Implement Credit Corp. v. Elsinger

66 N.W.2d 657, 268 Wis. 143, 1954 Wisc. LEXIS 412
CourtWisconsin Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 9, 1954
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 66 N.W.2d 657 (Implement Credit Corp. v. Elsinger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Wisconsin Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Implement Credit Corp. v. Elsinger, 66 N.W.2d 657, 268 Wis. 143, 1954 Wisc. LEXIS 412 (Wis. 1954).

Opinions

Currie, J.

The issue presented on this appeal is whether the plaintiff finance company is a holder in due course of the note executed by the defendant Elsinger so as to be free from any defense that Elsinger might have against the payee Bier-man-Turnacliff, Inc. Counsel for the defendant advances the following reasons as to why he contends plaintiff is not such a holder in due course:

(1) That proof of ownership of the note in plaintiff is not established;

(2) That the note was transferred by the payee by means of an assignment which purported to transfer only the “title and interest” of the payee, and, therefore, such assignment did not constitute an indorsement within the provisions of the Uniform Negotiable Instruments Act as embodied in our Wisconsin statutes; and

(3) The plaintiff finance company was so closely associated with the Wisconsin Implement Dealers Association and its members, such as the payee Bierman-Turnacliff, Inc., as to make the plaintiff a party to the original transaction between Bierman-Turnacliff,' Inc., and Elsinger.

As to the first point raised, the answer of the defendant denied that the plaintiff finance company was the lawful holder and owner of the note. At the trial the note was in the possession of the plaintiff and bore the assignment on the back to plaintiff, dated June 5, 1952, set forth in the statement of facts preceding this opinion, such assignment pur[153]*153porting to have been executed by Bierman-Turnacliff, Inc. Furthermore, Kovacs, the general manager of plaintiff finance company, 'testified that the plaintiff had purchased such note from Bierman-Turnacliff, Inc., on June 5, 1952, and had advanced as consideration therefor the sum of $3,322.62.

Sec. 116.54, Stats., which is sec. 49 of the Uniform Negotiable Instruments Law (hereinafter referred to as the “N. I. L.”), provides that, where a payee of a note payable to his order transfers it for value without indorsing it, such transfer vests in the transferee such title as the transferor had therein. Therefore, the foregoing evidence clearly proved the plaintiff to be the owner of the note.

Counsel for the defendant maker, however, maintains that there has been a failure of proof on the part of the plaintiff to establish it as a “holder” of the note because it offered no testimony that the signature “Bierman-Turnacliff, Inc.,” to the assignment on the back of the note was actually subscribed by an authorized officer or agent of such corporation. Under the provisions of sec. 328.26, Stats., plaintiff was not required to establish the authenticity of such signature because of the statutory presumption that such signature was genuine. Such statute provides as follows:

“In all actions brought on promissory notes or bills of exchange by the indorsee the possession of the note shall be presumptive evidence that the same was indorsed by the persons by whom it purports to be indorsed.”

In the case of a corporation indorser such presumption would necessarily embrace the element that whoever had signed the corporation’s name as indorser had authority so to do. A “holder” of a negotiable instrument is defined by sec. 116.01 (7), Stats, (sec. 191 of the N. I. L.), to be “the payee or indorsee of a bill or note, who is in possession of it, or the bearer thereof.” Thus, the possession in plaintiff, plus the presumption of the genuineness of the indorsement, established the plaintiff as the holder of the instrument.

[154]*154The second point raised by defendant is that the assignment to plaintiff appearing on the back of the note did not constitute an “indorsement” within-the provisions of the N. I. L. In order for the plaintiff to be a holder in due course of the instrument within the provisions of sec. 116.57, Stats., (sec. 52 of the N. I. L.), it must have been “negotiated” to plaintiff. Sec. 116.35, Stats, (sec. 30 of the N. I. L.), provides:

“An instrument is negotiated when it is transferred from one person to another in such manner as to constitute the transferee the holder thereof. If payable to bearer, it is negotiated by delivery; if payable to order it is negotiated by the indorsement of the holder.completed by delivery." (Italics supplied.)

An “indorsement” is defined in the succeeding sec. 116.36, Stats, (sec. 31 of the N. I. L.), as follows:

“The indorsement must be written on the instrument itself or upon a paper attached thereto. The signature of the in-dorser, without additional words, is a sufficient indorsement.”

Therefore, the signature “Bierman-Turnacliff, Inc.,” on the back of the note without any words of assignment would have constituted an indorsement. Does the addition of the words of assignment printed above such signature prevent it from being an indorsement? The general rule applicable is stated in 8 Am. Jur., Bills and Notes, p. 55, sec. 320, as follows:

“The rule supported by the weight of authority and reason is that an assignment written on a negotiable instrument constitutes an indorsement' of it, but there is authority that it does not have such an effect, at least where it is an assignment of the assignor’s interest in the instrument rather than of the instrument itself.”

The same rule is set forth in 10 C. J. S., Bills and Notes, p. 695, sec. 208 b, as follows:

“The general rule is that a writing on the back of a bill or note with the intention of transferring title is an indorse[155]*155ment, although it is in terms an assignment, but in some jurisdictions, however, such a transfer has been held not an indorsement.”

In Thorp v. Mindeman (1904), 123 Wis. 149, 152, 101 N. W. 417, 68 L. R. A. 146, 107 Am. St. Rep. 1003, a mortgage note was transferred by the payee thereof to the plaintiff by means of the following assignment written upon the note:

“ ‘For value received, I hereby sell, transfer, and assign the within note and the interest coupons thereto attached and numbered four to six inclusive (previous interest coupons having been paid and surrendered), to Josephine Thorp, without recourse.’ ”

The court held that such assignment constituted an indorsement within the law merchant. Such reference to the law merchant must be deemed to mean the law merchant as embodied in the N. I. L. adopted by our legislature when it enacted ch. 356, Laws of 1899, which enactment was effective prior to the date of the assignment to plaintiff. The N. I. L. in most respects is but a codification of the law merchant. 10 C. J. S., Bills and Notes, p. 419, sec. lib. In arriving at its conclusion that the assignment constituted indorsement, the court stated (p. 162) :

“While there is doubtless some authority tending to support appellants’ claim [that the assignment did not constitute a commercial indorsement], we think that there can be no doubt that the transfer in the present case must be held to be a commercial indorsement under the decisions of this court in the cases of Crosby v. Roub, 16 Wis. 616; Bange v. Flint, 25 Wis. 544; Murphy v. Dunning, 30 Wis. 296.

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Implement Credit Corp. v. Elsinger
66 N.W.2d 657 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1954)

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Bluebook (online)
66 N.W.2d 657, 268 Wis. 143, 1954 Wisc. LEXIS 412, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/implement-credit-corp-v-elsinger-wis-1954.