First Security Trust Co. v. John H. Seely & Sons Co.

51 P.2d 1060, 87 Utah 525, 1935 Utah LEXIS 69
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 27, 1935
DocketNo. 5566.
StatusPublished

This text of 51 P.2d 1060 (First Security Trust Co. v. John H. Seely & Sons Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
First Security Trust Co. v. John H. Seely & Sons Co., 51 P.2d 1060, 87 Utah 525, 1935 Utah LEXIS 69 (Utah 1935).

Opinion

ELIAS HANSEN, Chief Justice.

*526 Plaintiff as trustee brought this suit in the district court of Sanpete county, Utah, to foreclose a mortgage in the form of a trust deed which was executed on November 1, 1928, •by the defendant as security for the payment of bonds in the aggregate sum of $100,000 par value. The bonds were made payable in annual installments up to and including November 1, 1938. There were 133 bonds, 66 of which were of the par value of $500, and 67 of the par value of $1,000 each. All of the bonds bore interest at 7 per cent per annum, interest payable semiannually. The trust deed covered lands and water rights situated in San-pete, Emery, and Utah counties. All of the bonds were secured equally by the trust deed. In the event the taxes were not paid on the property covered by the trust deed, or in the event the principal of a bond or the interest was not paid within sixty days after the due date, the trustee was authorized by the trust deed to declare all of the bonds, both principal and interest, immediately due and payable. No claim is made that the foreclosure suit under review was prematurely brought. The grounds relied upon by the defendant to defeat the foreclosure proceeding are, that the bonds originally issued were paid by the defendant and were not legally reissued by it, and that the alleged bondholders for whose benefit foreclosure proceedings is being prosecuted were not bona fide owners of the bonds claimed by them. A trial had to the court sitting without a jury resulted in findings of fact, conclusions of law, and a decree of foreclosure being made and entered in favor of plaintiff and against the defendant. This appeal is prosecuted by the defendant. By its assignments of error defendant attacks a number of the findings as not being supported by, and as being contrary to, a preponderance of the evidence. Defendant also claims that the conclusions of law are not supported by either the evidence or the findings, and that the evidence, findings of fact, and conclusions of law do not support the decree. The following facts are either admitted by the pleadings or established by the evidence without con *527 flict. The $100,000 par value of bonds were issued and the trust deed executed as security for the payment thereof by the defendant on or about November 1, 1923. The Bankers Trust Company was named as trustee in the trust deed. Later the plaintiff herein was substituted as trustee. Some time after the bonds were first issued the same were all paid and $27,500 par value thereof were, by the defendant, canceled and retired. The remaining $72,500 par value of the bonds were surrendered to the defendant but were not canceled or retired. On December 1, 1930, the defendant borrowed from the First National Bank of Ely, Nev., the sum of $4,000. As evidence of the money so borrowed, the defendant executed its note for that amount in favor of the bank. By its terms, the note was made payable on December 10, 1930. On January 16, 1931, defendant borrowed from the Ely bank an additional $2,000. A note payable January 1, 1931, was given for the amount so borrowed. The $4,000 note recited that “$72,500 par John H. Seely & Sons Co. Bonds” were deposited as collateral security. A similar provision was contained in the $2,000 note. On December 10, 1932, the Ely bank assigned both of the notes and the collateral security mentioned therein to the Continental National Bank & Trust Company of Salt Lake City, Utah, which latter bank was the owner and holder of such notes at the time this suit was begun and tried. At the time of trial, no payments had been made on either of the notes. Plaintiff claims that at the time the two notes were executed by the defendant to the First National Bank of Ely, Nev., the defendant hypothecated the $72,500 of its uncanceled bonds as security for the payment thereof. The defendant contends to the contrary. As to the facts that is the only controversy which divides the parties. Before taking up a review of the evidence touching that controversy, a few other facts concerning which there is no dispute should be mentioned. Of the $72,500 of defendant’s uncanceled bonds, one S. E. Jensen held at the time of trial $10,000 par value as security for a loan of $5,000 which Jensen made to the *528 defendant. The Kraft-Phoenix Cheese Corporation held $5,000 par value of such bonds as security for the payment of $3,356.79 owing to it by Albert Merrill, president of the defendant company. Mr. Merrill advanced to the defendant herein for its use and benefit the money evidenced by his note to the Kraft-Phoenix Cheese Corporation. The remainder, or $57,500 par value of defendant’s uncanceled bonds, were in the possession of and produced by the Continental National Bank & Trust Company at the time of the trial. Prior to the commencement of this suit, the Continental National Bank & Trust Company demanded that the plaintiff herein foreclose the trust deed. It is further made to appear that in May, 1932, the Continental National Bank & Trust Company brought an action in the district court of Salt Lake county to recover a judgment against the defendant upon promissory notes executed by the defendant. Upon affidavits made and filed and bond given, a writ of garnishment was issued and served upon the First National Bank of Ely, Nev. In due time that bank answered, stating that it held bonds of the defendant in the aggregate sum of $57,500 par value. In that action the Continental National Bank & Trust Company recovered a judgment against the defendant in the sum of $13,079.25 together with interest, costs, and attorney’s fee. Execution was issued on the judgment. $57,500 of defendant’s bonds were levied upon and sold at sheriff’s sale. The Continental National Bank & Trust Comapny bid in the bonds at such sale for the full amount of its judgment. In the present suit, however, the court below held that the sale of the bonds under the execution sale was null and void, and judgment entered accordingly. No appeah is taken from that part of the judgment, and therefore we need not further consider that phase of the case. The only question here presented for determination is whether or not the Continental National Bank & Trust Company, as assignee of the First National Bank of Ely, S. E. Jensen, and Kraft-Phoenix Cheese Corporation are entitled to have the property covered by the trust deed *529 foreclosed and the proceeds of the sale applied to the amount owing to them on the obligations which they claim are secured by bonds of the defendant. As heretofore indicated in this opinion, there is a conflict in the evidence as to whether or not the defendant hypothecated its bonds to secure the two notes for the total sum of $6,000 which the defendant executed and delivered to the First National Bank of Ely, Nev. Plaintiff’s evidence tends to show that printed forms of notes, such as the notes sued upon, were used by the bank only when collateral security was given for the payment thereof; that prior to the time the notes were executed the officers of defendant applied to the Continental National Bank & Trust Company for a loan, but that bank refused to make a further loan to the defendant because itwas then owing that bank $44,000' on notes that were unsecured; that defendant made arrangements for the loans in controversy with an officer of the Continental National Bank &

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Bluebook (online)
51 P.2d 1060, 87 Utah 525, 1935 Utah LEXIS 69, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/first-security-trust-co-v-john-h-seely-sons-co-utah-1935.