McNeil Construction Co. v. Livingston State Bank

185 F. Supp. 197, 3 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 293, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3501
CourtDistrict Court, D. Montana
DecidedJuly 15, 1960
DocketNo. 758
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 185 F. Supp. 197 (McNeil Construction Co. v. Livingston State Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. Montana primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
McNeil Construction Co. v. Livingston State Bank, 185 F. Supp. 197, 3 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 293, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3501 (D. Mont. 1960).

Opinion

MURRAY, Chief Judge.

In a former decision in this case on December 4, 1957, this Court held that McNeil Construction Company was not the proper party plaintiff and could not maintain the action in its own behalf, but because it had been suggested in briefs that McNeil should be permitted to maintain the action on behalf of Seaboard Surety Company as a trustee of an express trust, leave was granted McNeil to file an amended complaint to attempt to state a claim as trustee of an express trust. McNeil Construction Co. v. Livingston State Bank, D.C., 160 F.Supp. 809. Pursuant to this leave, plaintiff filed an amended complaint attempting to state a claim as trustee of an express trust for Seaboard, and defendant moved to dismiss the amended complaint upon the ground that it failed to state a claim upon which relief could be granted. After hearing, and considering the case in its entire context, including the decision of December 4, 1957, this Court held on April 10, 1958, that the amended complaint did not state a claim as trustee of an express trust upon which relief could be granted, and dismissed the amended complaint. Defendant appealed, challenging the correctness of this Court’s decisions of December 4, 1957, [199]*199and April 10, 1958, and the Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit reversed. McNeil Construction Co. v. Livingston State Bank, 265 F.2d 308, 312.

The Court of Appeals did not consider or review this Court’s ruling of December 4, 1957, holding simply that the amended complaint stated a claim for debt upon which relief could be granted, and reversed the case with directions to this Court to order stricken from the amended complaint “the exhibits attached thereto, all allegations concerning Lex Lamb or the theft of blank checks or the forgery of appellant’s (McNeil’s) name or the payment of forged checks, and all allegations concerning Seaboard Surety Company or the blanket position bond or the application for reimbursement or the loan receipt agreement or the payment thereunder,” and to deny the motion to dismiss the amended complaint.

Upon compliance with the mandate of the Court of Appeals, and striking the allegations directed to be stricken, the amended complaint alleged in substance the corporate existence of the parties and that the matter in controversy exceeds $3,000; that the defendant is engaged in the banking business; that plaintiff is engaged in the general construction business, and maintained a bank account with the defendant bank in excess of $5,000; and that the defendant refuses to refund to plaintiff the sum of $4,148.-16, which is alleged to be due and owing to plaintiff from defendant.

To this amended complaint, defendant filed an answer containing three defenses, the first a general denial; the second an allegation that the sum of $4,148.16 was paid by defendant in honor of payroll checks of the plaintiff company drawn on the bank account referred to in the amended complaint and made payable to one Lex Lamb, an employee of the plaintiff, and that plaintiff had been paid said sum of $4,148.16 by Seaboard Surety Company, the surety for said Lex Lamb. The third defense in the answer is that plaintiff is not the real party in interest for the reasons set forth in the second defense.

Thereafter, defendant filed a motion for summary judgment, supported by the affidavit of one of counsel for defendant, and plaintiff filed a cross-motion for summary judgment, based upon the affidavits previously filed in support of its former motion for summary judgment. Thus the case now presents precisely the same issues as were considered by the Court and decided in its decision of December 4, 1957, 160 F.Supp. 809, and reference is made to that decision for a recital of the facts appearing from the affidavits. Those issues are:

1. Did the advance of $4,148.16 by Seaboard Surety Company to McNeil Construction Company under the loan receipt agreement constitute “payment” or merely a loan; and

2. If such advance was in fact “payment” and not merely a “loan”, is McNeil Construction Company the proper party plaintiff to maintain this action under the provisions of Rule 17(a) of the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure, 28 U.S.C.A. ?

One question which was suggested but not decided in the decision of December 4, 1957, has been put to rest by the Court of Appeals’ decision, and that is the question of whether McNeil Construction Company could recover in this action as trustee of an express trust for Seaboard Surety Co. The Court said, at page 312 of 265 F.2d:

“The amended complaint alleged that the action was brought by appellant ‘not only on its own behalf, but as trustee of an express trust under the provisions of Exhibit B,’ meaning, obviously, the provisions of the loan receipt agreement. It did not appear from the amended complaint that appellant was, in fact, the trustee of an express trust under the provisions of the loan receipt agreement or otherwise. Thus the amended complaint failed to state a claim upon which relief could [200]*200be granted to appellant as such trustee.”

Likewise, any issue of negligence on the part of the defendant bank in cashing the checks has no place in this case. That issue would be relevant and material only in an action for negligence, or in an action by the surety against the bank in determining whether the equities in favor of the surety outweighed those in favor of the bank so as to entitle the surety to subrogation. Meyers v. Bank of America Nat. Trust & Savings Ass’n, 11 Cal.2d 92, 77 P.2d 1084; American Bonding Co. v. State Savings Bank, 47 Mont. 332, 133 P. 367, 46 L.R.A.,N.S., 557. Obviously this is not an action by the surety, and the Court of Appeals has held that it is an action for debt, not for negligence.

On the issue as to whether the lom receipt transaction between Seaboard Surety Company and McNeil Construction Company constituted payment to McNeil or merely a loan, the Court adheres to its opinion expressed in the decision of December 4, 1957, that the transaction constituted payment to McNeil for the reasons set forth in that decision. That opinion is further confirmed by a consideration of the decision of the Montana Supreme Court in Rae v. Cameron, 112 Mont. 159, 114 P.2d 1060, cited by plaintiff. While the Montana Court in that case was not considering a loan receipt transaction such as is here involved, it did undertake to define what a loan is in these words, at page 1063 of the Pacific Reporter:

“In disposing of this cause, we do so after having had the advantage of reargument of counsel on rehearing. At that time, emphasis was centered particularly on the proposition that the agreement contemplated no more than a loan transaction. With this contention we cannot agree, chiefly because of the contingent circumstances set forth in the agreement under which reimbursement was to be made for funds advanced, and the general tenor thereof as well. Without extended comment on that phase of the matter we content ourselves with the following quotation, from Volume 38 C.J. 127: ‘A loan is temporary, a temporary letting for a temporary use. It is an essential and characteristic feature of a loan that it be returnable.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
185 F. Supp. 197, 3 Fed. R. Serv. 2d 293, 1960 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 3501, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/mcneil-construction-co-v-livingston-state-bank-mtd-1960.