Hall v. Farmers Bank

220 P. 237, 74 Colo. 165, 1923 Colo. LEXIS 454
CourtSupreme Court of Colorado
DecidedNovember 5, 1923
DocketNo. 10,456
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 220 P. 237 (Hall v. Farmers Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Colorado primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hall v. Farmers Bank, 220 P. 237, 74 Colo. 165, 1923 Colo. LEXIS 454 (Colo. 1923).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Campbell

delivered the opinion of the court.

The complaint of the plaintiff bank has two causes of action, each on a promissory note, set out in extenso, signed by defendant Hall and one Swanson as makers. The answer to both causes of action is the same. It admits the capacity of plaintiff corporation, its ownership of the notes, their execution by defendant, and denies the other averments of the complaint. Included in the answer are two separate affirmative defenses, and a third separate defense and counterclaim, each of which is based upon the same state of facts. One general statement of the facts relied on to defeat the action thus pleaded will suffice.

In December, 1919, the defendant Hall leased to his co-defendant Swanson a farm in Weld county. Swanson did not have money to carry on farming operations. For that purpose he borrowed money of the plaintiff bank and gave as security a chattel mortgage on certain chattels, such as farm equipment, machinery, horses, etc., which he purchased with the money borrowed. Plaintiff and Swanson requested defendant Hall to sign the notes as surety for Swanson, which at first Hall refused to do. Thereupon the plaintiff and Hall entered into an agreement to the effect that if the bank would secure, and keep in force, a chattel mortgage from Swanson on all of Swanson’s interest in the crops grown upon the farm during the year 1920, to indemnify the defendant for signing the notes as surety, the defendant would, and thereupon did, sign the notes as surety relying upon the indemnity agreement. In June, 1920, these original notes became due and Swanson signed renewal notes in lieu thereof, and, to secure them, gave a new chattel mortgage on the same and, perhaps, other chattels than those included in the prior mortgage. These renewal notes were not signed by the defendant Hall at the time they were made and signed by Swanson, but were signed by Hall thereafter and before maturity, and he signed them as a joint maker, as already stated, but, as he claims, as a surety and in reliance upon the same indemnity agreement. The plaintiff failed to secure and keep in force [167]*167a chattel mortgage upon the crops in accordance with the indemnity agreement, and, without the knowledge of the defendant Hall, and without his consent, theretofore, and in May, 1920, had taken a mortgage on Swanson’s interest in the crops to secure a separate debt which Swanson owed the bank. Upon the failure to pay the notes when due, the plaintiff foreclosed this chattel mortgage and applied the proceeds of the foreclosure sale to its separate debt and not upon the notes signed by the defendant as surety for Swanson. The plaintiff also, without the defendant’s consent, extended the time of payment of these joint notes signed by him as surety and which are the-subject of the present action. When the notes became due and payable, plaintiff had in its possession and'Under its control a large amount of property and money of Swanson, sufficient to pay the surety notes but did not pay them. On the expiration of the extension, Swanson was insolvent, had disposed of his property and had departed from Colorado. The consideration for these surety notes wap paid by the plaintiff to Swanson and defendant received no value therefor. In other words, defendant was an accommodation surety only, though he signed as joint maker. These facts, thus summarized, were pleaded in the answer in separate defenses and by way of counterclaim, as already stated; that is, the same facts were pleaded in different ways or in different forms to meet the exigencies of the proof, and are thus denominated by the defendant in his brief:

1. Failure of consideration, and thereunder plaintiff’s knowledge that the defendant signed the notes as surety to Swanson, the principal maker, and these notes were discharged as to the defendant Hall by a binding agreement which the plaintiff made with Swanson, the principal maker, to extend the time of payment without defendant Hall’s knowledge or consent.

2. Actual fraud on the part of plaintiff in falsely representing to the defendant Hall at the time the renewal note's were signed, that the indemnity agreement, under which the original notes were signed, had been carried out.

[168]*1683. Breach of contract in that the bank, instead of taking from Swanson a chattel mortgage on the crops for the defendant’s benefit, unlawfully took a chattel mortgage for its own benefit as security for a separate debt which Swanson owed the bank, the value of which crops being sufficient to pay the surety notes.

The pleadings are long. The evidence is not voluminous. A number of questions are raised and discussed by both counsel that are not material or important upon this review. Defendant’s admission in the .answer as to both causes of action, in connection with the notes that were introduced in evidence and which showed their maturity and the balance due, entitled plaintiff to a judgment, unless the facts pleaded in each of the separate defenses were established by a preponderance of the evidence. The replication denied the new matter in the answer. The burden of proof, therefore, was upon the defendant to establish by a fair preponderance, the truth of this new matter. Plaintiff’s theory, as set out in its replication, was, and in support of which pertinent evidence was introduced, that the plaintiff bank refused to lend any money to the defendant Swanson as he was not the owner of property and a stranger. Thereafter, and before the bank advanced any money to Swanson, the defendant Hall, at Swanson’s request, went to the bank and told them that he would be responsible for all money that the bank might advance during the year 1920 to the defendant Swanson, as he believed that Swanson was an honest man and he wished him to have the money to carry on the farming operations under the lease which he had given him. The bank, knowing Hall to bq responsible, told him that it would not lend to Swanson, but would advance money upon his, Hall’s note, and did not care for a chattel mortgage upon crops or farming implements, but, if defendant Hall desired, it would, and afterwards did, take a chattel mortgage on the farming implements and other personal property, but did not take, or promise to take, a mortgage on the crops of Swanson, who had not then begun planting.

[169]*169There was testimony tending to support the respective contentions of the parties, at least in part, and we shall assume for the purpose of this opinion only, that the court rightly submitted for the jury’s determination the issues upon the controvérted facts. We deem it, however, fitting to say that if the questions had been properly saved for a review, and we were required to pass upon them, it is doubtful if we could hold that the answer properly alleged, or the evidence sufficiently established, even assuming that all of the evidence in the defendant’s behalf was true, a conditional delivery of the notes in suit. The question, however, is not before us, but as the court assumed, in the absence of objection by the plaintiff, that the pleadings and the evidence required a submission to the jury, we will dispose of the case upon that assumption which is, to say the least, as much as the defendant is entitled to ask.

1. The defendant says that because he was, to the knowledge of the plaintiff, only a surety upon these notes, and as the plaintiff payee, without defendant’s knowledge or consent, extended the time of payment, defendant’s liability thereon is discharged. In Drescher v. Fulham, 11 Colo. App. 62, 52 Pac.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
220 P. 237, 74 Colo. 165, 1923 Colo. LEXIS 454, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hall-v-farmers-bank-colo-1923.