Hogue v. Wells

146 N.W. 369, 180 Mich. 19, 1914 Mich. LEXIS 860
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 28, 1914
DocketDocket No. 48
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 146 N.W. 369 (Hogue v. Wells) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hogue v. Wells, 146 N.W. 369, 180 Mich. 19, 1914 Mich. LEXIS 860 (Mich. 1914).

Opinions

McAlvay, C. J.

In an action in trover brought by plaintiff against defendant for the unlawful conversion of certain money belonging to her, she recovered a judgment upon an instructed verdict. Defendant has removed the case to this court for review and asks a reversal, assigning errors upon the rulings of the court during the trial and in instructing a verdict against him.

The following are the facts in the case: Defendant was at the time of the transaction in dispute, and had been for a period of years prior thereto, assistant cashier of the Benton Harbor State Bank. On September 16, 1909, he sold and assigned to plaintiff for a valuable consideration the following promissory note, together with a certain certificate of stock held by him as collateral security therefor:

“$2,400. Benton Harbor, Mich., Sept. 1, 1908.
“On the first day of each month after date for value received, I promise to pay to the order of B. F. Wells, forty dollars ($40.00) until the whole principal sum of two thousand four hundred dollars with interest on the same at the rate of six per cent, per annum payable annually shall have been paid on all principal sums at any time unpaid, and if the interest is not paid when due it shall become as principal and draw interest- at the rate of six per cent, per annum, payable annually. It is also agreed that A. S. Miles shall [21]*21deposit with and assign to B. F. Wells all his stock in the Miles Shoe Company as collateral security for the repayment of the said two thousand four hundred dollars and the interest thereon.
[Signed] “A. S. Miles.”

At the same time he indorsed on the back of said note and signed the following written guaranty:

“Benton Harbor, Mich., Sept. 16, 1909.
“For a valuable consideration, I do hereby sell, assign and transfer to Mary R. Hogue, all my right, title and interest in and to the within instrument, and further for a valuable consideration, I do hereby guarantee the payment of the sums of money in the within instrument at the times and in the manner therein specified, I also assign to said Mary R. Hogue the certificate of stock referred to in said note and the same is hereby attached.
[Signed] “B. F. Wells.”

At the time of such transfer there was a balance of $2,200 remaining unpaid on said note. Plaintiff at this time had a credit account in and did business with said bank. She left this note in the possession of defendant with instructions to collect for her and, as from time to time the installments of principal and interest became due, to receive and place the same to her credit in the bank. Defendant received the note from her for that purpose and made collections for her from the maker of said note each and every month thereafter during the years 1909 and 1910 and certain payments amounting to five monthly payments in 1911, and indorsed all of said payments received by him upon said note and placed the amounts so collected for her to her credit in the bank. On June 17, 1911, the maker of plaintiff’s note, who was secretary and treasurer of the Miles Shoe Company, of which defendant had been president for several years, drew the check of said company on the Benton Harbor State Bank, of which defendant was assistant cashier, for the sum of $8,724, payable to the order of defendant; [22]*22such sum being made up of the amount of a certain $2,000 indebtedness of A. S. Miles to defendant and $1,724.46, the amount of the balance of plaintiffs note. Miles delivered this check to defendant, who‘indorsed it, presented it to the bank, which honored it and stamped it paid, and returned it in due course of business to the maker. The following is a copy of this check, and the indorsement and bank stamp upon it:

“No. 3528.
“Benton Harbor, Mich., June 17,1911.
“Benton Harbor State Bank pay to the order of B. F. Wells three thousand seven hundred and twenty-four and 46-100ths ($3,724.46). A. S. Miles notes.
“The Miles Shoe Co.,
“per A. S. Miles.”

Indorsed on the back: “B. F. Wells.” Stamped on the face of it: “Paid June 17, 1911, Benton Harbor State Bank, Benton Harbor, Michigan.”

Defendant admits that this check represented the amount' of the two items named. This check represented Miles’ personal indebtedness to defendant, and was charged to his personal account at the time in the books of the Miles Shoe Company.

Of this check of $3,724.46, which was received and indorsed by Wells, and paid to him by the bank, he retained the whole amount and did not account for and deliver to her by depositing to the credit of plaintiff the amount of her specific interest therein. At the time of this transaction, when defendant received this check from Miles in payment of the indebtedness to him and the balance of plaintiff’s note, she was in the West visiting. Upon her return, and before the fact that the entire balance on her note had been paid to her agent and collector by the maker came to her knowledge, she began a suit in assumpsit on this note, commenced by summons, and afterwards filed declaration. In this suit there was afterwards a substitution of attorneys, and, when her present [23]*23attorneys learned through. Mr. Miles of the payment of the note in question, a motion was made by them for leave to withdraw the declaration filed and for permission to file a declaration in trover. This motion was granted and a declaration in trover filed, on payment of costs. Defendant pleaded the general issue to this declaration, with notice that plaintiff had elected to bring suit in assumpsit instead of trover and had therefore waived her right of action against defendant in trover. The trial now under discussion and consideration before this court was the trial had upon this issue. At the close of plaintiff’s case defendant moved for a directed verdict upon the ground stated in the motion attached to the plea.

The contentions of defendant upon the trial of the case were:

(1) That plaintiff had waived her right of action in trover by bringing an action in assumpsit.
(2) That an action of trover for the conversion of this money will not lie against defendant in this case, even if it should be held that he had received it.

1. The information that the balance unpaid on plaintiff’s note had been fully paid to defendant did not come to the knowledge of plaintiff until after the declaration in assumpsit had been filed in this suit and the substitution of attorneys had been made. The contention that plaintiff had waived a right of action in trover, therefore, cannot be sustained, for the reason that at the time plaintiff had no knowledge that such right of action existed. It is well settled that a party cannot waive a right of which he has no knowledge.

“There can be no waiver unless the person against whom the waiver is claimed had full knowledge of his rights and of facts which would enable him to take effectual action for the enforcement of such rights.” Clare County Sav. Bank v. Featherly, 173 Mich. 292 (139 N. W. 61), citing 29 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law (2d Ed.), p. 1093.

[24]*242.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
146 N.W. 369, 180 Mich. 19, 1914 Mich. LEXIS 860, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hogue-v-wells-mich-1914.