Holmes v. Seaman

117 A.D. 381, 102 N.Y.S. 616, 1907 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 263
CourtAppellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York
DecidedFebruary 8, 1907
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 117 A.D. 381 (Holmes v. Seaman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Holmes v. Seaman, 117 A.D. 381, 102 N.Y.S. 616, 1907 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 263 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1907).

Opinion

Ingraham, J.:

Upon the former appeal from a judgment for the plaintiff in this action the judgment was reversed and a new trial ordered (184 N. Y. 486). The decision of the Ootirt of Appeals determined the rights of the parties to this action under the first assignment made by thexplaintiff and her mother, dated April 13, 1891.. It was there held that the by-laws of the New- York Produce Exchange “ constitute a clear and unmistakable prohibition against the assignment or pledge by the beneficiaries of any interest in the gratuity fund of the New York Produce Exchange in payment or-to secure the payment of a debt having no relation to such a fund and in nowise incurred for the purpose of keeping alive the interest of the beneficiaries in such fund. So far, therefore, as the first assignment assumed or purported to charge the interest of the plaintiff in the gratuity fund with any liability on account of the debt to the Oriental Bank of $3,614.00 owing by Holmes to the Oriental Bank and paid by the defendant, together with the interest thereon, that assignment was ineffectual, and to that extent the referee was right in adjudging it to be void.” It was further held, however, that the transfer of the interest of those executing the assignment by which they agreed that the trustees of the gratuity fund of the New York Produce Exchange should pay over to the defendant such further sums of money as he, the said Egbert B. Seaman, shall or may pay to the said Produce Exchange or the trustees of the gratuity fund thereof, hereafter, for or on account of dues or assessments upon the said certificate, together with interest on each of such payments from the date thereof,” was sufficient to constitute a legal charge or lien upon the plaintiff’s interest in the gratuity fund to the extent of the sum paid out by the defendant to the Produce Exchange upon the faith of the instrument and for the purpose of keeping the plaintiff’s interest in that fund alive.” In speaking of the second assignment or transfer made on April 5,1901, the court said: “ As we regard this first instrument as amply sufficient of itself to charge the plaintiff’s interest in the gratuity fund with the sum thereafter paid out by the defendant to keep it alive, the circumstances under which the second assignment was obtained become wholly immaterial. Upon the evidence in the two cases the defendant was entitled to receive out of the plaintiff’s interest in the gratuity fund the aggregate of all the amounts [383]*383paid by him after the execution of the assignment on account of dues upon Holmes’ certificate of membership and the assessments against Holmes on account of the gratuity fund with interest upon such payments from the dates at which they were made. He was not entitled to receive anything on account of the debt of Holmes paid to the Oriental Bank or interest thereon. The whole of the amount payable out of the gratuity fund on account of Holmes’ membership was payable to the plaintiff less the sum heretofore mentioned as due to tlie defendant on account of the amounts paid by him to save the plaintiff’s interest.”

The effect of this decision is, that the sole interest of the defendant in the fund was the repayment to him of the amounts that he had paid subsequent to the execution, of the first assignment to preserve to the beneficiaries the amount of the fund payable by the Mew York Produce Exchange upon the death of Holmes, a member of the exchange. While.it may be conceded that after the death of her father the plaintiff, being entitled to the gratuity, would have the right to transfer that gratuity, as she would have the right to transfer any other chose in action, an instrument executed merely to carry out the former agreement, with no intention to make a new and independent assignment of the fund, and based upon a statement or representation by the person to whom the assignment was made that the assignment was to carry out the former instrument, conferred no new rights upon the assignee, and, without a new and independent consideration, would not affect the ownership of the fund. The situation as it existed when this second instrument was executed was that the defendant held an instrument executed by the plaintiff which assigned to him the plaintiff’s right to the fund when it became payable to secure the repayment of the amount that he had paid to protect the fund.

The plaintiff’s father died on March 31, 1901, leaving him surviving the plaintiff, his only child and next of kin, his wife having died before him. The referee found that on the evening of April 4, 1901, the day after the burial of the plaintiff’s father, the defendant called upon her to obtain her signature to a paper which he said the Produce Exchange had requested him to get her to sign to confirm the former one, that of April 13,1891, which paper then sought to be obtained was in terms an assignment to him of moneys due or [384]*384to grow due to her from the Produce Exchange by reason of her being the daughter of John A. Holmes, as might be sufficient to pay the defendant the sum of $3,614 mentioned in the previous assignment of April 13, 1891,. with interest from that date, and thpfurther sum of $2,014 for dues -and assessments alleged to- have been paid by the said defendant for said Holmes, with interest on "each payment from the date when it was made.; that the defendant said to the plaintiff in substance that the money was justly due to him and that he had a right to it, although he then knew that the assignment executed by the plaintiff and her mother was not effectual to enable him to collect the money due to her from the exchange or the gratuity fund; that the plaintiff wanted the defendant to allow her, out of the first moneys paid by the exchange on account of the gratuity fund, a sum sufficient to pay the expenses of her father’s funeral and sickness,, but this he was unwilling to do, fearful that it would come out of what he claimed to .be due to him ; that the plaintiff declined at that time to sign the. paper which was left with her. ■ The referee further found that the plaintiff was not indebted to, the defendant in any sum whatsoever; that the defendant had no legal claim against her, but of these by-laws' she was ignorant ; .that she believed that the defendant had a right to claim-and take the money under the assignment of April 13, 1891, and that she could not withhold it from him ; that the defendant knew that she sobelieved, and encouraged her -in .the. belief; that he concealed from her his true reason for urging her to sign the new assignment, which was -that he might obtain by it payment of. his alleged loans to her father out of the gratuity belonging to lier ; that the plaintiff took the paper to a Mr. Weiffenbach, an attorney at law, who was a friend, with whom she had- long been acquainted, having been previously employed by him, and asked him to get the defendant to allow her, out of the money,, a sum sufficient to pay the expenses of the funeral and doctor’s bills; that the defendant consented to allow her $500 for those purposes; that the proposed, assignment was then changed by the insertion' of a provision that,, out of the first installment of the gratuity paid by the exchange, the plaintiff should- receive the sum of $500, and. in that form it was signed by the plaintiff and delivered to the defendant on or about the. day of its date;- that, on or about April.19, .1901, the plaintiff and the [385]*385defendant met at the office of the Produce Exchange; that she received a check of the treasurer of the" exchange for $500; a second check for $2,500 was drawn by the treasurer of" the exchange to the order of Isabel A. Holmes and E.- B.

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134 Misc. 334 (New York Surrogate's Court, 1929)

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Bluebook (online)
117 A.D. 381, 102 N.Y.S. 616, 1907 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 263, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holmes-v-seaman-nyappdiv-1907.