National Acceptance Co. v. Royal Indemnity Co.

9 Tenn. App. 515, 1929 Tenn. App. LEXIS 108
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedJanuary 19, 1929
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 9 Tenn. App. 515 (National Acceptance Co. v. Royal Indemnity Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Acceptance Co. v. Royal Indemnity Co., 9 Tenn. App. 515, 1929 Tenn. App. LEXIS 108 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1929).

Opinion

FAW, P. J.

By its bill in this case the complainant, National Acceptance Company, a Tennessee corporation, is seeking to recover of the defendant, Royal Indemnity Company, a New York corporation, the sum of $3134, with interest from January 13, 1927, upon a bond executed by the David-Mathis Motor Company as principal and the defendant Royal Indemnity Company as surety.

On final hearing, the Chancellor dismissed the bill and taxed the complainant and its surety with the costs, whereupon the com *516 plainant brouglit the ease to this court by appeal, and is here insisting, through assignments of error, brief, and oral argument of counsel, that the decree of the chancery court was erroneous and should be reversed.

The written “findings and opinion” of the Chancellor, made a part of the record, are as follows:

“This is a suit to recover $3134 on a bond executed for a consideration by the David-Mathis Motor Company (hereinafter called the Motor Company), as principal, and the Royal Indemnity Company as surety, to the National Acceptance Company, in the sum- of five thousand dollars.
“The tennis of the bond, in substance, are: That the National Acceptance Company will, from time to time, advance sums of money to the David-Mathis Motor Company, upon trust receipts executed by the said Motor Company to the National Acceptance Company, copy of which is attached and made a part of the bond, on certain motor vehicles placed in possession of the Motor Company, which they are to hold in trust as the property of the National Acceptance Company and return on demand; if the Motor Company shall comply with the terms of said agreement, the obligation to be void.
“The fifth condition or limitation in the bond, compliance with which is a condition precedent to recovery thereon, provides in substance that the National Acceptance Company shall, before the 10th day of each month, deliver to the Royal Indemnity Company a written statement of all motor vehicles delivered to the Motor Company under trust receipts during the preceding month.
‘iThe trust • receipt attached to and made part of the bond has a blank space for the name of the bank, distributor olfactory delivering cars, acting for the National Acceptance Company, from whom said Motor Company received bill of lading on credit arranged by the National Acceptance Company. The Motor Company agreed in said receipt to hold the motor vehicles described therein in trust, as the property of the National Acceptance Company and to return same on de-m'and. Copies of the trust receipts for the cars involved were called for and filed as a part of the bill, and they reveal on their face that these cars were received from the Chevrolet Motor Ohio Co. of Norwood, Ohio, acting for the National Acceptance Company for the account of the said D'avid-Mathis Motor Company, the Chevrolet Motor Ohio Company’s name being printed in the blank space referred to in the trust receipt made a part of the policy.
*517 “The bill averred in substance that under this trust arrangement, complainant National Acceptance. Company advanced money on the Chevrolet automobiles involved, and that David-Mathis Motor Company placed the cars on the floor of its place of business and when they were checked the cars involved were missing, which had been placed in its possession, and that they had violated the terms of the bond by failing to return or pay for the cars on demand.
“The bill was amended so as to aver that the cars covered by said trust receipts had been delivered to the David-Mathis Motor Company by the factory as new ears, and were unloaded from the cars when they arrived and were stored in the warehouse at Watertown, Tennessee, and negotiable warehouse receipts issued therefor in the nam|e of the David-Mathis Motor Company, which were endorsed by the said Motor Company and sent to the National Acceptance Company, accompanied by a draft drawn by the David-Mathis Motor Company upon the National Acceptance Company for the amount advanced to the David-Mathis Motor Company on each car, and that the draft and warehouse receipt was accompanied by a trust receipt properly executed by David-Mathiá Motor Company, and upon receipt of these negotiable warehouse receipts properly endorsed, and the trust receipts, the money was advanced by complainant to David-Mathis Motor Company on the cars involved. The amended bill further averred that on presentation to the warehouse of the warehouse receipts the cars described therein were placed on the floor of the showroom of the garage to hold the cars in trust as the property of the National Acceptance Company until released from the trust in the manner recited in said trust receipts.
“There was a demurrer to the bill, all the grounds thereof being directed to the whole bill except one. There was a decree overruling the demurrer in general terms and requiring the defendant to answer. State v. Standard Oil Co., 120 Tenn., 108. The answer denied the right of the complainant to recover on the bond involved.
“All the cars involved were sold by the Chevrolet Motor Ohio Company, upon bills of lading with draft attached, and were financed by the General Motors Acceptance Company for the money it had advanced upon these cars, the cars being delivered by the General Motors Company to the David-Mathis Company. All of these trust receipts antedated 'the execution of the bond and the issuance of the trust receipts in the instant ease.
*518 “The ears involved were not delivered to the David-Mathis Motor Company by the National Acceptance Company. The National Acceptance Company did not pay the dra’ft and take np the bills of lading for these cars when they were shipped by the Chevrolet Company. The National Acceptance Company did not store, nor at their instance were these cars stored in the warehouse and negotiable warehouse receipts issued to the David-Mathis Motor Company and by it endorced to the National Acceptance Company. The trust receipts involved were filled out by the David-Mathis Motor Company, put in an envelope with an insurance policy on the car, and a blank draft for the price of the car drawn on themselves and accepted by themselves, which'was attached to the draft on the National Acceptance Company for the price of the car, and upon these papers, money was advanced to the David-Mathis Motor Company by the National Acceptance Company.
“All of the trust receipts involved bore dates on and intervening between September 28th and December 21st, 1926. On December 22, 1926, the National Acceptance Company notified the Royal Indemnity Company that it had delivered to the David-Mathis Motor Company on trust receipts the cars involved; and again on January 13, 1927, it notified the Royal Indemnity Company that on December 22, it had delivered the cars involved to the David-Mathis Motor Company on trust • receipts under the bond. The Royal Indemnity Company had no notice or knowledge that the trust receipts involved would be issued in the manner stated, when the bond was executed.

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Related

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911 S.W.2d 334 (Court of Criminal Appeals of Tennessee, 1995)
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14 Tenn. App. 211 (Court of Appeals of Tennessee, 1931)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
9 Tenn. App. 515, 1929 Tenn. App. LEXIS 108, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-acceptance-co-v-royal-indemnity-co-tennctapp-1929.