darnell a party plaintiff.

On February 3, 1934, the Jim Fork Coal Company filed answer agreeing to the appointment of a receiver, although it claimed it was not insolvent. On February 3 a receiver was appointed, and on February 8, .1934, the receiver filed his report. - The receiver reported that the value of the development of said mine was $11,451; that the personal property was of the value of $36,307; the lease was not appraised; the indebtedness of the coal company at that time was $25,404.29. According to the receiver’s report, the value of. the mining, company’s property, in addition to the value of,the lease, was $22,-353.71 in excess of its indebtedness. -The receiver .stated in his report that the mine was developed to such a point that it might be easily operated with a profit, and.asked permission to issue receiver’s certificates for the sum of $1,000. .

On April 4, 1934, a motion to require a sale of the receivership property was filed, and it was stated that the mine had not been operated. On April 12 the receiver filed a response to the motion to require sale, alleging that he would not be able to operate the mine, and that the expense of maintaining the property was excessive, and it should be disposed of at -the earliest opportunity; that-he ' attempted to sell or lease the property and had been unable to do so; that there were two outstanding mortgages on the property past due; that, in order to dispose of the property, it was necessary that the First- National Bank and others be made parties. .

On March 14, 1934, the receiver reported that it appeared impossible.to operate the mine; that it was costing about $40 a day to preserve the property, and that the receiver had contracted an indebtedness of approximately $1,465 for labor, repairs and power.

Interventions were filed by numerous parties, among others the Southwestern Gras & Electric Company. It claimed that the mining company owed it $4,686.18 for electric energies uséd prior to the receivership.

On April 23, 1934, the appellant filed, an intervention alleging that the mining company was indebted to it, the indebtedness being evidenced by a note and mortgage dated September 14, 1929 ; that the original indebtedness was $2,500 but that $1,000 had been paid, leaving an indebtedness of $1,500 and interest. The note was due June 1, 1933, and-bore interest at the rate of 10 per cent, per annum from maturity until paid. The intervener, First National Bank, prayed that, if a sale of the property was made, all the properties embraced in its mortgage be segregated and sold separately and the proceeds of the sale held by the court in trust for the mortgagee and that funds derived from such sale be applied on its mortgage debt of $1,500 and interest.

There were two efforts made to sell the property at public sale, and thereafter an order was made to sell at private sale, and the property was sold at private sale, and the property included in the mortgage to the First National Bank was sold for the sum of $1,566.40. The entire property sold for $2,292.35.

We deem it unnecessary to set out the interventions of the different parties, because the only question involved on this appeal is whether the expenses of the receiver constitute a lien superior to the mortgage lien of the First National Bank.

The regular chancellor certified his disqualification, and the Honorable Gí-eorge W. Dodd was elected special chancellor to try the case.

The first error alleged as ground for reversal is that, after the decree was rendered, the term of court ended and another term begun before the decree on May 12, and that the chancellor was without power to change his former decree. There is no merit in this contention. The first decree simply held that the bank, the mortgagee, had a lien on all the property included in its mortgage- that was superior to the lien of all persons interested in the suit: The persons interested at that time were the laborers and other creditors, and the court found that the bank’s lien was superior to their lien, and the chancellor reserved the question now before the court.

The other question presented for our consideration is whether the bank’s lien is superior to the lien for rer ceivership expenses. It is argued by the appellee that these expenses were necessarily incurred to protect the property of the mining company; that the bank, through its officers, knew all about it; that the receiver was cashier of the bank, and that John Conroy was a stockholder and director in the bank; that they acquiesced in the proceedings, hoping that it would be beneficial to them. Conroy was superintendent and manager of the Jim Fork Coal Company, and was acting for the coal company, and not for the bank.

A bank is not bound by the acts, of its cashier which are not within the apparent authority of the cashier, and which it has neither, authorized nor ratified. The acts of the cashier in accepting the receivership of the mining company was not within the apparent authority, and this record does not show that the bank either authorized or ratified these acts of the cashier. 7 C. J. 551.

* Whatever the cashier did with reference to the mining company was in no way connected with the bank, but was a matter in which he was personally interested:' 7 C. J. 552.

In discussing the authority of the cashier of a bank, the Missouri court said: “The law will not permit an agent’s private interests to come between himself and his principal. Its actual presence always disables the agent from binding his principal.” Lee v. Smith, 84 Mo. 304, 54 Am. Rep. 101.

“A corporation is not chargeable with the knowledge nor bound by the acts of one of its officers in a matter in which he acts' in behalf of his own interests and deals with the corporation as a private individual and in no way represents .it in the transaction.” Buffalo County Nat. Bank v. Sharpe, 40 Neb. 123, 58 N. W. 734.

In 7 C. J. 557, is the following statement: “This rule is founded on the familiar rule of the law of agency which forbids that an agent shall act for himself and for his principal in one and • the same transaction. It is founded on sound consideration of public policy and the recognized inability of any person to faithfully serve two masters at the same time. Consequently, when the cashier issued these drafts, he did so without authority, and his conduct is to be viewed in no more favorable light than that of any other person who, without authority, appropriates the property of another to his own use.”

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Bluebook (online)
86 S.W.2d 181, 191 Ark. 382, 1935 Ark. LEXIS 285, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-national-bank-v-myers-ark-1935.