Huglin v. H. M. Byllesby & Co.

72 F.2d 341, 1934 U.S. App. LEXIS 4545
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedJuly 19, 1934
DocketNo. 9819
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 72 F.2d 341 (Huglin v. H. M. Byllesby & Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Huglin v. H. M. Byllesby & Co., 72 F.2d 341, 1934 U.S. App. LEXIS 4545 (8th Cir. 1934).

Opinion

MUNGER, District Judge.

This appeal presents the record in three eases which were consolidated for trial in the court below. In each of the actions the plaintiff alleged that the defendant H. M. Byllesby & Co., a foreign corporation, engaged in business as a dealer in securities, and authorized to do business in Iowa, had sold to the plaintiff certain shares of stock in the defendant corporation, but that the sale was void because it was in contravention of the Iowa statutes, and the prayer was for the recovery of the purchase price, together with costs and an attorney’s fee.

The Iowa Securities Law (Code of Iowa, 1931, §§ 8581-cl to 8581-c27) relates to the sale of certain kinds of stocks, bonds, and other securities. By section 8581-e6, it is provided that no such securities shall be sold in Iowa, unless they shall have been registered by notification or by qualification, as defined in other portions of the statute or unless the securities are of a class, or are sold in a transaction, excepted from the operation of the law. A portion of section 8581-el8, provides as follows: “Every sale or contract for sale made in violation of any of the provisions of this chapter shall be [342]*342voidable at the election of the purchaser and the person making such sale or contract for sale and every director, officer or agent of or for such seller who shall have personally participated in making such sales and at the time knew of such violations shall be jointly and severally liable to such purchaser in an action at law in any court of competent jurisdiction upon tender to the seller in person or in open court of the securities sold or of the contract made for the full amount paid by such purchaser, together with all taxable court costs and reasonable attorney’s fees in any action or tender under this section.”

The statute provides for a registration by notification by the filing of'a statement with the Secretary of State, containing designated items of information. All securities which are required to be registered before being sold, but which are not entitled to registration by notification, are required to be registered by qualification. As to such securities, an application for their qualification must be filed with the Secretary of State, and the Secretary may require a further statement relating to the security and its issue. The Secretary of State is authorized to examine the application and to record the registration of the security.

Each of the plaintiff’s petitions alleged that at the time of the respective sales, the securities were not qualified or registered as required by this statute, and alleged that the plaintiff would “tender in open court the securities above described and received by him in connection with the above pretended sale, along with all dividends in connection therewith and received by the plaintiff.” The answers of the defendant admitted that the defendant was a foreign corporation authorized to transact business in Iowa, but denied generally the other allegations of the petitions, and alleged that the plaintiffs, pri- or to bringing their actions, had sold to the defendant the shares which they had purchased and had waived the right to recover the purchase price. Other special defenses were alleged in the eases of Huglin and Grant. The cases were tried to the eoiu-t, in pursuance of a stipulation of the parties waiving a jury trial, and a judgment was entered for the defendant. The plaintiffs have appealed,

At the hearing on this appeal the appellants suggested a diminution of the record and asked leave to supply a copy of a nunc pro tune order made by the trial court at a term subsequent to that at which the judgment was entered. There was no challenge of the fact that the proposed order was made, nor of the basis on which the court acted in making it; but it is suggested by the appellee that it was made too late, and that it is inconsistent with prior findings. The original opinion and judgment filed on June 21, 1933, set forth a summary of the pleadings, stated facts which the evidence established, and this was followed by conclusions of law, and an entry of judgment. The nunc pro tune order is dated February 5, 1934, and states that it was entered after-notice and a hearing. It recites that the cases were submitted to the court on June 2, 1933, upon a stipulation of facts, a jury trial having been waived and that the court in entering its former opinion and judgment had found and considered all the facts so stipulated although these facts were not sot out at length in the opinion and judgment. The order then stated that the present order and judgment is now entered nunc pro tunc as of June 21, 1933, and stated that the court finds the facts as follows. The findings of fact then proceed at considerable length and are followed by conclusions of law and the same form of judgment as in the original order which included a general finding for the defendant. In conclusion the court again stated that this order, finding of fact, conclusion of law, and judgment is entered nunc pro tune as of the 21st of June, 1933. The facts thus recited bring this ease within the rules announced in Ætna Insurance Co. v. Boon, 95 U. S. 117, 126, 24 L. Ed. 395, wherein it was held that when a court had tried a ease without a jury, and had filed an opinion containing-its findings of fact and conclusions of law at the time of entering a judgment, although there was no formal finding of facts, the court at a succeeding term, aftgr notice, could order that a special finding and conclusions of law eonfonnablo to the opinion should be entered nunc pro tune as a part of the record of the term when the judgment was rendered, and that the special finding thereby became a part of the record in the case. The court said: “Generally, it may be admitted that judgments cannot be amended after the term at which they were rendered, except as to defects or matters of form; but every court of record has power to amend its records, so as to- malte them conform to and exhibit the truth. Ordinarily, there must be something to amend by; but that may be the judge’s minutes or notes, nojfc themselves records, or any thing that satisfactorily shows what the truth was.”

[343]*343There is nothing in the present ease to controvert the finding of the trial court that it had previously found all of the facts stipulated at the trial, or to show that the findings in the nunc pro tunc order made any substantial departure from the facts which had been stipulated and which the court had found. The motion to enlarge the record is therefore sustained.

Coming- to- consider the assignments of error in the light of these findings, the chief contention of appellants is that the findings do not support the judgment. By the provisions of -section 700 of the Revised Statutes (28 U. S. Code § 875 [28 USCA § 875]), this question is reviewable in this court, if the finding's are special. Norris v. Jackson, 9 Wall. 125, 128, 19 L. Ed. 608; Tyng v. Grinnell, Collector, 92 U. S. 467, 469, 23 L. Ed. 733; Stanley v. Supervisors of Albany, 121 U. S. 535, 547, 7 S. Ct. 1234, 30 L. Ed. 1000; Lewellyn v. Electric Reduction Co., 275 U. S. 243, 248, 48 S. Ct. 63, 72 L. Ed. 262; Valenti v. Prudential Insurance Co., 71 F.(2d) 229, a decision by this court filed May 1, 1934.

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Bluebook (online)
72 F.2d 341, 1934 U.S. App. LEXIS 4545, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/huglin-v-h-m-byllesby-co-ca8-1934.