Moore v. Bank of British Columbia

125 F. 849, 60 C.C.A. 431, 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4222
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedOctober 5, 1903
DocketNo. 921
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 125 F. 849 (Moore v. Bank of British Columbia) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Moore v. Bank of British Columbia, 125 F. 849, 60 C.C.A. 431, 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4222 (9th Cir. 1903).

Opinion

ROSS, Circuit Judge,

after making the foregoing statement of the case, delivered the opinion of the court.

We regard the case as a plain one. The delivery by Mrs. Moore of 5,000% shares of the Sanger Company’s stock, held by her as collateral security for the indebtedness of the Moore & Smith Company to her, was made to the defendant bank at the request of the Moore & Smith Company, and in fulfillment of one of the covenants contained in the agreement between it and the bank of September 18, 1894; and they were so delivered to the defendant bank, not as an ordinary bailment, but in trust. It is so declared in express terms, not [856]*856only in the receipt and agreement executed by the bank to Mrs. Moore at the time of the delivery to it of the stock, but also in the contract of September 18, 1894. One of the conditions of the trust agreement was that whatever dividends might be paid during the period of five years therein mentioned on the stock so delivered should be paid over by the bank to Mrs. Moore, her heirs or assigns, it being therein expressly declared that the stock was not delivered to the bank as collateral security for any debt or claim due to it by Mrs. Moore, or any other person or company, but only to enable the Moore & Smith Company to carry out its agreement with the bank of September 18, 1894, to give to it a majority of the stock of the Sanger Lumber Company “for the purpose of voting”; in other words, to give the bank the control of that corporation. By the agreement of the parties it was further stipulated, in express terms, that the bank should not be required to return to Mrs. Moore the identical shares of stock so delivered to it by her, but might, at its option, cause those certificates to be canceled and other certificates of stock to be issued in lieu thereof in such other name as it might choose, and at the expiration of the five years return to her an equal number of shares of the stock of the Sanger Company.

The stock pledged to Mrs. Moore by the Moore & Smith Lumber Company was accompanied by an express agreement on the part of that company to pay all assessments levied thereon, with a provision to the effect that, if not paid by the company, Mrs. Moore should have the right to pay the same, and add the amount thereof, with interest, to the notes for which it was held as security, and the further right, in that event, to treat the notes and interest as immediately due and payable.

As between Mrs. Moore and the defendant bank, the agreement was that she should pay all assessments levied on the stock delivered by her to the bank during the five-year period, with a provision that “if not so paid, and paid by this bank, then this bank to recoup itself, with interest at six (6) per cent, per annum, out of subsequent dividends, holding the stock in the meantime as collateral security.” It will be observed that under this provision no money paid by the bank as assessments upon the stock delivered to it by Mrs. Moore could be recovered by it from her, but only out of subsequent dividends upon the stock; until the payment of which, however, the bank should have the right to hold the stock as collateral security for assessments so paid by it. Perhaps this provision may have had something to do with the failure of the bank to avail itself of the privilege of paying the assessment upon the 5,000% shares of stock delivered to it by Mrs. Moore; for, however promising the outlook may have been at the time of entering into the agreements in question, it is quite evident from the record that “dividends” on the stock of the Sanger Lumber Company, during the period for which the stock in controversy was placed with the defendant bank, were impossible. It is not claimed that the bank ever notified Mrs. Moore that it had caused the stock delivered to it by her to be reissued in the name of one of its employés, the defendant Young, as trustee, nor that the bank ever notified her of the assessment levied by the Sanger Lumber [857]*857Company, or of the fact that the assessment upon the 5,000% shares of stock then standing in Young’s name was not paid.

Considering the 5,000% shares delivered by Mrs. Moore to the bank as being represented only by the certificate afterwards issued at the bank’s request in the name of Young, trustee, we think the bank is, in equity, bound to return to the complainant an equal number of shares, unconditionally, unless it has paid some assessment or other charge thereon. The testimony of Mrs. Moore is distinct and positive that she did not know of the assessment, and that she was financially able to have paid it. It is earnestly insisted on the part of the bank that, in view of the relationship existing between her and A. D. Moore (in whose interest and for whose benefit she manifestly delivered the stock to the defendant bank), it is incredible that the husband did not inform the wife of the assessment. We do not think so. The assessment under which the 5,000% shares standing in the name of Young, trustee, were sold, was levied January 9, 1896. The undisputed evidence is that A. D. Moore made strenuous efforts to induce the defendant bank to loan the Moore & Smith Lumber Company sufficient money with which to pay the assessment upon all the Sanger Lumber Company’s stock owned by it. It further shows that he was in London—the home office of the defendant bank—endeavoring to accomplish that result at the time of the delinquent sale. While striving and hoping to bring about that end, and thus to comply, among other things, with the obligation of his company to his wife to pay the assessment upon the stock it had pledged to her, we do not think it incredible that he failed to inform her of the assessment, or of the inability of the Moore & Smith Company to pay it as it had agreed to do. Husbands do not always tell their wives of their troubles and shortcomings. As a matter of course, in this instance A. D. Moore should have done so; but the testimony of Mrs. Moore is positive that he did not, and we see nothing in the circumstances of the case to justify the rejection of her testimony as being untrue.

As the defendant bank held the stock in question in trust for Mrs. Moore, for its own purposes, with the right to place it in the name of another of its own selection, and with the privilege of paying—in the event its cestui que trust did not do so—all assessments thereon during the trust period, recouping the amount thereof, with interest, out of the contemplated dividends, and as the bank, in the exercise of the right conferred upon it, did cause the stock of its cestui que trust to be placed in the name of one of its own employés, thereby giving it the control of the corporation, it was, upon the most obvious principles of fair dealing, bound to give its cestui que trust notice, not only of the assessment, but also of the fact that the stock which had been turned over to it in trust then stood in the name of its employé Young. Otherwise how, in any event, would its cestui que trust know upon what stock to pay? We know of no principle of equity under which a trustee of stock so placed and held, and with the stipulated right in itself to pay the assessments thereon and recoup the amount thereof with interest, can permit the same to be sold for delinquency and bought in by the corporation, other stock of which it holds, without notice to its cestui que trust either of the fact of the assessment [858]*858or of the person in whose name it has caused the trust stock to be placed. But we are of the opinion that it does not appear that any of the trust stock was ever sold for any assessment.

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Bluebook (online)
125 F. 849, 60 C.C.A. 431, 1903 U.S. App. LEXIS 4222, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/moore-v-bank-of-british-columbia-ca9-1903.