Hill Syrup Co. v. National City Bank of Seattle

224 P. 578, 129 Wash. 171, 1924 Wash. LEXIS 608
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 29, 1924
DocketNo. 18365
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 224 P. 578 (Hill Syrup Co. v. National City Bank of Seattle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hill Syrup Co. v. National City Bank of Seattle, 224 P. 578, 129 Wash. 171, 1924 Wash. LEXIS 608 (Wash. 1924).

Opinion

Mitchell, J.

The Hill Syrup Company, a corporation of Seattle, as plaintiff, instituted this action against the National City Bank of that city to recover on five separate causes of action for money had and received. The complaint as to each cause of action is that funds of the company were received by the hank [172]*172through checks of the company signed by W. E. Sander, president of the company, without authority from the company, under circumstances charging the bank with notice that the funds of the company were being improperly used by Sander to pay his individual obligations. A non-jury trial resulted in findings and judgment for the company upon three of the causes of action and against it as to the other two. Each party has appealed from those portions of the judgment against it.

In many respects the case is similar to the recent one of Hill Syrup Co. v. Marine National Bank, 128 Wash. 509, 223 Pac. 595.

First, we dispose of the bank’s appeal in which three certain checks dated December 2,1920, March 11,1921, and May 23,1921, respectively, and hereinafter further mentionéd, are involved. The affairs of the company for some time were managed by three persons, who were its stockholders and trustees. Wm. E. Sander was its president and manager and had entire charge of the company’s finances, together with the keeping and supervision of all its books and accounts. The other two trustees devoted all of their time to the business of the manufacture and marketing of the products of the company.

The record is barren of any evidence that any other stockholder or trustee of the company knew anything whatever of the fact that Sander was using the company’s money to pay his private debts, including these particular ones, until long after the transactions here involved had taken place, which repels the idea of the company being bound by ratification, assent or acquiescence. Murphy v. Clarkson, 25 Wash. 585, 66 Pac. 51; 21 R. C. L. § 107, p. 928. Nor is there any evidence that the company, or any of its other stockholders or trustees, had ever given Sander any authority to use [173]*173the funds of the company for other than the business of the company. The bank was not á depositary of the funds of the company and none of its officers had any knowledge that Sander had ever paid any of his private debts with the funds of the company, other than the five instances involved in this action.

In August, 1920, the Kimball-Camp Motor Company of Seattle (that may be spoken of hereinafter as the Motor Company) sold and delivered to Sander a Paige automobile for $2,000, on conditional sale contract, which Sander agreed to pay in installments. It appears that, on or about December 3, 1920, the motor company borrowed $10,000 from the bank and gave its note therefor, with Charles W. Camp as guarantor, at which time it delivered to the bank the conditional sale contract with Sander, duly assigned by the motor company, and on which $1,635 and interest were still due, together with other like securities, as collateral. At the same time the motor company delivered to the bank a check endorsed by it in the sum of $408.75, payable to the Motor Company, drawn by “Hill Syrup Company, by ¥m. E. Sander, President,” on another bank, the depositary bank of the company. On the face of the check on a form in the upper corner to the left there were printed words as follows: “When endorsed this shall be receipt in full for your bills as follows: Date of invoice; Amount,” to which was added in typewriting, “12/2, a/c W. E. Sander, 408.75.” The check was promptly collected by the bank and applied on the account owing by the motor company to the bank. The bank admitted that it knew at that time that the check was intended as a payment on the automobile contract between the motor company and Sander. Thereafter, as payments became due on the conditional sale contract, the bank notified Sander of the amounts and due dates of the installments, in [174]*174obedience to which he delivered to the bank two checks, one on March 11, 1921, and the other on May 23, 1921, each in the sum of $408.75, each payable to the bank and drawn on the company’s depositary bank, each signed in the name of the company by ¥m. E. Sander as president, and each having a memorandum on the left-hand upper corner similar to that on the check heretofore described. The bank collected the .two checks in due course and applied the money on the account due the bank by the motor company, knowing at the time of each payment that it was intended by Sander as a payment on his conditional sale contract held by the bank as collateral.

As to these three checks it is not a case for the application of the doctrine which prevades the authorities relied on by the bank, that as between two innocent parties the loss should fall upon him who made the fraud possible. That rule is recognized to protect those who exercise ordinary caution. Here the bank is entirely beyond such consideration, for it admits that it knew the company’s name was being used by its president in payment of his private debts. Upon this branch of the case we find it unnecessary to go further into the facts which are largely similar in many important particulars to those set out more fully in the case of Hill Syrup Co. v. Marine National Bank, supra; while as to the law, we adopt the decision in that case and the authorities therein cited as applicable and controlling in this case, to the effect that the bank is liable upon implied contract for money had and received as represented by the three checks.

The appeal by the company relates to the other two checks referred to. First, it may be repeated that the other stockholders and trustees of the company had no knowledge that Sander was using the company’s money to pay these or any other of his private debts. [175]*175The company, or any of its trustees and stockholders, had never given him any authority to do so, nor is there any evidence to hind the company by ratification, assent or acquiescence.

The two checks were used as payments to the motor company by Sander on his automobile conditional sale contract. One of the checks, dated August 24, 1920, was for $500. The other, dated September 18, 1920, was for $155. Each was drawn payable to the order of the motor company, drawn on a Seattle bank other than the defendant herein, and was signed “Hill Syrup Company by Wm. E. Sander, Pres.” The checks were endorsed by the motor company and deposited with the bank, party to this action, with which the motor company carried its deposit and checking account, and thereafter checked out by the motor company in the ordinary course of its business, the bank having collected the checks from the one on which they were drawn. Each of the checks contained the memorandum form common to the other checks already referred to. That form is in no sense insignificant, but occupies about one-fourth of the face of the whole instrument and consists of clearly printed words used in connection with columns and lines suitable and manifestly intended for the statement of an account, so that when the check is endorsed it serves as a receipt in full from the payee of the check to the one whose account is stated in the memorandum. In this form on one check there was plainly typewritten “8/24, W. E. Sander, 500.00,” and the other “9/17, W. E. Sander, 150.00.”

It would appear that in each case it was not a matter of being simply sufficient to excite the suspicion of a reasonably cautious person, but, on the contrary, notice was plainly given that Mr.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
224 P. 578, 129 Wash. 171, 1924 Wash. LEXIS 608, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hill-syrup-co-v-national-city-bank-of-seattle-wash-1924.