National Bank of Commerce v. Equitable Trust Co.

227 F. 526, 142 C.C.A. 158, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 2323
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit
DecidedSeptember 29, 1915
DocketNo. 4213
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 227 F. 526 (National Bank of Commerce v. Equitable Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
National Bank of Commerce v. Equitable Trust Co., 227 F. 526, 142 C.C.A. 158, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 2323 (8th Cir. 1915).

Opinions

LEWIS, District Judge

(after stating the facts as above). [1] 1. The law which determines the rights of the parties as to the dividends [531]*531may be briefly stated: (a) A pledgee of corporate shares may recover from the corporation declaring a dividend thereon such dividend to the extent of the interest of the pledgee under the pledge, Thompson on Corporations, § 2181; Cook on Corporations (4th Ed.) § 468; Gemmell v. Davis, 75 Md. 546, 23 Atl. 1032, 32 Am. St. Rep. 412; Guarantee Co. v. Town Co., 96 Ga. 511, 23 S. E. 503, 51 Am. St. Rep. 150; Bank v. Wilder, 32 Neb. 454, 49 N. W. 369; Bank v. Mosher, 63 Neb. 130, 88 N. W. 552; George, etc., Co. v. Range, etc., Co., 16 Utah, 59, 50 Pac. 630 ; Gaty v. Holliday, 8 Mo. App. 118, and if the pledgor collects the dividend he holds it as trustee for the pledgee, Jones on Collateral Securities & Pledges (3d Ed.) § 398; (b) and as against a third party receiving the dividend with knowledge, of the rights of) the pledgee, the latter may recover on the common count for money had and received.

The first proposition is not seriously doubted, but the second is earnestly denied. We think they are equally sound. The argument on the point is, that assumpsit is not maintainable unless there he, in fact, privity of contract between the parties; and it is said that that relation did not exist between the St. Eouis bank and the Bowling Green Trust Company.

[2] We note the general character of the action. In Cary v. Curtis, 3 How. 236, 246 (11 L. Ed. 576) it is said:

“The action of assumpsit for money had and received, it is said by Lord Mansfleld, Burr. 1012, Moses v.' Macfarlen, will lie in general whenever the defendant has received money which is the property of the plaintiff, and which the defendant is obliged by the ties of natural justice and equity to refund. And by Buller, Justice, in Stratton v. Rastall, 2 T. R. 370, ‘that this action has been oí late years extended on the principle of its being considered like a bill in equity. And, therefore, in order to recover money in this form of action the parly must show that he has equity and conscience on his side, and could recover in a court of equity.’ These are the general grounds of the action as given from high authority.”

In Gaines v. Miller, 111 U. S. 395, 397, 4 Sup. Ct 426, 427 (28 L. Ed. 466):

“Whenever one person has in his hands money equitably belonging to another, that olhe.r person may recover it by assumpsit for money had and received.”

The contention is old and was early repudiated as demonstrated by the note to Maudeville v. Riddle, in Appendix to 1 Cranch, 367, under sulxl. 4, page 438. For collation of additional authorities see 1 Chitty on Pleadings (16th Am. Ed.) star pages 112, 362 and 363, notes. In Cary v. Curtis, supra, 3 How. 254, 11 E. Ed. 576:

“It is an entire mistake of the true meaning of the rule of the common law, which is sometimes suggested in argument, that the action of assumpsit for money had and received is founded upon a voluntary, express, or implied promise, of the defendant, or that it requires privity between the parties ex contractu to support it.”

The rule is aptly stated by Bigelow, Judge, in Brewer v. Dyer, 7 Cush. (Mass.) 337, 340:

“The law, operating on the act of the parties, creates the duty, establishes the privity, and implies the promise and obligation, on which the action is [532]*532founded.” Leete v. Pacific M. & M. Co. (C. C.) 88 Fed. 957; Bank v. Bank (C. C.) 19 Fed. 301.

The action lies for money which “ex Eequo'et bono, the defendant ought to refund.” Stockett v. Watkins, 2 Gill & J. (Md.) 326, 20 Am. Dec. 438; Norden v. Jones, 33 Wis. 600, 14 Am. Rep. 782; Stimpson v. Insurance Co., 47 Me. 385; Horne v. Mandelbaum, 13 Ill. App. 607.

[3] 2. When it came to the decree it went only for the recovery of a sum certain; and it is assigned as error that plaintiff below went into the wrong forum, that it had a plain, adequate and complete remedy at law, and that consequently there was no jurisdiction in equity over the controversy. As already indicated, the proceeding has been treated here, in brief and argument, as in assumpsit. Of course, if the bill had disclosed that as the true character of the action and there was nothing else in the bill on which equitable relief was appropriately invoked; the trial court would have undoubtedly dismissed the bill had it been challenged on that ground. Gaines v. Miller, 111 U. S. 398, 4 Sup. Ct. 426, 28 L. Ed. 466; and without challenge it should in that event have been dismissed. Oelrichs v. Spain, 15 Wall. 211, 227, 21 L. Ed. 43; Amis v. Myers, 16 How. 492, 14 L. Ed. 1029; Sullivan v. R. R. Co., 94 U. S. 806, 811, 24 L. Ed. 324. But, if a court of equity is rightfully in possession of the cause as it is made by the bill, it will proceed to determine the whole matter in controversy and grant full and complete relief, although the relief granted may be such as is usually had in a proceeding at law. Cathcart v. Robinson, 5 Pet. 264, 278, 8 L. Ed. 120.

The bill had a wide scope. True, its tíltimate purpose was to have the appellant' declared a trustee for the benefit of the complainant oft the moneys which it sought to recover. But in many and lengthy paragraphs it sets forth the transactions in which appellant was involved and which it sought to carry out under the contract between Nicholson and Perry of date January 17, 1907; the relations of appellant thenceforth to the cement company and its control of the board of directors of that company and its subsidiary companies which owned the plants in Kansas and Texas, its extensions of credits to the cement company, and its direction of the affairs and business, in general, of that company; fraudulent conduct, as appellee alleges on information and belief, on the part of appellant in relation- to, and in conducting the business of, the cement company and its subsidiaries, as well as toward the Bowling Green Trust Company in connection with taking down the 10,000 shares collateral and substituting others, and the fiduciary relations theretofore existing between appellant and the trust company, and attaches interrogatories for the purpose of requiring a disclosure and accounting in relation to the charges made. “Thus (on the face of the bill) there were in the case, as ingredients to support the jurisdiction of equity discovery, account, fraud, misrepresentation and concealment” (Tyler v. Savage, 143 U. S. 79, 95, 12 Sup. Ct. 340, 36 L. Ed. 82), and the fiduciary and trust relations. A court of equity takes cognizance of controversies involving a trust relation, whether it be a resulting' one growing out of the relations of the parties and their acts toward each other, or a [533]*533constructive one raised and interposed by a court of equity to prevent accomplishment of fraudulent purposes. Hopkins v. Grimshaw, 165 U. S. 342, 358, 17 Sup. Ct. 401, 41 L. Ed. 739; Clews v. Jamierson, 182 U. S. 461, 479, 21 Sup. Ct. 845, 45 L. Ed. 1183.

[4]

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227 F. 526, 142 C.C.A. 158, 1915 U.S. App. LEXIS 2323, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/national-bank-of-commerce-v-equitable-trust-co-ca8-1915.