O'Rourke v. Schultz

58 P. 712, 23 Mont. 285, 1899 Mont. LEXIS 101
CourtMontana Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 25, 1899
DocketNo. 1,138
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 58 P. 712 (O'Rourke v. Schultz) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Montana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
O'Rourke v. Schultz, 58 P. 712, 23 Mont. 285, 1899 Mont. LEXIS 101 (Mo. 1899).

Opinion

MR. JUSTICE PIGOTT

delivered the opinion of the Court.

In the spring of 1892 the plaintiff, O’Rourke, sold to the defendant, Mary Schultz, an undivided fourth interest in the Western Star Brick Yard & Brick Works for $2,500; the entire property was subsequently transferred to a corporation; with the consent of all concerned, one-fourth (2,500) shares of the corporate stock was duly delivered, by certificates representing the stock, in lieu of the one-quarter interest in the property itself, all the terms of the agreement of sale and purchase being applicable to the contractual rights as thus [290]*290immaterially modified. By the terms of the contract the purchaser, Schultz, was entitled, if dissatisfied with the investment or the business at the end of one year from the date of the contract, to demand and receive from the seller, O’Rourke, the amount of the purchase price, and O’Rourke, upon making such repayment, was entitled to a retransfer of the property sold. Conformably to the agreement, Schultz requested repayment, and offered to return the stock representing the property sold to her, and, upon the refusal of O’Rourke to comply with the demand, Schultz brought an action and recovered a judgment therein against him for the sum of $3,168, which judgment was affirmed by this Court. (Schultz v. O' Rourke, 18 Mont. 418, 45 Pac. 634.)

The present action was instituted by the judgment debtor, O’Rourke, to restrain his judgment creditor, Schultz, from enforcing the judgment in Schultz v. O'Rourke; it being asserted in his behalf that it was obtained by fraud, and that he was prevented by the deceit of the plaintiff in the former action from presenting and proving in defense some of the matters now relied upon by him, and also that some of the other matters now urged were not material to any of the issues made therein. Upon the hearing of an application for an injunction pendente lite, the court below granted such injunction, and from the order in that behalf Schultz, the defendant, appeals.

Although the record is somewhat long, and the facts to be deduced therefrom not readily apparent, and although many questions have been fully discussed in the briefs and at the bar, the only question which deserves very serious consideration is whether at the time the judgment was rendered in Schultz v. O'Rourke, requiring O’Rourke to repay to Schultz the agreed purchase price, she was able to comply with the requirement of that judgment, by transferring to O’Rourke the shares of stock which then represented the property sold by O’Rourke to Schultz.

In the action which resulted in the judgment whose enforcement is now sought to be enjoined, O’Rourke, the defendant [291]*291therein, contended that Schultz, the plaintiff in that action, should have made to the defendant therein a formal tender of the stock before trial, and that the failure to allege and prove such tender constituted a fatal defect in the plaintiff’s case; but this Court held that no such tender was necessary, as the covenants between the parties were mutual and dependent, and the performances thereunder were to be simultaneous, and that, even if such a tender had been required, the defendant, O’Rourke, had waived the production of any certificate of stock, or its absolute formal tender, either before or at the trial, — though perhaps an offer to retransfer the shares conditionally upon the simultaneous repayment of the purchase price to her was necessary to be made at the trial. But, notwithstanding these rulings by this Court in the former case between these same litigants, the necessity for such tender is now again earnestly urged by O’Rourke, the present plaintiff, and is treated even by Schultz as a proper subject for further discussion. As this Court does not contemplate the rehearing of the former appeal, and as the views heretofore announced will be adhered to, we here quote and repeat with approval a portion of the opinion: “The question of tender is by far the most important point in the case. * * From this evidence we do not think that there ever was a formal actual tender of any stock after March 29, 1893, until the trial. The tenders made before that time were not good, because under the terms of the contract itself the defendant was not obliged to return to her the $2,500 invested until the expiration of one year. All such tenders were premature. * * * The covenants of the agreement were mutual and dependent. If she were dissatisfied at the end of the year, then and in that event defendant agreed to refund to her the $2,500 she paid for her interest in the business, and she in turn agreed to reconvey to him such interest. The performances were to be simultaneous. That she was dissatisfied, and expressed such dissatisfaction to defendant, is indisputably proven. Such being the case, is it not a fair construction of the contract to say that, when she made known that dissatis[292]*292faction, it devolved upon defendant to pay or offer her the $2,500 agreed to be paid, and thereupon it at once became her duty to reconvey to him ? We think so. There was no express covenant on plaintiff’s part to tender, and it would seem that, where the covenants between the parties were mutual and dependent, the necessity of strict formalities by a tender before trial ought not to have been imposed upon plaintiff. * * * But, granting that plaintiff ought to have actually presented the certificate of stock to defendant after March 29, 1893, we think that the acts and declarations of defendant dispensed with greater formality than was observed. * * * There is ample justification to infer that the production of the certificates and their formal tender was waived. It was, therefore, unnecessary to offer the certificates themselves, as the law, under such circumstances, does not require a man to perform a nugatory act.” We shall not, therefore, consider any of the evidence or arguments which seem to rest upon the expected re-examination of the alleged right to have the stock certificates transferred, or offered to be transferred, by Schultz, as a condition precedent to her right to maintain an action for the purchase price thereof; that question has been finally adjudicated in this Court.

Having heretofore determined, and now reaffirmed, the right of Schultz, upon the pleadings and proofs involved in the former action, to recover the judgment now attacked, we approach the consideration of the present case with a full appreciation of the unusual and extraordinary nature of the relief sought; for the plaintiff, O’Rourke, having had his day in court as defendant in Schultz v. O' Rourke, is manifestly required to show very substantial reasons for invoking the aid of the courts to the end that he may be protected from the enforcement by writ of execution of a demand already formally and finally adjudged to be payable by him.

What, then, are the circumstances which are supposed to justify the judgment debtor in resisting the judgment, and in asking the Court to enjoin its enforcement? This Court, in [293]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
58 P. 712, 23 Mont. 285, 1899 Mont. LEXIS 101, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/orourke-v-schultz-mont-1899.