Guaranty Trust Co. v. New York & Queens County Railway Co.

226 A.D. 299, 235 N.Y.S. 127, 1929 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8710
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedMay 24, 1929
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 226 A.D. 299 (Guaranty Trust Co. v. New York & Queens County Railway Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Guaranty Trust Co. v. New York & Queens County Railway Co., 226 A.D. 299, 235 N.Y.S. 127, 1929 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8710 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

Scudder, J.

This action is to foreclose a mortgage for $1,500,000 on all the property of the Steinway Railway Company of Long Island City, dated April 1, 1892, and made by the Steinway Railway Company to the State Trust Company as trustee.

The plaintiff is the successor trustee.

By the judgment herein the mortgage was foreclosed for principal and interest, and the extent of its lien upon the property of defendant New York and Queens County Railway Company was adjudicated.

The New York and Queens County Railway Company is the present owner of the mortgaged property of the Steinway Railway Company, through its merger of that company.

The defendant Bankers Trust Company is the trustee under a mortgage made in 1896 by the New York and Queens County Railway Company.

The controversy before this court is in regard to certain properties which the plaintiff contends come within the hen of the foreclosed Steinway mortgage, and which the defendants contend do not.

At the time of the date of the foreclosed mortgage, April 1, 1892, the Steinway Company, incorporated- in 1892 under the Railroad Law, was an independent corporation operating a street railway in Long Island City. In the spring and summer of 1895 other street railways were operating under common management with the Steinway Company in Long Island City, Newtown, Flushing and College Point. They were:

1. Newtown Railway Company, incorporated September 19, 1894, and operated by the Steinway Company under a lease.

2. Long Island City and Newtown Railroad Company, operated by George Chambers, as receiver. He was the superintendent and general manager of the Steinway lines.

[301]*3013. Flushing and College Point Electric Railway Company, operated by the Steinway Company under a lease.

4. Riker Avenue and Sandford’s Point Railway Company, operated by the Steinway Company under a lease.

In 1895 and 1896 R. T. McCabe was president of the Stein way Company, and he and his associates were in operating control of all the lines above mentioned, and in financial control of all except those of the Long Island City and Newtown Company, of which, however, the company being in default and foreclosure proceedings under way, they had acquired the bonds.

Benjamin Orne, representing McCabe, in the summer of 1896 interested Drexel & Company and others, all of Philadelphia, in a proposed consolidation of the above lines to be operated by a company thereafter to be formed. They and Benjamin Orne entered into an agreement, dated November 1, 1895, by which a syndicate was created for financing the project. Orne, by an agreement of the same date with Drexel & Company, undertook to deliver all the capital stock of the Steinway Company, the Newtown Railway Company, the Riker Avenue and Sandford’s Point Company, the Flushing and College Point Company, and all of the mortgage bonds of the Long Island City and Newtown Company to the syndicate. Orne’s agreement contemplated the delivery of the securities on or before December 4, 1895.

The syndicate proposed to consolidate the said railways owned or controlled by McCabe and his associates into a new corporation, which was to issue bonds in the sum of $2,500,000 and stock of the par value of $2,500,000.

Drexel & Company, acting as managers, agreed to advance $2,000,000 from time to time to take up the floating debts of the corporations, to pay for the securities and to provide “ such additional amounts as may be needed in the operation ” of the corporations prior to the proposed consolidation and preparatory thereto.

There was delay in completing the plan of the Philadelphia syndicate for the consolidation of the five companies. Foreclosure of the mortgage upon and sale of the Long Island City and Newtown lines interfered with the time schedule, and it was not until August 19, 1896, that these fines were bought in by W. R. Heath, a brother-in-law of McCabe and his representative in the transaction. During the interval McCabe continued to operate the several properties.

In the meantime the Ne-w York and Queens County Railway Company had been incorporated under the railroad laws of New York, the certificate being filed June 26, 1896. The certificate recited the intention of the incorporators to acquire the property and franchises of the Long Island City and Newtown Railroad [302]*302Company recently sold under foreclosure to W. R. Heath, and all of the capital stock of the other four corporations above named, so that said railroads and all their rights, property and franchises should be merged with the new corporation.

The New York and Queens Company executed and delivered its first consolidated mortgage to the Mercantile Trust Company, predecessor of the Bankers Trust Company, June. 29, 1896, which was recorded August 4, 1896. By supplemental indenture this mortgage was reduced from $4,200,000 to $1,300,000. The consolidated mortgage recites that so far as the Steinway property is concerned it is second to the Steinway mortgage.

The period between the organization of the syndicate on November 1, 1895, and the organization of the New York and Queens Company on June 26, 1896, was considerably longer than" the members of the syndicate originally contemplated. The agreement between Orne and Drexel & Company provided for delivery of the securities preparatory to consolidation on December 4, 1895, five weeks after the date of that agreement. During these five weeks, and thereafter throughout the whole period of delay, the various properties were operated and directed by McCabe. The results of the operation of the several properties by McCabe, pending formation of the New York and Queens Company, were recorded as a matter of convenience on the books of the Stein way Company. This corporation was used generally as the bookkeeping and contracting agent for everything done by the syndicate up to the time of the formation of the New York and Queens Company.

The Steinway Company was merged into the New York and Queens Company by certificate of merger filed in the office of the Secretary of State September 16, 1896.

The Steinway mortgage recites that the Steinway Company has authorized its bonds to be secured by a mortgage, “ the same to be a first lien upon all the franchises and property of the said Railway Company, real, personal or mixed, now owned or that may hereafter be owned and acquired.”

The granting clause conveys “ all the corporate property, real, personal and mixed, and all franchises, rights, privileges and incomes of the party of the first part, and also all and singular its railroads now constructed or which may hereafter be constructed in Long Island City.”

It is followed by the description of the routes, and of the Steinway car barn property. The general inclusive clause reads as follows:

“And also all and singular the lands, tenements, and hereditaments which are now acquired or appropriated by or on behalf of the said party of the first part for the purposes of the road, whether [303]

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Related

Guaranty Trust Co. v. New York & Queens County Railway Co.
167 Misc. 795 (New York Supreme Court, 1938)

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Bluebook (online)
226 A.D. 299, 235 N.Y.S. 127, 1929 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 8710, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/guaranty-trust-co-v-new-york-queens-county-railway-co-nyappdiv-1929.