Kamm v. Rees

177 F. 14, 100 C.C.A. 432, 1910 U.S. App. LEXIS 4330
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedFebruary 14, 1910
DocketNo. 1,762
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 177 F. 14 (Kamm v. Rees) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kamm v. Rees, 177 F. 14, 100 C.C.A. 432, 1910 U.S. App. LEXIS 4330 (9th Cir. 1910).

Opinion

GIRBERT, Circuit Judge

(after stating the facts as above). The defendant assigns error to the refusal of the court to instruct the jury that if they found from the evidence that the plaintiffs at any time elected to treat the contracts as the contracts of the Snake River Transportation Company, the defendant could not be held liable thereon in the present action, and he invokes the doctrine that where a plaintiff has a right to proceed either against the principal for whom a contract was made, or the agent by whom it was made, and he elects to hold either of those liable, he thereby releases the other. We are unable to see liow that doctrine was applicable to the present case. According to the testimony of the plaintiffs, they never at any time had the right to make an election and never did make an election, but they contracted ■ with and gave credit to the defendant in his individual capacity, and not as the agent of another. According to the theory of the defendant, as set forth in his answer and in his testimony, the plaintiffs had no right of election, but, contracted with, and gave credit to, the Snake River Transportation Company only. Not only did the plaintiffs testify that the defendant was the principal in the transaction and that they dealt with him individually, but it is shown that at the time when the contract was made the Snake River Transportation Company was not yet in existence. The corporation was not referred to in the communication in which inquiry was made as to the time within which the engines and boiler could be constructed, nor in the final communication by which the defendant closed the contract, and, although the plaintiffs subsequently credited the payments which were made thereon to the Snake River Transportation Company, they testified that they did so at the request of the defendant for reasons which he gave, and that they never, at any time, looked to the corporation for payment, or gave credit in fact to any one save the defendant in his individual capacity. The [20]*20question with whom was the contract made, and to whom was the credit extended, was the leading question in the case, and the court, under proper instructions, submitted it to the decision of the jury.

Several assignments of error present the question whether or not the judgment rendered against the Snake River Transportation Company at the suit of Shindler is a bar to the present action. It is contended that a stockholder of a corporation is in privity with the corporation, and that, since the defendant was a stockholder of the corporation defendant in that action, the judgment therein was binding upon him, and he may plead it in bar of the present action. To this contention there are two answers: First, a stockholder is not in all relations in privity with his corporation, and it is generally held that he is in privity only as to rights arising out of his contracts for subscription for stock. Clausen v. Head, 110 Wis. 405, 85 N. W. 1028, 84 Am. St. Rep. 933; Andrews v. National Foundry & Pipe Works, 76 Fed. 172, 22 C. C. A. 110, 36 L. R. A. 139; State Bank v. Bobo, 11 Rich. Law (S. C.) 597. In the second place, in order that a defendant may plead in bar a judgment in a prior action, he must have been a party to oiq represented in the former action as an actual defendant, and in the same attitude as an adversary party toward the subject of the litigation as that in which he appears in the second. There is evidence in this case which tends to show that the defendant not only did not appear, and was not represented in the capacity of a defendant in the Shindler case, but that he was in a sense the real party in interest therein as plaintiff, that the action was brought at his instance and for the protection of his own interests, and that he was the actual manager of the conduct of the case for the plaintiff, and bore the expense thereof. If it be true that the plaintiffs in this case assigned their claim to Shindler at the instance of the defendant, and on the agreement and understanding that it was for his benefit and that the assignment was not to affect their right of recourse against him as their debtor, the defendant is in no position to advance the plea of estoppel by the former judgment. He is himself estopped to allege estoppel.

Error is assigned to the admission of testimony tending to show that McMurchey was the agent of the defendant, and evidence of statements and admissions made by McMurchey at the time of his visit to Pittsburgh, and to the instruction of the court to the jury that, if McMurchey went to Pittsburgh at the defendant’s instance and as his agent, the defendant would be bound by all that he said and did within the scope of his agency or the purpose for which he was sent, and to the refusal of a requested instruction that no promise or representation made by McMurchey to the plaintiffs to the effect that he would advise the defendant that the latter was bound to pay the plaintiffs any amount whatsoever, could be considered by the jury in undertaking to arrive at their verdict. It is argued that inasmuch as the declarations of a person assuming to act as the agent of another, or claiming to be such agent, are not admissible in the first instance to prove the agency, nor to prove the extent thereof, it was error to permit the plaintiffs to testify that McMurchey represented himself [21]*21to be the agent of the defendant. But the evidence of McMurchey’s agency does not consist alone in his own declarations. There is direct and competent evidence that he was such agent in the testimony of William M. Rees, who testified that, when McMurchey came to Pittsburgh, “He had one of our letters and a letter from Jacob Kamm introducing him to us as his attorney. I read the letter from Jacob Kamm introducing Mr. McMurchey as his attorney.” The witness had had, a long course of dealing with the defendant, by correspondence, and he must have known the defendant’s handwriting. No attempt was made to show that he did not. James McAfee, who at that time was an employe of the plaintiff's, also testified that Mr. McMurchey came to Pittsburgh “with a letter of introduction as Mr. Katntn's attorney.” Such a letter would stand for a power of attorney for all-the declarations and representations of the agent made in connection with the business on which he was sent. It was competent to show that he said that the defendant was having trouble with his partners, and that he wanted the plaintiffs to make an assignment of their account to him and also to another person, for the purpose of protecting him in a settlement with his partners. McMurchey’s statement that the defendant was morally and legally responsible for the debt, while it was not competent evidence for the purpose of proving the defendant’s liability, since it was a declaration of an agent as to a past transaction of his principal, was nevertheless competent and proper for the purpose of showing by what representations the plaintiffs were induced to assign their account, and upon what they relied in so doing. There is other evidence in the record tending to show that McMurchey in obtaining the assignment acted as the defendant’s attorney. It is true that he had been the attorney of the Snake River Transportation Company, but it is evident that if he went to Pittsburgh at the instance of the defendant, to obtain for him, or to another for his use, an assignment of the plaintiffs’ account, to be used in a settlement of his difficulties with his partners, and for his own protection as against them, McMurchey was acting in a capacity hostile to the corporation and to the other stockholders, and was' representing the defendant only. There is other testimony in the record tending to show that he was the defendant’s attorney.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
177 F. 14, 100 C.C.A. 432, 1910 U.S. App. LEXIS 4330, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kamm-v-rees-ca9-1910.