Kansas City Hotel Co. v. Sauer

65 Mo. 279
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedOctober 15, 1877
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 65 Mo. 279 (Kansas City Hotel Co. v. Sauer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kansas City Hotel Co. v. Sauer, 65 Mo. 279 (Mo. 1877).

Opinion

Sherwood, C. J.

Action on bond given by defendant to plaintiff, conditioned that former would save latter harmless from any claim or demand against plaintiff or its hotel property, by reason of any liability incurred by, or [286]*286through four several mechanics’ liens, defend all suits that might he pending or thereafter brought by the claimants under such liens, pay off, discharge and satisfy any and all such judgment, which might be recovered by such claimants against the plaintiff or its hotel property, and release said property therefrom before the same was advertised, or the plaintiff or any member of its company -was annoyed by any execution, &e. The petition alleged, that the claims covenanted against ripened into judgments enforcing the liens against the hotel property ; that, defendant failing to pay the judgments, the property was sold, and plaintiff, for the protection of its property, had to pay off the executions issued on such judgments, as well as costs, whereby it was damaged, &c. There were three counts in the petition, and Jive breaches in the first count. The substance of the four breaches has just been stated. The fifth breach related to expenses, attorneys’ fees- and costs accrued in consequence of the sale to Borgstede, which compelled plaintiff to pay $500 in proceedings by motions, &c., to set such sale aside, whereby plaintiff was damaged $1,000. It is immaterial to notice the second count, as the finding thereon was for the defendant. The third count was for joists which defendant failed to furnish. The answer contained several defenses : "a dissolution of the corporation at time of action brought, and, after the bond was executed, the nullity of the judgments, executions, sales, etc. The finding of the court was for plaintiff on all the breaches in the first count; on the fifth one in that count in the sum of $500, the undenied allegation as to the amount paid out for attorneys’ fees, &c., being taken as confessed. There was a finding for plaintiffs on the third count also.

i answer-admismeasureeVofaam*ses-

I. We regard as correct the action of the lower court in holding the allegation of the payment of the $500 as confessed, and we have been unable to.see why an allegation of the payment of this sort should not, in the absence of denial, [287]*287stand admitted as well as any other allegation of payment. Thus, if a surety in a promissory note should be compelled to pay $500 for his principal, and should, in an action for its recovery, allege the payment as a fact, this allegation, if undenied, must result in a judgment in the surety’s behalf. It would be extremély difficult to distinguish that case from the one in hand in point of principle, or show why the allegation of payment remaining in the hypothetical case un denied, should be taken as true, while in the real one a similar allegation, likewise undenied, should, unless established by proof, be taken as false. “We see no sound reason in such an attempted distinction. No doubt, there are many cases where allegations of value, amount of damages, &c., are immaterial and need no denial. But the allegation before us is that of a specific and material fact, which becomes none the less specific and.material because no denial thereof be interposed. Very often, as well under the code as at the common law,'the pleadings may be so shaped as to render that material which otherwise would not be so. This we regard as having been done in the present instance. The point now being discussed finds illustration in the case of Marshall v. Thames Fire Ins. Co. (43 Mo. 586). There, in order to a recovery, it need not to have been alleged that the steamer Magnolia was worth “ more than all the insurance thereon,” but this allegation, not being denied, was held admitted.

2. dissolved cor-B°t^eo0faiis.slJIT

II. The pertinency of the citations relative to the plea nul tiel corporation, we are not able to see. The answer, by alleging the dissolution of the corporation after the date of the bond or agreement declared on, necessarily admitted the fact of the corporate organization and existence at the execution of the contract declared on. If, since that time, the corporation had become unincorporate, the only effect thereof, under our statutes (Wag. Stat. 293, Sec. 21), so far as concerns the present action, would be, that suit would have to be brought by those who weré its officers at the time of disso[288]*288lution, as trustees of the corporation. But failing to sue in that way, can have worked the defendant no hurt, even if the corporation were really dissolved as averred, and therefore constitutes no ground for reversal. And if there were any formal defect in this particular, our statute of jeofails (2 Wag. Stat. pp. 1084 et seq., sections 6, 19 and 20) would doubtless both suggest and supply a ready remedy.

d , „ mT™. 3. corporation: dissolution of.

ITT: The sale, however, of the hotel property by plaintiff would not per se accomplish its dissolution (Hill v. Fogg, 41 Mo. 563), nor would a dissolution of corporate existence be implied by mere cessation of active business. (State Nat. Bank v. Robidoux; 57 Mo. 446.)

4. mechanics’lien ÍMNESTBtni,raNCÍ

IV. The judgments and sales thereunder in the four mechanics’ lien cases, covenanted against in the bond sued, were neither nullities nor void. It may be conceded that this description: “ The following described real estate, to-wit, the Nelson House Building, situated on lots 27 and 30, and 40 feet off the south side of lot 26,” &c., contained in all the proceedings for the enforcement of the liens from inception to termination, would not bind the lots mentioned. But those proceedings were not necessarily void. The hotel building was still bound, for under the chapter respecting mechanics’ liens (section 3, p. 908, 2 Wag. Stat.), the lien may be enforced against the building alone, and the purchaser thereof at execution sale have reasonable time for its removal. And this right of enforcement against and removal of the building is not confined to leasehold property. The case of Bridwell v. Clark (39 Mo. 170), is based on the lien law applicable to St. Louis county alone, (Sess. acts 1856-7, p. 668,) and does not perhaps, when rightly considered, militate against the views just enunciated ; and if it did, we regard our own exposition of the statute under discussion as the correct one. As the liens and the judgments, &c., enforcing them, were valid, so far as respects the hotel building, the conditions of the bond were obviously broken [289]*289when the sale of the property occurred. The plaintiff assuredly was not saved harmless.

5r indemnifying dama¿esfaattorney’s fees.

V. The only remaining inquiry is that relative to the plaintiff’s measure of damages. In the case of the State use> Íc- v Beldsmeier, (56 Mo.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Ford v. Dixon
157 S.W. 99 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1913)
Toner v. Whybrew
98 N.E. 450 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1912)
Brookline Canning & Packing Co. v. Evans
146 S.W. 828 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1912)
Elliott v. Sullivan
137 S.W. 287 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1911)
Kirkwood Manufacturing & Supply Co. v. Sunkel
128 S.W. 258 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1910)
Snead v. Scheble
175 F. 570 (Sixth Circuit, 1909)
Youree v. Home Town Mutual Insurance
79 S.W. 175 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1904)
Cousins v. Paxton & Gallagher Co.
98 N.W. 277 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1904)
Sawyer & Austin Lumber Co. v. Clark
73 S.W. 137 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1903)
Ready v. Smith
70 S.W. 484 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1902)
Mayes v. Murphy
93 Mo. App. 37 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1902)
Coal Creek, etc., Co. v. Tennessee Coal, etc., Co.
106 Tenn. 651 (Tennessee Supreme Court, 1901)
State ex rel. Fleming v. Henderson
86 Mo. App. 482 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1900)
Sawyer-Austin Lumber Co. v. Clark
82 Mo. App. 225 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1899)
Bump v. Butler County
93 F. 290 (U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Eastern Missouri, 1899)
Donovan v. Johnson
13 App. D.C. 356 (D.C. Circuit, 1898)
Fathman & Miller Planing Mill Co. v. Christophel
60 Mo. App. 106 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1894)
F. G. Oxley Stave Co. v. Butler County
26 S.W. 367 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1894)
Crooker v. Grant
24 S.W. 689 (Court of Appeals of Texas, 1893)
State ex rel. Patterson v. Tittman
54 Mo. App. 490 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1893)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
65 Mo. 279, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kansas-city-hotel-co-v-sauer-mo-1877.