J. M. Dresser Co. v. Hibernia Bank & Trust Co.

67 So. 15, 136 La. 314, 1914 La. LEXIS 1947
CourtSupreme Court of Louisiana
DecidedOctober 19, 1914
DocketNo. 20386
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 67 So. 15 (J. M. Dresser Co. v. Hibernia Bank & Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Louisiana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
J. M. Dresser Co. v. Hibernia Bank & Trust Co., 67 So. 15, 136 La. 314, 1914 La. LEXIS 1947 (La. 1914).

Opinion

MONROE, C. J.

Defendant prosecutes this appeal from a judgment declaring paid and canceled (by the tender, and the deposit in the registry of the district court, of $19,000) plaintiff’s note for $30,000, upon which there appears a credit of $11,000, theretofore paid on account, and ordering defendant to surrender the note, together with 200 shares of the stock of the Schwing Lumber & Shingle Company, Limited, pledged for its payment. Plaintiff answers the appeal, praying that the judgment be amended by allowing it damages, as claimed in the original petition, in the sum of $5,000, alleged to have been sustained by reason of the protest of the note, after tender of payment.

It appears that plaintiff borrowed $30,000 from. defendant, for which it gave the note thus mentioned, executed by it on June 13, 1911, made payable to the order of defendant, on December 17, 1911, with interest from maturity, indorsed in blank by J. M. Dresser, plaintiff’s then president, and further secured by the pledge of 200 shares of the stock of the Schwing Lumber & Shingle Company, Limited, and 1,000 shares of the stock of the Suburban Realty Company; that, at or before the maturity of the note, the stock of the realty company was sold, and the proceeds, amounting to $11,000, applied in part payment thereof, leaving due the balance of $19,000, of which plaintiff made tender, coupled with a demand ipr the surrender of the stock of the lumber company, which action, upon the refusal of defendant to surrender the stock, was followed by the institution of this suit, the issuance of writs of injunction and sequestration, and the deposit in court of the $19,000. The note reads, in part, as follows:

“$30,000. New Orleans, June 13, 1911.
“December 17, after date, we, signers, indorsers, sureties, and all of us, in solido, promise to pay to the order of Hibernia Bank & Trust Company, at their office, in New Orleans, Louisiana, thirty thousand no/100 dollars, for value received, with interest thereon, at the rate of 8 per cent, per ann.um from maturity until paid. This note is secured by pledge and delivery of the securities mentioned on the reverse hereof. Should said securities decline in value, the maker of this note hereby agrees, within twenty-four hours from demand on him to that effect, to furnish and pledge additional securities, satisfactory to the holder of this note, to cover such decline. And the failure or refusal by the maker to furnish such additional securities, when so called for, shall at once mature this note and pledge.
“Should this note not be paid at maturity, * * the then holder thereof is hereby authorized to sell the pledged securities * * * and * * * to transfer any shares of stock * * * on the books of the company issuing the same. * * * The proceeds of the sale of the pledged securities shall be applied: (1) To the pajnnent of all costs and commissions for selling ; (2) to the payment of this note, in principal and interest, and the 5 per cent, attorney’s fees below stipulated; and (3) to the payment of any other indebtedness, then due or thereafter to become due, by the maker of this note to the said Hibernia Bank & Trust Company, to the-sum of $250,000. * * The securities pledged with this note are also pledged to secure any other obligation of the maker or makers, due or hereafter to become due to the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company.”
“[Signed] J. M. Dresser Co., Ltd.,
“By. J. M. Dresser, Prest.”

Upon the reverse there appear: The indorsement, in blank, of J. M. Dresser; a memorandum of the securities pledged; and a credit of $11,000, -resulting from the sale of the stock of the realty company.

It further appears that defendant holds, another note, similar in terms to that above quoted, but for $60,000, drawn by the Southern Gravel & Material Company, through J. M. Dresser, president, and indorsed by Dresser individually, which is past-due and unpaid, and upon which there appears a pros[317]*317pect of loss; and defendant, in its answer, gives its reasons for refusing to surrender the stock pledged for the security of the $30,000 note as follows:

“That, under the terms of the said $30,000 note of the J. M. Dresser Company, Limited, it is provided that the ‘securities pledged with this note are also pledged to secure any other obligations of the maker or makers due or hereafter to become due to the Hibernia Bank & Trust Company’; ® ,® ® that, under the terms of said note of the Dresser Company, Limited, * * s= and tlaat of the Southern Gravel & Material Company, * * * it is provided * * * ‘that we, the signers, indorsers, sureties, and all of us, in solido,’ bind and obligate ourselves to the conditions stipulated in said notes, and the said J. M. Dresser is, under the law, a comaker and co-obligor in solido, as being i such signer, indorser, surety, and maker. * * * Now, your respondent avers that the 200 shares of the Sehwing Lumber & Shingle Company which were deposited in pledge * * * to secure the $30,000 note * * * were, and are, the property of J. M. Dresser individually, and [were] deposited by him, as comaker with said J. M. Dresser Company, Limited, as security for the payment of said note, and said 200 shares were in no sense the property of the said J. M. Dresser Company, Limited, and that, under the law and under the terms of the two respective notes of $30,000 and $60,000, the said securities — to wit, the 200 shares of the .Sehwing Lumber & Shingle Company — were also pledged to secure the payment, by the said J. M. Dresser, as comaker in solido, of the $60,000 note subscribed by the said Southern Gravel & Material Company.”

The evidence does not sustain the allegation that the 200 shares of stock in controversy belongs to J. M. Dresser,' or that they belonged to him when either of the notes which have' been mentioned was executed, but shows that, although he had owned the shares for several years, and, during part of that time, being plaintiff’s president, had used them as collateral in borrowing money for plaintiff, he had, on March 29, 1909, conveyed them to plaintiff, for a valuable consideration, and that plaintiff has since then been the sole owner, and has enjoyed the exclusive use of them. The inquiry in the district court concerning the ownership of the stock and the manner and effect of its use, in so far as defendant is concerned, extended over a wide range, and a consideration in detail of all the facts developed would be unprofitable, Those which appear to us to have the more material bearing upon, the result may. be stated as follows: Edward Wisner and J. M. Dresser were, for a number of years, engaged in business together, under the firm name of Wisner & Dresser. The general character of the business, we infer, was the purchase, development, and sale of lands, and we also infer that the business was carried on rather through the medium of corporations promoted by them than by the partnership itself or its members. The partnership was eventually dissolved, and Dresser appears thereafter to have conducted his business mainly through corporations established by him, and referred to in this case as “Dresser Corporations” ; the amount of business done by him individually, and with the defendant, having been, so far as this record discloses, comparatively inconsiderable. The plaintiff corporation was established on June 25, 1907, with a declared capital of $100,000, of which M. A. Dresser subscribed for $80,000, J. M. Dresser for $10,000, and M. S. Dresser for $10,000; M. A. and M. S.

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Bluebook (online)
67 So. 15, 136 La. 314, 1914 La. LEXIS 1947, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/j-m-dresser-co-v-hibernia-bank-trust-co-la-1914.