Hammer v. Alaska-Ebner Gold Mines Co.

6 Alaska 193
CourtDistrict Court, D. Alaska
DecidedSeptember 10, 1919
DocketNo. 928-A
StatusPublished

This text of 6 Alaska 193 (Hammer v. Alaska-Ebner Gold Mines Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Alaska primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hammer v. Alaska-Ebner Gold Mines Co., 6 Alaska 193 (D. Alaska 1919).

Opinion

JENNINGS, District Judge.

At the hearing there was evidence proving the ownership in the intervener of $22,-500 of the bonds and that said bonds were unpaid in whole or in part.

There was also a great amount of evidence as to the value of certain property claimed to have been in the possession of the ancillary receiver at the time of the intervention.Defendants seasonably objected to this line of testimony, and it was admitted subject to objection, to be considered later. The evidence so admitted induced evidence to the contrary, [197]*197and the whole evidence led to extended argument and elaborate briefs as to the jurisdiction of the New York court over property in this district and as to the powers and duties of an ancillary receiver. It seems to me that said evidence and argument could be material only if the true construction of the pleadings (as modified by the stipulation and bond) is that the bond takes the place of assets, if any such there are, in the hands of the receiver.’ I am unable to see that that is the purport or effect of the pleadings (as so modified).

The case is this: Certain parties wish a receiver to be discharged; others wish the contrary. All of said parties enter into a stipulation to the effect that the receiver may be discharged and that there shall be submitted the question as to whether or not a judgment should be rendered against the Alaska-Ebner Gold Mines Company on the bonds; the Guaranty Company agreeing to appear and be bound by the judgment, if any be rendered. Pursuant to said stipulation the bond is given, objections to the discharge of the receiver are withdrawn, and the Mining Company and the Guaranty Company file their answer, to which the intervener replies. The receiver being entirely out of the case, all questions as to his powers and functions and as to the existence or nonexistence of assets in his hands are beside the matter which is being inquired of. The bond is not (and was not to be) one conditioned to pay if the claim was one properly to be submitted to the receiver and allowed by him or the court, nor was it one conditioned to pay if the receiver had assets. On the contrary, it was conditioned to pay if a judgment be recovered. This condition implies that what is to be sought is a general legal judgment against Alaska-Ebner Gold Mines Company, and not simply the procuring of a pronouncement that a moral obligation exists, nor yet the procuring of a direction to the receiver to pay out of assets in his hands. If the liability on the bond was to be contingent upon the possession by the receiver of assets, and the allowance of the claim as a charge on the receiver to the extent of those assets, it is reasonable to suppose that the condition in the bond would have been so expressed. It is true that the possession by the ancillary receiver of assets is alleged in the complaint in intervention, but to treat such allegation as at all material after the filing of the stipulation and bond is to [198]*198completely ignore the purport and effect of those instruments; and while the answer denies the possession of assets by the receiver, and thus raises an issue on the allegation of possession, yet it is an immaterial issue, for the waiver of jurisdictional questions which is contained in the stipulation is in effect an agreement by all parties -hereto that there may be thus grafted upon an equitable proceeding a purely legal action for the recovery of money from a party and his guarantor. All interested parties being before the court and consenting to this mode of trial, I can see no valid reason why the court should not try that issue andj render judgment as in an independent action.

I think that the essence of this controversy is embraced in this question, to wit: Treating the matter as an action at law, is the intervener entitled to a judgment against the Alaska-Ebner Gold Mines Company? If the answer be in the affirmative, then the judgment should go against both defendants; if the answer be in the negative, then the intervener’s complaint should be dismissed. I, therefore, do not agree with the contention that the bond takes the place of the property, if any, in the hands of the receiver, or that the matter before the court is at all connected with the receivership. Neither can I agree with the contention that the defendants are estopped by the stipulation and bond from asserting that intervener, having proved ownership of the unpaid bonds, is not entitled to a judgment; for by the stipulation and bond the obtaining of a judgment is the very contingency upon the happening of which (and. only upon the happening of which) any liability at all arises, and the simple fact of the ownership of unpaid bonds does not of itself and at all events entitle the owner to a judgment.

Is, then, the intervener entitled to a judgment?

It is the contention of the defendants that the intervener is not entitled to judgment here because the trustee had already foreclosed the mortgage on behalf of all the bondholders and had obtained a deficiency judgment for them in the United States District Court in New York. On the other hand, - the intervener contends that his claim on the bonds has not merged in the decree and judgment obtained by the trustee in the foreclosure suit in New York, for the reason, as alleged, that the trustee was a trustee only for the fore[199]*199closure of the mortgage, and was not authorized by the deed of trust to take a deficiency judgment, and that, as the mortgaged property did not bring anything (substantially) and his bonds are unpaid, he is left free to enforce the personal liability of the maker of the bonds.

While it cannot be gainsaid that “it is only where the trustee acts for the bondholders within the scope of the powers conferred upon him by the deed of trust that his acts will bind the latter” (Moran v. Hagerman, 64 Fed. 500, 12 C. C. A. 239), yet it is likewise true that in the consideration of the extent of the trustee’s powers “the bonds and deed of trust are to be read together as one contract” (3 Thompson on Corporations, p. 504).

Now, in the case at bar, the evidence shows that the bonds were payable to bearer at the company’s office in New York, and that on the face of each bond it was declared that “this bond is entitled to the benefits and subject to the provisions” of the mortgage or deed of trust securing same, and that ,“the principal of said bond may become due in case of default as to interest or of sale under said mortgage as provided in said mortgage, to which reference is made for a complete statement,” and that “this bond is one of a series of bonds described in the mortgage or deed of trust in this bond referred to.”

The mortgage or deed of trust, made also in the city of New York, described the property mortgaged as being certain mining claims in California, all other real estate, all buildings, fixtures, machinery, tools, etc., all shares of stock and bonds of any corporation which the mortgagor “now owns or is entitled to, or which it shall hereafter own or be entitled to.” It (the mortgage) contained an express promise “to pay the principal and interest on all bonds hereunder, according to the terms of said bonds and of this indenture'” (article V, § 1).

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Bluebook (online)
6 Alaska 193, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hammer-v-alaska-ebner-gold-mines-co-akd-1919.