Osgood v. Glover

7 Daly 367
CourtNew York Court of Common Pleas
DecidedJanuary 7, 1878
StatusPublished

This text of 7 Daly 367 (Osgood v. Glover) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Common Pleas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Osgood v. Glover, 7 Daly 367 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1878).

Opinion

Charles P. Daly, Chief Justice.

The note was given in what purported to be a transaction of the firm. An application was made to the company by a broker, that an insurance was wanted by the firm, upon their own account, for $11,000, on the brig Milo, loss, if any, payable' to the firm. A policy of insurance upon the vessel was, upon receiving the application, issued to the firm, and the note in suit, which was signed by one of the partners, St. Anna, in the name of the firm, was given to the company for the premium.

The vessel was the individual property of Cortissoz, one of the partners, and for .several successive years had previously been insured in his name, although it does not appear where, or that the fact was known to the company. Cortissoz and St. Anna had been previously in business, under 'the firm name of Cortissoz & St. Anna; but. a short time before the policy was applied for Glover became a partner, and the firm name was changed to Cortissoz, St. Anna & Co. The partnership was formed to do business as importers and dealers in brandies, wines and liquors; and. as between [369]*369themselves, it was agreed that no contract or engagement should be entered into for the business of the copartnership without the consent of all the parties to it. The firm had no interest in the vessel, or any merchandise on board of her, nor dealings of any kind with, nor in respect to her. Glover knew nothing of this insurance, or of the note that had been given for the premium, until long after the failure of the company; and the application for the insurance on behalf of the partnership, and the giving of the note of the firm by'St. Anna for the premium, was consequently without the authority of Glover, as the transaction was one not connected with the business of the firm, and of which at the time, he had no knowledge. ■

The rule as respects the liability of copartners upon a note of the firm, given by one of the partners in a transaction not connected with its business, and given without the knowledge or consent of the partner sought to be charged, is the one laid down by Lord Eldon in Ex parte Bonbonus (8 Ves. 545), that if the party taking the paper can be considered as advertised,” from the nature of the transaction, that it is not in a matter connected with the partnership, as where it is given for an antecedent debt, the partnership is not bound. After declaring that he could not accede to what was sought to be maintained in that case, that the-partnership is not bound where one partner pledges the-credit of the firm for his own accommodation, and the money obtained is applied exclusively to his use, Lord Eldon said that if it is manifest to the person advancing the money that it is for the partner’s individual use, so that it is against goodi faith that he should pledge the credit of the firm, then the-creditor must show that the partner had authority in the-particular transaction to bind the partnership ; but if it is ini the ordinary course of commercial transactions, as upon a discount, it would he monstrous to hold that the borrowing off the money, upon a bill of exchange, pledging the partnership without any knowledge on the bankers that it is a separate transaction, will not bind the firm, because the money does not go to it, but to the use of the individual partner.

[370]*370The rule may be further illustrated by the leading case in this State of Livingston v. Roosevelt (4 Johns. 251), in which it was held that the partnership was not bound upon this state ■ of facts; C. C. & C. J. Roosevelt entered into copartnership under the firm name of C. C. Roosevelt & Co., in the sugar refining business, and the fact that they had formed a partnership to carry on that business, and that their sugar house was in Thames street, was published for two weeks successively in two newspapers, which, it was shown, were taken by the creditor during the time of the advertisement. C. J. Roosevelt purchased of the plaintiff 20 pipes of brandy, and the bill was made out by the plaintiff’s clerk to him. The brandy was entered by the plaintiff at the Custom House in C. J. Roosevelt’s name to obtain the usual debenture ; in which the plaintiff made oath that the sale was to C. J. Roosevelt, and the "brandy was exported in a vessel belonging to him. For the purchase a note was given by C. J. Roosevelt, signed by him as maker, but upon which he indorsed the name of the firm, and the note was given, not at the firm’s place of business (the sugar house), but at the dwelling-house of C. J. Roosevelt. The plaintiff’s clerk understood that the brandy "was sold to the partnership, but it appeared that nothing was said at the time of the sale on whose account the purchase was made; all that was proved being, that it was made by and with C. J. Roosevelt without the knowledge or consent of his copartner, and that it was understood between the plaintiff and C. J. Roosevelt, that the partnership obligation was to be .given, as it was given, by indorsing the name of the firm on the note made by him.

The court held that as C. J. Roosevelt gave his own note at his own house and not at the counting-house of the partnership, with the indorsement of the firm as collateral secur-' ity, it was inconsistent with the idea of a sale to the firm, and as the plaintiff himself made oath at the Custom House that the sale was made to C. J. Roosevelt, that he thereb)r gave the highest and most satisfactory evidence of his understanding of the sale; the court holding that the fair conclusion was, that the plaintiff made the contract with C. J. [371]*371Roosevelt individually, &nd that he wished to obtain the security of the partnership for the payment of what was an individual obligation. This was the conclusion of Van Ness, J., who delivered the opinion of the court; in which conclusion, Kent, Ch. J., concurred, upon the ground that the plaintiff took a partnership security for what he actually knew at the time was the private debt of the particular partner, or under circumstances sufficient to charge him with constructive knowledge of that fact. He held that the inevitable inference from the testimony was, that the plaintiff or his agent actually knew that the purchase was not a partnership concern, and that the partnership was required merely as security; or at least, that the facts disclosed amounted to constructive notice; that it was the individual transaction of C. J. Roosevelt; and he observed that the question in all cases (whether the partnership be special or general) is a question of notice, express or constructive.

All the cases, so far as I have examined them, in which it is held that the firm are not liable upon a partnership note, given by one partner in an individual transaction of his own, having no connection with the business of the firm, have been cases where the creditor either knew it was the individual transaction of the partner giving the note, or where the circumstances were such as to fairly impose upon him the inquiry whether the transaction was in the business of the firm or assented to by the other members. Such, at least, are all the casés referred to in the defendant’s points.

In Williams v. Walbridge (3 Wend. 415), and Gansevoort v. Williams (14 id. 133), 'the note or indorsement of the firm was given by the partner for an individual debt, due by him to the plaintiff, without the knowledge or consent of his copartners. In the Bank of Rochester v. Bowen (7 Wend.

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38 Barb. 132 (New York Supreme Court, 1862)
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Buchanan v. Ocean Insurance Co.
6 Cow. 318 (New York Supreme Court, 1826)
Livingston v. Roosevelt
4 Johns. 251 (New York Supreme Court, 1809)
Williams v. Walbridge
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Bluebook (online)
7 Daly 367, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/osgood-v-glover-nyctcompl-1878.