Gregory v. Merchants State Bank

135 S.W.2d 465, 23 Tenn. App. 567, 1939 Tenn. App. LEXIS 63
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedAugust 12, 1939
StatusPublished
Cited by7 cases

This text of 135 S.W.2d 465 (Gregory v. Merchants State Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gregory v. Merchants State Bank, 135 S.W.2d 465, 23 Tenn. App. 567, 1939 Tenn. App. LEXIS 63 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1939).

Opinion

FAW, P. J.

Two suits brought in the Chancery Court of Rutherford County were consolidated and heard together in that Court, and the Chancellor’s decree is here for review on two special or limited appeals.

The bill in one of the cases (Rule No. 245) was filed by Mrs;. Ida L. Gregory, a resident of Rutherford County, Tennessee, and W. 0. Gregory, a resident of Bibb Comity, Georgia, as complainants', against Merchants State Bank, a banking corporation organized under the laws of Tennessee, with its situs and principal place of business at Humboldt, in Gibson County, Tennessee, and A. R. Dodson, a resident of Gibson County, Tennessee, as defendants.

The bill in the other of the two cases (Rule No. 246) was filed by *570 Mrs. Ida L. Gregory and J. D. Gregory, residents of Rutherford County, Tennessee, as complainants, against the same defendants as in No. 245, supra.

The name of A. R. Dodson as a defendant does not appear in the caption of the bill in case No. 246, but it is apparent from the allegations and prayer of the bill that it was intended to make him a defendant, and he was so treated by the Court and counsel throughout the litigation below, and the omission of his name from the caption will be treated as a mere clerical error.

On final hearing, the relief sought by the complainants was in part denied and in part granted by the Chancellor. The complainants Ida L. Gregory, W. 0. Gregory and J. D. Gregory appealed from that part of the decree adverse to them, and defendant A. R. Dodson appealed from that part of the decree adverse to him hence, we will designate the parties as complainants and defendants, respectively, as they appeared on the record below, or by their respective names.

It is alleged in the complainants’ bill in case No. 245, and is admitted by the defendants, that, on April 2, 1934, the Merchants State Bank (defendant herein) sued Mrs. Ida L. Gregory and W. 0. Gregory (complainants herein) in the Circuit Court of Rutherford County, Tennessee, to obtain judgment for the amount of a note for $1,469, with interest and attorney’s fees, which note was dated June 21, 1930, payable to said Bank twelve months after its date, and purports to have been signed by said Ida L. Gregory and W. 0. Gregory as makers thereof.

It is alleged in the complainants’ bill in case No. 246, and admitted by the defendants, that, on April 2, 1934, the said Merchants State Bank sued Mrs. Ida L. Gregory and J. D. Gregory in the Circuit Court of Rutherford County, Tennessee, to obtain judgment for the amount of two notes, with interest and attorney’s fees, which notes purport to have been signed by said Ida L. Gergory and J. D. Gregory as makers, and were payable to said Merchants State Bank twelve months after their dates, respectively. One of said two notes was for $1,180, and was dated September 6, 1930, and the other of said two notes was for $236 and was dated June 6, 1931.

It was further alleged and admitted that the aforesaid actions at law were “pending undisposed of in the Circuit Court at Murfrees-boro” (in Rutherford County) at the time the two bills in these consolidated eases were filed (which was February 20, 1935).

It was further alleged in each of the two bills that the aforesaid notes purport to be renewal notes, and that the original notes, of which the notes sued on in the Circuit Court as aforesaid purport to be renewals, were “fraudulently obtained several years ago by the Bank’s President and/or Cashier, A. R. Dodson” and that, consequently, said renewal notes are fraudulent and should be cancelled.

Each of the bills contains detailed allegations upon which the *571 complainants in eaeb case seek to predicate the claim that said notes were obtained by fraud, and are, therefore, not binding obligations upon them, or either of them.

Aside from the descriptions of the notes on which the aforesaid suits had been brought in the Circuit Court of Rutherford County, the bills in the two consolidated cases contained the same allegations; and, upon these allegations, the complainants seek, in addition to an injunction against the further prosecution of said actions at law, an accounting by defendant Dodson of his administration, for more than thirty years, of a trust for the benefit of complainant Ida L. Gregory and her children, and a judgment against defendant Dodson and defendant Bank for trust funds aggregating many thousands of dollars which, complainants alleged, defendant Dodson had, after depositing same in defendant Bank, diverted from the purposes of the trust and appropriated to his own use and benefit, with the knowledge of the Bank, which Bank he (defendant Dodson) “managed, controlled, directed and operated many years, at- will, ’ as the chief officer thereof.

The prayers of the two bills in the consolidated causes are substantially identical, and are as follows:

“1st: That process issue to Gibson County, Tennessee, to compel defendants to come into this Court and answer this bill, but their answers on oath are hereby waived.

“2nd: That a writ of injunction issue, by order of your Honor, restraining and prohibiting the defendants and their attorneys and agents from further prosecuting said suit against complainants on said note in the Circuit Court of Rutherford County, Tennessee, and from prosecuting any similar suit in any other court, and that at a hearing said injunction be made perpetual and said note cancelled.

‘13rd: That the defendants be required to set out and show in their answers to this bill the amounts deposited in defendant Bank by the said A. R. Dodson to his own account as trustee for Ida L. Gregory, and to the individual account of Ida L. Gregory, or Mrs. W. H. Gregory, and to set out and show how, when, and by whom the amounts deposited were withdrawn; to set out and show when the original note, or any renewals thereof, executed by complainants jointly, was, or were, delivered to the Bank and carried by the Bank on its records as an asset of the Bank; and, for that purpose, let the Bank be required to exhibit with its answer photostat or certified copies of its books and records showing said facts; also, any cancelled checks drawn on either of said accounts in the possession of either defendant.

“4th: That defendants be required to account for and show the funds belonging to the said Ida L. Gregory and placed in said Bank, and that complainant have and recover of said defendants the amount shown, less legitimate withdrawals.

*572 “5th: That they have such other, further and general relief as the nature of their case may require.

“This is the first application for injunction in this cause.”

On preliminary application, a fiat was granted in each of the two cases (by the County Judge of Rutherford County in case No. 245, and by Chancellor Lytle in case No.- 246) as follows:

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Bluebook (online)
135 S.W.2d 465, 23 Tenn. App. 567, 1939 Tenn. App. LEXIS 63, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gregory-v-merchants-state-bank-tennctapp-1939.