Leonard v. Boston Five Cents Savings Bank

179 N.E. 229, 278 Mass. 36, 1931 Mass. LEXIS 1194
CourtMassachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
DecidedDecember 29, 1931
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 179 N.E. 229 (Leonard v. Boston Five Cents Savings Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Leonard v. Boston Five Cents Savings Bank, 179 N.E. 229, 278 Mass. 36, 1931 Mass. LEXIS 1194 (Mass. 1931).

Opinion

Sanderson, J.

In this suit the plaintiff seeks to have her title established to certificate number B45277 for thirty-one shares of the stock of the American Telephone and Telegraph Company held by the defendant bank, herein referred to as the bank, and an order that it be delivered to her.

The trial judge made a report of material facts in which it appears that early in 1928 the plaintiff opened an account with Dowling, Swain & Shea, Incorporated, stockbrokers, for trading in stock on margin, depositing at the time $720 in cash and a certificate for thirty-one shares of American Telephone and Telegraph Company stock. Certain securities were purchased and carried by the broker for her account, and in the statements rendered her from time to time it appeared that thirty-one shares of American Telephone and Telegraph Company stock as well as securities purchased were being carried for her. Late in 1929, by some mistake, the broker sold and transferred her thirty-one shares of stock. Upon learning from the telephone company in December, 1929, that her shares had been transferred, she brought the matter to the broker’s attention, the mistake was acknowledged, and it promised her that the matter would be straightened out. She did not receive a dividend in April, 1930, and when she directed the broker’s attention to this fact she was paid the amount of the dividend by the broker’s check. Thereafter she received directly from the telephone company checks for all dividends declared. In May, 1930, she was told by the broker that her telephone certificate was at the bank for safe-keeping. Beginning with January 2, 1930, the broker borrowed money of the bank from time to time upon the broker’s notes. These borrowings were represented by seven different transactions, the last being in March, 1930. The collateral was expressed to be “for the payment of this or any other liability, direct or indirect, joint or several, of the undersigned, whether now due or to become due, or [39]*39that may hereafter be contracted.” As a part of the collateral enumerated as deposited with a note for $10,000, dated February 7, 1930, were thirty-six shares of American Telephone and Telegraph Company stock, and the broker, by letter bearing the date of the note last mentioned, requested the bank to have thirty-one of these thirty-six telephone shares transferred to the plaintiff and five shares to another named person. The bank caused this to be done, and, upon receiving the new certificates one for thirty-one shares numbered B45277 issued to the plaintiff and the other for five shares issued to the other person, on February 13 notified the broker of their receipt, adding “These securities have been placed with the collateral held here as security for your loans.” On or about February 11, 1930, the plaintiff received a letter from the telephone company advising her that a certificate for thirty-one of its shares numbered B45277 had been issued in her name.

Much of the collateral originally deposited was withdrawn from time to time by the broker and other collateral substituted. Early in June, 1930, the collateral held by the bank on the broker’s loans fell below the required amount, and the broker failed upon the bank’s demand to deposit additional security. On June 26 the bank sent to an auction brokerage company for sale all the collateral then held by it on all these loans, including the certificate for thirty-one shares of telephone stock issued to the plaintiff. No notice of the proposed sale was given to the plaintiff by the bank, but the terms of the collateral notes expressly provided that no notice of such sale need be given. This certificate for thirty-one shares was returned to the bank by the brokerage company because not indorsed by the plaintiff or accompanied by an assignment signed by her. The proceeds of all the collateral that was sold were indorsed on one of the collateral notes, and the collateral originally deposited to secure the particular note of February 7 for $10,000 yielded less than $4,000. No payment had been made by the broker to the bank on any of the notes prior to the sale on June 26 except a payment of $800 in April, 1930. On June 24, 1930, an involuntary petition in bankruptcy was filed against the [40]*40broker, and it was subsequently adjudicated a bankrupt. The parties agreed that at the time of bankruptcy the' market value of telephone shares was $202, and that after deducting the market value of the securities then carried by the broker for the plaintiff’s account from the amount which she then owed she would have owed the broker $1,780.84, and that had the market value of the securities so carried and the market value of thirty-one telephone shares been applied to her account the broker would have owed the plaintiff $4,289.91. The plaintiff conceded that she is entitled to have delivered to her the thirty-one share certificate only upon paying the sum of $1,780.84. It was agreed that any amount that might have been realized on the collateral not sold on June 26, together with the market value of the thirty-one telephone shares, would have been insufficient by a substantial amount to pay the balance of the broker’s notes held by the bank. The certificate for thirty-one shares numbered B45277 is in the possession of the bank and has not at any time been in the possession of the plaintiff. It is not indorsed by her, and the trial judge found that she has not signed, nor does the bank hold, nor has it ever held, any assignment or power of attorney or other instrument purporting to transfer, or to authorize a transfer of, these thirty-one shares or any of them. He further found that the thirty-six shares pledged by the broker with the bank at the time the $10,000 loan was made were “street” certificates indorsed in blank by the parties to whom issued, and that the bank at the broker’s request and for its accommodation caused the transfer of thirty-one of the thirty-six telephone shares which it held as collateral for the $10,000 note of the broker, with no intention of diminishing its security or of surrendering the shares as part of the collateral for the loan. The original certificate for thirty-one shares deposited with the broker as margin in 1928-was accompanied by a transfer blank signed by the plaintiff. The trial judge found there was no special agreement between the plaintiff and the broker relative to her margin account, and that at no time, after the account was opened, to and including the bankruptcy did the broker have occasion to resort to the plaintiff’s thirty-one shares to [41]*41protect the account. Before the suit was brought the plaintiff had not made any payment or tender to the defendants or either of them, but had demanded of the bank delivery of the certificate numbered B45277. The trial judge found as a reasonable inference that upon its bankruptcy the broker ceased to carry for the plaintiff the securities purchased for her account and that the securities so carried were sold and the proceeds applied to that account.

In addition to finding the facts already stated, the trial judge made findings and rulings in the following terms: “I rule as matter of law that the broker was authorized to re-pledge to secure its own loans the original thirty-one telephone shares deposited by the plaintiff as margin for her account. I rule also that, had the broker continued in possession of said original certificate up to the bankruptcy, the plaintiff would be entitled as against the trustee in bankruptcy to the surrender of said certificate upon payment by the plaintiff to said trustee of the balance due on her account.

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

Related

Whitney v. Nolan
6 N.E.2d 386 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1937)
Palley v. Worcester County National Bank
195 N.E. 717 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1935)
Stuart v. Sargent
186 N.E. 649 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1933)
Fall River National Bank v. Estes
181 N.E. 242 (Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court, 1932)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
179 N.E. 229, 278 Mass. 36, 1931 Mass. LEXIS 1194, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/leonard-v-boston-five-cents-savings-bank-mass-1931.