Markworth v. State Savings Bank

251 N.W. 857, 217 Iowa 341
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedDecember 12, 1933
DocketNo. 41499.
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 251 N.W. 857 (Markworth v. State Savings Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Markworth v. State Savings Bank, 251 N.W. 857, 217 Iowa 341 (iowa 1933).

Opinion

*342 Anderson, J.

The material question here involved is one of fact. The appellant bank received an assignment of an insurance policy on February 23, 1923, of approximately $2,000, upon the life of Paul C. Markworth. The assignment was for security of indebtedness of said Paul C. Markworth to the bank, and recited an assignment and transfer to the bank of the policy of insurance, “as interest may appear.” On March 1, 1924, the bank took from Paul C. Markworth a chattel mortgage covering crops and other personal property and securing one note for $1,250.00, and “every and all of accounts, notes and dues in any manner due or owing by me to the mortgagee or assigns at any time until this mortgage is fully paid.” Shortly after this last transaction, Paul C. Markworth left the country and later died. The bank collected upon the insurance policy $2,292.53. It also collected from the chattel mortgaged property $567.36, or a total of $2,859.89. After this controversy arose it paid to the administrator of the estate of Paul C. Mark-worth some small amount of money collected by it, and retained the balance to pay an alleged indebtedness due it from the said Paul C. Markworth. A part of the indebtedness for which the bank claimed a lien upon the insurance proceeds involved a promissory note of $500 dated March 19, 1921, and signed by Sidney Lundgren, Paul Markworth, and Clarence Lundgren, in the order designated. The first and last signatures were written in ink, the middle one in pencil. The amount due upon this note at the time of the trial was $1,026, and this amount had been retained by the hank to satisfy the said note. The controversy here is as to whether said note constitutes a valid indebtedness against the estate of Paul C. Markworth. The trial court found that it did not, and entered judgment against the bank for the sum of $1,026 and costs. From such finding and judgment the bank prosecutes this appeal.

The plaintiff brought his action, as administrator of the estate of Paul C. Markworth, alleging the collection by the bank of the sum of $2,292.53, upon the insurance policy, and the appropriation thereof by the bank. The bank by answer admitted that it had collected and appropriated the money, admitted the assignment of the insurance policy to it, and alleged that at the time of the assignment the said Paul C. Markworth was indebted to it and later incurred additional indebtedness; that the assignment to the bank permitted it to receive and retain the proceeds of the policy as its interest might appear, to wit, the amount he might then owe it; and while *343 it does not appear in the abstract, we will assume that the bank claimed that at the time of the collection of the insurance by it, the indebtedness of Paul C. Markworth to the bank approximated the amount of the insurance collected. There is no dispute but what inclusive of the $500 note here involved the indebtedness of Paul C. Markworth to the bank approximated the amount of the insurance collected. The sole question of fact therefore narrows down to the question: Was the bank entitled to withhold the money collected by it in extinguishment of the $500 note? The plaintiff claims that this note was not a binding obligation- of Paul C. Mark-worth; that it was not Paul C. Markworth’s indebtedness; that it was executed by him without consideration and as an accommodation to the bank. This is the question we will first discuss. Some question is raised as to where the burden of proof rested; the plaintiff contending that the burden was upon the bank to prove that its alleged indebtedness was valid and subsisting, and the defendant contending that the burden was upon the plaintiff to show that the note in question was not a valid and subsisting indebtedness against the estate of Paul C. Markworth, on account of being executed without consideration and as an accommodation to the bank. We do not think this question is highly material to a determination of the fact question. However, it would seem that the burden was upon the bank in the first instance to show an indebtedness equaling the amount of money it appropriated, but that it met this burden by the introduction in the record of the promissory note in question. This note was in due form and imported a consideration. The burden would then be upon the plaintiff to sustain its allegations that the note was signed by Paul C. Markworth without consideration and as an accommodation to the bank.

Paul C. Markworth was dead at the time of the trial, and the evidence as to the facts and circumstances surrounding his execution of the note in question is necessarily to quite an extent circumstantial, although much of it is quite direct and convincing. It appears without dispute that the chattel mortgage, heretofore mentioned, secured a described note for $1,250. It also secured “Every and all of accounts, notes and dues in any manner due or owing * * * at any time until this mortgage is fully paid.” This mortgage was taken' by the bank at a time when the note of $500 was past due more than three years. It appears that an action was brought upon this chattel mortgage in March, 1926, alleging an *344 indebtedness due the bank thereon of $1,250 only. The chattel mortgage was broad enough by its terms to have covered the $500 note in question. There is testimony in the record that the managing officer of the bank, upon being asked .as to the amount of Paul’s indebtedness, said that it was in the neighborhood of $1,300. Otto Markworth testified, “I says to him (Swingen, cashier of the bank), ‘About how much does Paul owe you?’ ‘Well,’ he said, ‘around the neighborhood of $1,300.00, which was renewal of debts he had owed for years.’ ” Frank Senneff, an attorney who represented the Paul C. Markworth estate, and also represented a Mr. Armstrong, in a suit involving the chattel mortgage, also testified: “He (Swingen) told me that Paul was indebted to the bank some where around $1,300.00; he also stated, ‘I am going to foreclose my chattel mortgage, and if we have any loss it will be very small, so I am not going to bother about the corn.’ ” H. C. Armstrong, who was the title holder of land occupied by Paul C. Markwprth, also testified that in conversation with Mr. Swingen, he (Swingen) told Armstrong that Paul “owed him about $1,250.00, and he thought he had enough stuff there to cover it.” It must be remembered that at the time of these various conversations, Paul C. Markworth had left the .country, and the bank could have gotten no obligations from him thereafter. In 1929, and after the death of Paul, at a time when the bank was claiming the additional amount here involved as an indebtedness due from Paul C. Markworth, the witness Senneff, in a conversation with Swingen, said he could not understand why he was now claiming so much money, while in 1924 he was claiming around $1,250. The only response to this, as testified to by Senneff, was, “I am telling you now that he owes that amount, something over $2,000.00,” and that he made no other explanation. This testimony is quite pertinent and deserves consideration in conjunction with the testimony to which we will now refer.

It is not claimed by the bank that Paul received anything from the bank upon the note in question or on account of signing the same. It was a note of Sidney and Clarence Lundgren. The nature of the signatures thereto raises some question in the mind. As we have stated, the first of the signatures was Sidney Lundgren, written in ink; the next is Paul Markworth,.

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251 N.W. 857, 217 Iowa 341, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/markworth-v-state-savings-bank-iowa-1933.