Manufacturers Trust Co. v. Roanoke Water Works Co.

1 S.E.2d 318, 172 Va. 242, 1939 Va. LEXIS 234
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedFebruary 20, 1939
DocketRecord No. 2049
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 1 S.E.2d 318 (Manufacturers Trust Co. v. Roanoke Water Works Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Manufacturers Trust Co. v. Roanoke Water Works Co., 1 S.E.2d 318, 172 Va. 242, 1939 Va. LEXIS 234 (Va. 1939).

Opinion

Eggleston, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

In April, 1937, the city of Roanoke instituted condemnation proceedings under the provisions of chapter 176 of the Code of Virginia against the Roanoke Water Works Company (hereinafter called the Water Company) to acquire its entire water works system. The property sought to be condemned was covered by a first lien mortgage from the Water Company to Chatham Phenix National Bank and Trust Company, as trustee, securing bonds issued and outstanding in the principal sum of $3,362,800, dated July 1, 1925, maturing July 1, 1950, and bearing interest at the rate of five per centum per annum, payable semi-annually. The rights and duties of the Chatham Phenix National Bank and Trust Company as trustee had, in the meanwhile, passed to the Manufacturers Trust Company, a New York corporation. For the sake of brevity the last-named institution will be referred to as the Trustee.

The Water Company was made the sole defendant in the condemnation proceedings, and neither the Trustee nor the bondholders were joined.

In due course the award was fixed by the court at $4,-523,437. While at one time the Water Company signified its intention of applying for a writ of error to review the order fixing the award, this course was abandoned and the award was paid into court on April 28,1938, by the city of Roanoke. In the meantime an order had been entered notifying all lien creditors of the Water Company to appear before the court at ten o’clock A. M. on April 30, 1938, and prove their respective claims in order that the court might direct the immediate distribution of the award to the parties entitled thereto. Pursuant to the terms of the order a certified copy thereof was published in one of the Roanoke newspapers.

[250]*250On April 30, 1938, the Trustee appeared and filed a written proof of claim in which it asserted that the mortgage was the first and only lien on the property condemned; that bonds in the principal of $3,362,800 had been issued thereunder and were outstanding in the hands of the public; that under the express terms of the bonds the principal was not due and payable until July 1,1950; that, under the terms of the bonds and the mortgage, payment of- the principal of the bonds could be anticipated only at the election of the Water Company and then only by paying, in addition to the principal, the call premium and the amount of interest therein specified; that under the provisions of Code, section 4374, the lien of the mortgage was transferred to the award when the latter was paid into court; that under the express terms of the mortgage the entire award for the Company’s property thus taken in the condemnation proceedings should be paid to it, the Trustee, to be administered by it as a part of the trust estate; and that in express terms the mortgage conferred upon the Trustee the authority and placed upon it the duty of intervening in the present proceedings on behalf of all of the bondholders for the purpose of protecting their interests in the distribution of the award.

The prayer of the petition was that the court pay to the Trustee “the entire amount of said award, to-wit, $4,523,437, to be held and administered by it pursuant to the terms of said First Mortgage and supplements thereto.”

At the same time two holders of bonds in the sum of $1,000 each, another holder of $30,000 of bonds, and a fourth holder of $39,000 of bonds appeared by counsel. While these four bondholders filed no formal proofs of claim their respective attorneys participated in the proceedings and opposed the claim of the Trustee that the entire award be paid to it. Subsequently the attorney representing the holder of $39,000 of bonds withdrew his appearance. No other bondholder appeared at that meeting or has subsequently formally intervened in the present proceedings.

It developed at the hearing, on April 30th, from the report of counsel appointed by the court for the purpose, that [251]*251there were no liens on the property condemned except current taxes which had been assumed by the city and the first mortgage indebtedness of $3,362,800.

Shortly after this hearing the judge of the lower court, Honorable Beverley Berkeley, in a letter to counsel for the respective parties, announced his conclusion, (1) that under Code, section 4374, it was the duty of the court to distribute the fund direct to the bondholders without the intervention of the Trustee, and (2) that the condemnation proceedings had effected an acceleration of the maturity of the bonds as of April 30, 1938.

On May 11,1938, Honorable James L. Almond, Jr., sitting for and at the request of Honorable Beverley Berkeley, the latter being incapacitated by illness, entered two orders carrying into effect the conclusions announced by Judge Berkeley.

In the first of these orders the contention of the Trustee was overruled and its petition was dismissed. Thereupon the Trustee announced to the lower court its intention of immediately applying to the Supreme Court of Appeals of Virginia for a writ of error to review the action of the lower court in dismissing its petition and denying to it the right to receive and administer the award. The Trustee then moved the court “to retain in its depository pending the prosecution of said writ of error, and to enable this court to make proper disposition thereof, should the Trustee’s contentions be sustained by said Supreme Court of Appeals, a sum sufficient to cover (1) interest on the principal amount of said bonds at five per cent, from April 30th, 1938, to January 1st or July 1st following the date of probable final disposition of said writ of error, (2) the amount of the redemption price, computed in accordance with the terms of said First Mortgage as of the date aforesaid, and (3) the expense and allowance to said Trustee and its counsel as defined by said First Mortgage.”

Since the Trustee signified its unwillingness and inability to execute a proper suspending or supersedeas bond, the court declined to grant this motion.

[252]*252The lower court then proceeded, on the same day, to enter a second order which directed the special commissioner (a local bank which had been appointed for the purpose of receiving and holding the amount of the award paid into court) to hold the total amount of $3,450,000 covering the following items: Principal on all outstanding bonds, $3,362,800, interest thereon at the rate of five per centum per annum from January 1 to April 30,' 1938, $56,046.67, “to cover contingencies,” $31,153.33, and to pay the balance of $1,073,437 to the Water Company.

This order further provided that the special commissioner should pay to the holders of the first mortgage bonds “upon presentation and surrender thereof for cancellation, the par value of said bonds with interest thereon at five per cent, from January 1st, 1938, through April 30th, 1938.” The order contained a provision for notifying the bondholders to this effect both by mail to their last known addresses and by publication of such notice in the daily newspapers of Roanoke, Richmond and New York.

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Bluebook (online)
1 S.E.2d 318, 172 Va. 242, 1939 Va. LEXIS 234, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/manufacturers-trust-co-v-roanoke-water-works-co-va-1939.