Hazen v. Lyndonyille National Bank

70 Vt. 543
CourtSupreme Court of Vermont
DecidedMay 15, 1898
StatusPublished
Cited by18 cases

This text of 70 Vt. 543 (Hazen v. Lyndonyille National Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Vermont primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hazen v. Lyndonyille National Bank, 70 Vt. 543 (Vt. 1898).

Opinion

Thompson, J.

October 28, 1893, H. E. Folsom was an insolvent debtor, and had been for some time prior thereto. His insolvency was then known to the defendants. On the date named, a creditor’s petition, praying to have Folsom adjudged an insolvent debtor, was filed in the court of insolvency for the district of Caledonia, and such proceedings were had thereon that he was regularly adjudged an insolvent debtor by that court, November 14, 1893. November 24, 1893, the orators were duly elected assignees of his estate, and accepted the trust, gave bonds for the faithful performance of the duties thereof, and were appointed as such assignees, and November 27, 1893, said court of insolvency, assigned and conveyed to them all the estate, real and personal, of said debtor, except such as was by law exempt from attachment, together with all of his deeds, books and papers relating thereto. .

At the time of the filing of the petition in insolvency, Folsom was the owner of one share of stock in the Cimmaron Cattle Company of New Mexico, and November 25, [547]*5471893, he executed and delivered an assignment thereof to the orators. In December, 1893, the Cimmaron Cattle Company was notified of the assignment of this stock to the orators, and entered a memorandum thereof on its books. From the time of such notice to the company, the stock was not subject to attachment under the laws of New Mexico, by the creditors of Folsom.

October 28, 1893, the defendant, the Lyndonville National Bank, held a note for $1000 against H. E. Folsom, and another note for $4000, indorsed by him but signed by his brother, S. M. Folsom, of New Mexico, and October 31, 1893, it instituted in the district court for the county of Bernalillo in that territory, a suit in its favor against H. E. Folsom on the note for $1000, and a suit against him and S. M. Folsom on the note for $4000, and November 1,1893, attached the stock in question in these suits, which were duly entered in said district court.

The original bill in the case at bar was served on the defendants, May 5, 1894, and the amended bill was filed February 25, 1895. This suit was brought after attempts by the orators at negotiation with the Lyndonville National Bank in respect to the attachment of the stock in New Mexico, had failed.

The bank made service by publication as required by law, for four weeks in New Mexico, against JS. E. Folsom as an absent defendant, the first publication in' the $4000 suit being on May 12, 1894, and the first publication in the $1000 suit being on May 15, 1894, in New Mexico papers. In June, 1894, it sold the two notes in question to A. B. McMillan, its attorney in the two suits, taking in payment therefor, his note payable to itself at the Lyndonville National Bank, in six months from date, without interest, for $5000. The date of this note was a few days prior to June 25, 1894. The sale of the notes to McMillan was an actual and unconditional sale, the bank taking its chances of collecting the notes of McMillan whether he should collect [548]*548upon tbe suits by sale of the stock attached or not, and he taking his chances on his side of the trade of collecting the pay on the notes from a sale of the attached stock. At that time, not above $3000 could have been collected by legal proceedings from McMillan, who resided in New Mexico. After June, 1894, the Lyndonville National Bank was not the owner and holder of the two notes sued upon, but McMillan was the owner and the holder thereof.

October 2, 1894, the Lyndonville National Bank filed in each of the suits brought by it, its proof of publication of notice, and on the same day defaults were entered in each of the suits, against H. E. Folsom. October 9,1894, McMillan filed in each of said suits, a motion verified by his affidavit, asking to be substituted as plaintiff therein for the reason that after the commencement thereof and the publication of notice to the absent defendant, H. E. Folsom, the Lyndon-ville National Bank, for a valuable consideration, had sold and transferred the notes sued upon to him, and that he was then the owner and the holder thereof; and on said motion, said district court ordered that McMillan be substituted as plaintiff in each of the suits in place of the bank, and thereupon final judgment was entered in his favor as such substituted plaintiff in each of the suits, for the full amount of the notes sued upon, together with interest to date of judgment and costs. McMillan took out executions on said judgments and levied the same on the stock attached, and it was sold on execution, December 28, 1894, to satisfy said executions and costs thereon, for $5576.49.

Under the laws of New Mexico, McMillan had the right to be substituted as plaintiff as he was, and to proceed with the suits and obtain the same benefit from the attachment as though the same had been prosecuted in the name of the Lyndonville National Bank. The sale of the stock on the executions absolutely vested all title thereto in the purchaser under the laws of New Mexico.

At the time of the sale of the stock on execution, the [549]*549orator, L. D. Hazen, was the president of the Merchants National Bank, a creditor of H. E. Folsom, and he, by the direction of that bank, caused the stock to be bid off at the execution sale, for it, at the price named. At the time it was sold, the stock with unpaid dividends was worth $20,000.

McMillan paid his note, or the renewal thereof, to the Lyndonville National Bankfromthe avails of the sale of the stock, January 11, 1895.

The debts now proved against H. E. Folsom’s insolvent estate, amount to $25,500. His assets which have come to the hands of the orators amount to about $8000, beside any interest which they may have in the stock in question.

At the time of the bringing of this suit, the individual defendants were the officers of the defendant, the Lyndon-ville National Bank and were such officers to and including the time of the sale of the notes to McMillan and during all that time they and the orators were and now are resident citizens of Vermont. The Lyndonville National Bank is a national bank, located and doing business at Lyndonville in this State, and, for the purposes of this suit, is to be considered a citizen of Vermont. 25 U. S. St. at L. 433; Petri v. Bank, 142 U. S. 644.

The master further finds that in making the attachment of the stock, and in the sale of the notes to McMillan, the defendants had the intent which is to be legally presumed from their acts.

The individual defendants admit in their answer that they directed the suit to be brought in which the stock was attached. Neither of the defendants took any steps to discontinue any of the suits in New Mexico.

The master finds that at the time the suits were brought in New Mexico, the Lyndonville National Bank knew that insolvency proceedings againstH.E. Folsom were imminent, and that this fact was known to its cashier, the defendant, L. B. Harris, when he went to New Mexico and instituted [550]*550the suits for it under instructions from the defendants to do so if he thought best. It is clear from the master’s report that all the defendants must have then known of Folsom’s financial condition at that time.

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Bluebook (online)
70 Vt. 543, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hazen-v-lyndonyille-national-bank-vt-1898.