Gilmer v. Billings

55 F. 775, 1890 U.S. App. LEXIS 1946

This text of 55 F. 775 (Gilmer v. Billings) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Middle Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gilmer v. Billings, 55 F. 775, 1890 U.S. App. LEXIS 1946 (circtmdal 1890).

Opinion

BRITGE, District Judge.

The opinion pronounced on a former hearing of a cause involving the matter now in dispute contains all I care to say upon this submission, and that opinion, as shown below, and altered to suit the occasion, is adopted.. The fair conclusion from the evidence in this cause is that on March 30, 1875, Josiah Morris agreed with F. M. Gilmer, who was at that time [776]*776acting for his son, J. IT. Gilmer, the complainant, that the stock which is the subject-matter of this suit, to wit, 60 shares of the capital stock of the Elyton Land Company, should be held by him, (Mor ris,) or by his banking firm of Josiah Morris & Co., as collateral security for the payment of an interest account of about $500, and for about $230 which Morris about that time paid in discharge of an execution which had been levied upon the stock, which at that time stood in the name of J. IT,. Gilmer upon the books of the company. The execution was in favor of one Farley, a creditor of the firm of Gilmer, Browder & Co., of which firm J. IT. Gilmer was a member, and, when paid, the stock was transferred by J. IT. Gilmer to Josiah Morris on the books of the company. The certificate of stock was at that time in the possession of Josiah Morris, and had been in his possession since its issue in 1871, when it was pledged for the payment of the purchase money of the stock, which, some time thereafter, was paid by the sale of one half the original 120 shares, which left 60 shares of the stock in pledge for a balance of interest on the original cost of about $500 due from complainant to Josiah Morris. It also appears from the evidence, as a fair conclusion therefrom, that the stock in question was not only to be held by Morris as a collateral security for the payment’of the indebtedness which J. IT. Gilmer then actually owed Morris and his firm of Josiah Morris & Co., but the stock was to be a basis of credit for future liabilities. In the language of F. M. Gilmer, at page 10 of his deposition in the former suit in this court, he (meaning Morris) “was to hold the stock for that advance,” (meaning the amount paid to settle the execution which had been levied upon the stock,) and “for all future liabilities of the said' J. IT. Gilmer.” At the time mentioned — March, 1875 — there was in existence the firm of Gilmer & Donaldson. Donaldson died in the year 1876, and that firm was succeeded by the firm of J. IT. Gilmer & Co., and the latter by the firm of Gilmer & Clanton, and the last by Gilmer & Merritt. J. IT. Gilmer was a member of all these firms, all of which did business in Montgomery, Ala., and had bank accounts with the house of Josiah Morris & Co.

It does not very clearly appear from the evidence the precise period of time that these firms did business with Morris & Co., but that they all did business with and had accounts with Morris & Co., in the order named, is not questioned, and the last firm, of Gilmer & Merritt, seems to have carried their business into the year 1884, when a contention arose about a draft of $100 drawn by Gilmer & Merritt, which Morris & Co. refused to pay. The evidence shows that F. M. Gilmer, on and after the 30th day of March, 1875, did make arrangements with Josiah Morris & Co. for advances and credit to his son, J. IT. Gilmer, and some of the firms with which he subsequently became connected. The testimony is not clear as to the time -when these arrangements were made, or when tiie last time was that the stock in question was alluded to between the parties as a security and basis of credit, but F. M. Gilmer says, on page 19 of his deposition: “These interviews and conversations extended down to the time that Clanton became a [777]*777partner in tlie business, and, indeed, I think, during Clanton’s partnership: but after Merritt became a partner I never adverted to that stock as a security;” and to the question, “Why?” he answers, “Because Merritt was a very responsible man.” While the testimony of the testator, Josiah Morris, is not entirely consistent with these conclusions, or with the testimony of F. M. Gilmer and J. FT. Gilmer, whose testimony is in substantial accord, and does not seem to be strained or improbable, it is not on all points clear, and, taken in connection with the admissions of the answer, it may be said to establish tlie contention of the complainant that there was, in 1875 and afterwards, a pledge of the stock for other debts than the original cost, and as a security for such future debts as might be contracted by complainant and Ms firms. He admits, as does the answer, that the amount paid in March, .1875, to satisfy the Farley execution against complainant, and to save the stock from sale, was charged , to complainant’s firm of Gilmer & Donaldson, presumably with their knowledge and consent. He further states that he regarded F. M. Gilmer as a member and manager of complainant’s firms, and that his (Morris’) understanding was that the stock was not to be delivered until all his debts against all the Gilmer firms were paid, closing with the statement: “There never was a time, you may say, up to 1881, — possibly 1882, — that I would not have delivered the stock upon the payment of the several firms’ indebtedness to me.’7' The answer of the executors insists and claims that in no event could complainant claim the stock until he “liad paid defendants’ testator all sums which he or they might owe defendants’ testator or his said firm of Josiah Morris & Co.; and defendants aver that on the 30th of March, 1875, said complainant was indebted to their testator, and to the firm of Josiah Morris & Co., in a large sum, which indebtedness complainant was bound in equity and good conscience to pay before demanding from, defendants’ testator a conveyance of said stock;” and in the next paragraph it is stated that complainant’s indebtedness, through In's firm of Gilmer & Donaldson, had not been paid at the date "of the filing of the answer. It is clear that this claim involves an unqualified admission of the averment of the bill that the stock in question was pledged in 1875, and afterwards, for the debts of complainant’s firms. Without quoting further from the testimony or referring to other admissions in the answer, it seems that they establish, without the aid of the Gilmer testimony, that the stock stood as collateral security for debts due, and to be created and to become due, after the 30th day of March, 1875.

, We have, then, not merely the existence of a pledge, but we have the nature and character of die pledge, for it was not simply the pledge of stock to secure the payment of a debt or a specified amount maturing at a definite time in Hie future, but it war, in the nature of a continuing pledge or security; and, so long as such relation and understanding existed between Hie parlies in reference to the pledge, it must be admitted that the pledgee (Morris, in this case) was holding in virtue of the iiOe and right of the pledgor, Gilmer, and could not be considered as holding adversely to such [778]*778title and right, for there is perhaps no principle of law better settled than that possession, to give title, must be “adversary.” Kirk v. Smith, 9 Wheat. 288; Maury v. Mason, 8 Port. (Ala.) 222, 223; Tyler, Ej. 860, 861, 876, 877.

Whatever the difficulty may be, from the evidence, to fix the time or times after the 30th of March, 1875, when P. M. Gilmer negotiated with Morris for advances of money and credit to J. N. Gilmer or the firms with which he became connected, upon the faith of this stock as collateral security, it is certainly clear that Morris &

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Bluebook (online)
55 F. 775, 1890 U.S. App. LEXIS 1946, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gilmer-v-billings-circtmdal-1890.