Hill & Meredith v. First State Bank of Hillsboro

181 S.W. 219, 1915 Tex. App. LEXIS 1158
CourtCourt of Appeals of Texas
DecidedNovember 20, 1915
DocketNo. 7416. [fn*]
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 181 S.W. 219 (Hill & Meredith v. First State Bank of Hillsboro) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Texas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hill & Meredith v. First State Bank of Hillsboro, 181 S.W. 219, 1915 Tex. App. LEXIS 1158 (Tex. Ct. App. 1915).

Opinion

RAINEY, C. J.

In disposing of this suit it is only necessary to state that appellee instituted this action to recover on a note executed by Bennett & Son and against Hill & Meredith, who are alleged to be primarily liable thereon. Appellants pleaded that they were not primarily liable, but only as in-dorsers on said note, and further that appel-lee had sold mortgaged property, the proceeds of which were sufficient to pay off and cancel the note sued on, but that said proceeds had been applied to the discharge of other notes and this one left uncanceled. The case was tried by the court without the intervention of a jury, and judgment rendered for appellee, from which Hill & Meredith appeal.

The court filed conclusions of fact, which we find are supported by the evidence, and here adopt the same, and .we here copy the first, second, third, fourth, sixth, eighth, and ninth subdivisions:

I. “I find that the First State Bank of Hills-boro, Texas, a corporation, on the 12th day of June, 1913, had notes against S; P. Bennett & Son, a firm composed of S. P. Bennett and J. P. Bennett, as follows: First note dated April 12, 1913, for $6,548; first note dated March 15, 1913, for $50; first note dated March 12, 1913, for $1,113.36; first note dated-, for $120. That on the same date it held notes against Key & Bennett, a firm composed of A. Key and S. P. Bennett, as follows: First note dated December 20, 1912, for $6,735.60; first note dated January 4, 1913, for $1,362.46; and an overdraft amounting to $856.81. That on the same date it held a note against S. P. Bennett dated March 28, 1913, for $5,402.69, and an overdraft against A. Key amounting to $38.61. That all of said notes bore interest at the rate of 10 per cent, per annum and carried a provision, providing for 10 per cent, of principal and interest as attorneys’ fees if placed in the hands of an attorney after default, and that on said date, June 12, 1913, all of said notes were past due, no payments either on principal or interest had been made and the same had been placed in the hands of attorneys for collection after default, and the plaintiff had become liable to pay the attorney’s fee specified in the notes, and the same had accrued against the makers of said notes. That all of said notes, except the note for $1,113.36 against S. P. Bennett & Son, and the note for $120 against S. P. Bennett & Son, and the note for $50 against S. P. Bennett & Son, were renewals of notes previously given.”
II. “That on July 6, 1912, S. P. Bennett executed and delivered to the plaintiff a chattel mortgage conveying property described as follows: ‘My entire outfit of stock composed of mules and horses now being used in grading an interurban railroad now being built by the Southern Traction Company from Dallas to Waco being 53 miles, weight from 1,100 to 1,400 pounds each, four years to ten years old; also seven head of horses, five to ten years old, weight from 1,300 to 1,700 pounds.’ Said mortgage was given to secure the payment of a note in favor of the plaintiff, executed by S. P. Bennett, *220 flue October 6, 1912, for $-; also to secure any and all other sums of money that the said S. P. Bennett might owe to the plaintiff at that time or subsequently during the year 1912, and aE notes executed to the plaintiff during that year.”
III. “That on August 28, 19.12, the defendants, S. P. Bennett & Son, executed a chattel mortgage to plaintiff, covering 76 head of mules, each four to ten years old, and 8 head of horses* each four to ten years old, consisting ofl the entire outfit of work stock employed, by the said
S. P. Bennett & Son in grading the interurban road from Dallas to Waco. Said mortgage was executed to secure all indebtedness due by the said parties to the said bank during the years 1912 and 1913 and all notes executed by them during", said time.”
IV. “That each of said mortgages was registered in the counties of Hill, EEis, and Dallas in accord with the law for the registration of chattel mortgages.”
VI. “That on the 3d day of October, 1912, S. P. Bennett executed a chattel mortgage to W.
T. Hale to secure an indebtedness of $12,446.30, which mortgage was duly registered in the county court of Hill county and Dallas county on the 8th day of October, 1912, and covered 98 head of mules.”
VIII. “Shortly after the giving of the mortgage of Bennett to Hale, mentioned above, without the knowledge or consent of plaintiff, W. T. Hale removed 50 head of the mules covered by the plaintiff’s mortgage to another state. At the time the mules were taken by Hale the Bennett & Son mules and S. P. Bennett mules were all together, and were not identified or distinguishable, so far as the plaintiff was concerned, one from another. The plaintiff learned that Hale had taken these 50 mules in July, 1913, for the first time, and at that time in undertaking to foreclose its mortgage found the remainder of the mules and horses, on which it had a mortgage in Dallas county. They were thrown together at that time and the plaintiff was unable to distinguish which were the S. P. Bennett & Son mules and horses and which were the S. P. Bennett. mules and horses, the plaintiff having no previous knowledge of their having been thrown together, and on the 12th day of June it took possession of said mules and horses, being 78 head of mules and 18 head of horses and sold them under its power of sale, at private sale for $12,000.”
IX. “The $12,000 proceeds of the sale of the mules and horses were applied as follows:
In satisfaction of one note of S. P. Bennett & Son. $7,322.85
And of another note of S. P. Bennett & Son for. 56.36
—and applied $4,620.82 on the note of S. P. Bennett, dated March 28, 1913, for $5,492.60, which was a renewal of a previous note held by the bank at the time it took the mortgage from S. P. Bennett. This left unpaid the attorney’s fees, principal, and interest, the S. P. Bennett '& Son note for. $120, the entire indebtedness ofi Key & Bennett and of A. Key, and the balance of $1,548.50 of S. P. Bennett, and also left unpaid the principal, interest, and attorney’s fees on the note dated March 7, 1913, signed S. P. Bennett & Son for $1,113.36.”

[1] The first and second assignments present the question whether or not appellants were primarily liable as makers or only liable as a mere indorser. While there was a contradiction in the testimony we think the court rightfully held the appellants liable as original promisors on the note.

W. R. Masterson, president of the appellee bank, testified as follows:

“With reference to the Hill & Meredith matter, it came up in this way: In a conversation that I had with Mr. Hill he stated that he and Mi". Meredith owned this note of $1,113.36, I think, payable to the firm of Hill & Meredith, and he offered to discount it to the bank. He offered to take $1,000 for the note of $1,113.36. That transaction was had with me as an official of the bank. I told Mr. Hill that he couldn’t use the note.

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Bluebook (online)
181 S.W. 219, 1915 Tex. App. LEXIS 1158, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hill-meredith-v-first-state-bank-of-hillsboro-texapp-1915.