In re Redmond

15 F. Supp. 923, 1936 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2132
CourtDistrict Court, E.D. Pennsylvania
DecidedAugust 7, 1936
DocketNo. 18646
StatusPublished

This text of 15 F. Supp. 923 (In re Redmond) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, E.D. Pennsylvania primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Redmond, 15 F. Supp. 923, 1936 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2132 (E.D. Pa. 1936).

Opinion

MARIS, District Judge.

Margery A. Redmond has filed a petition to review the order of the referee disallowing her claim filed against the bankrupt estate on May 31, 1935, in the sum of $44,714.72. The consideration stated in the proof of claim was “contingent liability of bankrupt, by reason of endorsement of note of Milo Bar Bell Co. Inc. dated March 29, 1933.” The trustee in bankruptcy objected to the claim and filed a petition, later amended, for its reconsideration and rejection. The objection pressed by him was that the claim was based on a demand note [925]*925on which the bankrupt was indorser, and, no demand having been made for more Ilian two years, the claim was not provable. The learned referee, after finding the facts and considering the law applicable thereto, came to the conclusion that the claim must be disallowed. With his conclusion we agree.

The facts, briefly stated, were that Daniel G. Redmond, the bankrupt, was the sole owner of the Milo Bar Bell Company, Inc., a corporation, which was the maker of the note. He was also engaged as an individual in a closely associated business operated under the trade-name Milo Publishing Company. These two businesses were managed and operated by the bankrupt, in the one case as officer arid in the. other case as owner. Although their funds were somewhat mingled and the bankrupt looked upon them both as his own property, nevertheless he considered and treated the two businesses as separate and apart from each other.

The Milo Bar Bell Company, Inc., had an indebtedness to the Fairmount Foundry Company which in 1933 amounted to upwards of $41,000, and which had been contracted in the purchase of material for the use of the company. At that time Redmond and the corporation had two other creditors, the Olney Bank & Trust Company, whose claim was partly against one and partly against the other, and the Can-field Paper Company, whose claim was entirely against Redmond as owner of the publishing business. The claims of these creditors were being pressed, and Redmond arranged to give tliem notes for the amounts due. In the case of the Fairmount Foundry Company a settlement was made by Redmond’s father, who was a stockholder of that company, under which the indebtedness was taken over by his mother, the present claimant. The note claimed on was then given to her. It was a demand note payable to Margery A. Redmond, and it was executed by Redmond as treasurer of Milo liar Bell Company, Inc., and indorsed by him individually. At the same time notes were given to the Olney Bank & Trust Company executed by him for the corporation, as well as for himself individually, and in the case of the Canfield Paper Company Redmond gave his individual note and indorsed it as treasurer of the Milo Bar Bell Company, Inc. When these notes were given, the business ol the corporation, as well as the publishing business, was in poor condition and getting worse.

The note given to the present claimant was stated to be payable at 247 South Forty-Sixth street, Philadelphia, which appears to be her residence. The referee found that the note was given in settlement of the indebtedness of the Milo Bar Bell Company, Inc., to the Fairmount Foundry Company, and that Redmond indorsed it because his father insisted that he should do so to protect his mother in faking over this indebtedness.

The claimant has strongly urged that, her claim having been originally allowed, the proof of claim she filed was prima facie evidence in support of it, and that the burden was therefore on the trustee by proper evidence to support his objections, which it is urged he failed to do. It is undoubtedly true that the proof of claim filed by a claimant in bankruptcy is some evidence of the claim, even when it is objected to and denied. Whitney v. Dresser, 200 U.S. 532, 26 S.Ct 316, 50 L.E.d. 584; In re Roanoke Furnace Co. (D.C.) 152 F. 846. But it can only be. evidence of the facts alleged in the claim. In the present case the claimant alleged that there was a contingent liability on the bankrupt by reason of his indorsement of a note. There was no allegation that the contingency, which could only have been presentment and dishonor, had happened. In the absence of such an allegation, the burden was on the claimant to establish by competent evidence facts showing that the contingency had arisen and the trustee had the right to take advantage of her failure to do so.

The uncontradicted evidence showed, however, and the referee found, that no presentment or demand for the payment of the note had been made upon either the maker or the indorser up to the date of bankruptcy, a period of more than two years. The referee found that this period was an unreasonable time to delay presentment. With this finding we agree. Murray v. Grover, 80 Pa.Super. 56. It therefore follows that the right of Mrs. Redmond to claim against the bankrupt as indorser is barred unless failure to make presentment and demand may legally be excused.

The claimant urges that presentment and demand were unnecessary in this case for several reasons. The first is that, since [926]*926the note was payable at the residence of the payee, Mrs. Redmond, her possession of it at the place of payment constituted a sufficient presentment, and no formal presentment was therefore necessary. It has been held in the case of a note payable at a bank on a specific date that the presence of the note in the bank on that date is a sufficient presentment to fix the liability of indorsers. This, however, is not true with respect to a demand note. In the case of such a note it is necessary in order to fix liability that the holder who has it in his possession at the place designated for payment should take some unequivocal action, showing that he elects to exercise his right to declare the note due and to collect it. National Hudson River Bank v. Kinderhook & H. Ry. Co., 17 App.Div. 232, 45 N.Y.S. 588, affirmed National Hudson River Bank v. Moffett, 162 N.Y. 623, 57 N.E. 1118; Lucas v. Swan (C.C.A.) 67 F.(2d) 106, 90 A.L.R. 210. There was no evidence that Mrs. Redmond took any action in respect to the note here in-controversy. Consequently her failure to present it within a reasonable time was not excused by the fact that she held it in her possession at the place specified in the note for its payment during the entire period intervening between the execution of the note and the bankruptcy of the indorser.

Another ground urged by the claimant to excuse her failure to present the note for payment was that the note was in reality made for the indorser’s accommodation, and he had no reason to expect that it would be paid if presented,' so that presentment was excused by sections 80 and 115 of the Act relating to Negotiable Instruments approved May 16, 1901 (56 P.S. Pa. §§ 181, 238). The undisputed evidence showed, however, and the referee found, that the note was given in settlement of a debt which was solely that of the maker, the Milo Bar Bell Company, Inc., and that it was indorsed by the bankrupt in order to make possible the settlement of this indebtedness of the company in which he was interested as stockholder, director, and officer. This, however, was not such an interest as constitutes one an accommodated indorser within the meaning of the Negotiable Instruments Act (56 P.S.Pa. § 66). McDonald v. Luckenbach (C.C.A.) 170 F. 434; Grandison v. Robertson (C.C.A.) 231 F. 785. To constitute one a party for whose accommodation a note is given within these provisions of the law, the indorser must be the one to whom credit is loaned and not the one who loans his credit.

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Related

Whitney v. Dresser
200 U.S. 532 (Supreme Court, 1906)
Lucas v. Swan
67 F.2d 106 (Fourth Circuit, 1933)
National Hudson River Bank v. . Moffett
57 N.E. 1118 (New York Court of Appeals, 1900)
Greenwald v. Weinberg
157 A. 351 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1931)
National Hudson River Bank v. Kinderhook & Hudson Railway Co.
17 A.D. 232 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1897)
Marquardt's Estate
95 A. 917 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1915)
Friedman v. Maltinsky
103 A. 731 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1918)
Helfrich v. Snyder
112 A. 749 (Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, 1921)
Murray v. Grover
80 Pa. Super. 56 (Superior Court of Pennsylvania, 1922)
In re Roanoke Furnace Co.
152 F. 846 (E.D. Pennsylvania, 1907)
McDonald v. Luckenbach
170 F. 434 (Third Circuit, 1909)
Grandison v. Robertson
231 F. 785 (Second Circuit, 1916)

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Bluebook (online)
15 F. Supp. 923, 1936 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2132, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-redmond-paed-1936.