Parma v. First Nat. Bank of Cameron

63 S.W.2d 692
Texas Commission of Appeals·Decided October 18, 1933·No. No. 1389—5994·Published·Cited by 23 cases

Opinions

SHORT, Presiding Judge.

The defendant in error, First National Bank of Cameron, on December 21, 1927, filed its original petition in the district court of Milam county, against the plaintiff in error, J. J. Parma for the sum of $3,218.99, alleg,ed to be due by reason of drafts made by the plaintiff in error on said bank, and paid by •the latter. There were two trials in the district court, the first resulting in a judgment against the plaintiff in error, in which no questions were considered excépt questions of law arising upon the pleadings. Upon appeal to the Court of Civil Appeals at Austin, the judgment of the district court was reversed, and the cause remanded for a trial upon the facts; the district court having sustained certain exceptions to the cross-action of the plaintiff in error, which the Court of Civil Appeals held to be error. 22 S.W.(2d) 957.

Upon this trial, the plaintiff in error admitted liability on checks given by him on the bank for cotton he had purchased from the original owners, but pleaded a counterclaim for $4,954.64, alleging failure of the bank to credit him with a check of that amount drawn by the Vest Cotton Company in his favor. In this alternative plaintiff in error pleaded a fraudulent conspiracy by the said bank and the Vest Cotton Company, whereby the bank converted 44 bales of cotton belonging to him, of the value of $4,954.64. There was a jury trial upon the issues relating to the matters set up in the cross-action only, and, upon the return of the verdict of the jury, judgment was rendered for the defendant in error for the amount sued for; the plaintiff in error having been denied any relief on his cross-action. Upon appeal to the Court of Civil Appeals at Austin, the judgment of the district court was affirmed. 37 S.W.(2d) 274, 275.

It appears without apparent dispute that the plaintiff in error was engaged in buying cotton from farmers in the neighborhood of the town of Cameron where the defendant in error conducted a banking business. He had an arrangement with the defendant in error, whereby the latter paid the holders of checks he gave for this cotton so bought from the farmers when duly presented. These checks were generally presented on the day the cotton was purchased. The Vest Cotton Company was also engaged in buying cotton in the town of Cameron, and had a similar arrangement with the defendant in error to pay its checks when duly presented. The Vest Cotton Company apparently did not buy directly from the farmers, but bought from those purchasing from the farmers, including [693]*693the plaintiff in error. The Vest Cotton Company bought 44 bales of cotton from the plaintiff in error on the 17th day of September, 1927, and in payment thereof delivered to the latter its check on the defendant in error for the sum of $4,954.64, and, upon the idea that this cheek represented cash, the plaintiff in error delivered to Richard Vest the warehouse receipts representing the title to these 44 hales of cotton, and at the same time redelivered the cheek for the cotton to Richard Vest, with the request that he present it to the bank for him for payment. Richard Vest did not deliver this check, but the plaintiff in error did not discover his failure to do so until the 13th day of October, 1927, when the defendant in error notified him that his account was overdrawn in the amount sued for. In the meantime the Vest Cotton Company procured bills of lading, with drafts attached, and had delivered them to the defendant in error who had credited the account of the Vest Cotton Company with the amount of the value of the 40 bales of cotton shipped. These ’40 bales of cotton were shipped out of Cameron to other places on bills of lading long before the defendant in error had been notified that they had not been paid for, and that no title had ever passed in fact from the plaintiff in error to the Vest Cotton Company to these, which were delivered to it, by the plaintiff in error, on September 17, 1927. All the par-, ties, that is to say, the plaintiff in error, the Vest Cotton Company, and the defendant in error, continued to have transactions with each other after September 17, 1927, until October 13, 1927, similar to those they had had previous to that time during that cotton season, involving several thousand dollars. That is to say, the plaintiff in error continued to give checks on the defendant in error for cotton he purchased from farmers, which it paid, and the Vest Cotton Company continued to give checks on the defendant in error for cotton he had purchased from the plaintiff in error and others, which checks were paid by the defendant in error upon presentation. On October 13, 1927, when the plaintiff in error, for the first time, discovered that Richard Vest had not presented his check to the defendant in error and therefore the plaintiff in error had not received any credit on the books of the defendant in error for the 44 bales of cotton, the Vest Cotton Company ■became insolvent, and apparently it became evident to the plaintiff in error that it could not respond in damages to him for its failure to pay for the 44 bales of cotton.

The plaintiff in error filed his first amended original answer, setting up the cross-action above mentioned, and on March 4, 1929, filed his second original amended answer, again setting up the same cross-action.- In the meantime all the cotton had been shipped out from Cameron and had been placed in the hands of confessedly innocent purchasers.

On the issues presented the Jury found: (1) That it was in contemplation of the parties that Parma was to have the cash on the cheek for $4,954.64, or credit for it at the bank for the amount of said acceptance; (2) that Par-ma redelivered the acceptance to Richard Vest for the purpose and with the request that he deposit same immediately to the credit of the plaintiff in error in said bank; (3) that Richard Vest did not so deposit it; (4) that said Vest did not act fraudulently at the time for the purpose of cheating Parma out of his cotton without paying him for it.

The Court of Civil Appeals, in addition to the issues found by the Jury, found the following facts which are stated in this language: '

“it appears that appellee bank was financing the Vest Cotton Company in purchasing and shipping cotton at Cameron during the 1927 season by paying its acceptances and charging it interest on overdrafts. Parma purchased cotton for the Vest Cotton Company for which he was paid 50 cents per bale. In purchasing same, however, he paid for it with checks on his individual account in ap-pellee bank. TTsnniiy the Vest Cotton Company took up Ms cotton at the end of each day, giving him its check on appellee bank for all he had paid out that day, plus the 50 cents for each wale. Sometimes, however, Parma purchased cotton on his own initiative at prices above the day’s market limit, given him by the Vest Cotton Company, such purchase being made at his own risk, and subsequently sold the cotton outright to the Vest Cotton Company.
“On September 17, 1927, Parma had on hand 44 bales purchased by him during the preceding ten days, partly on market quotations, and partly at his own risk. On that date, he sold same to the Vest Cotton Company, which delivered to him its check on ap-pellee bank for $4,950.64 in payment therefor. He then delivered to Richard Vest, its agent, the compress receipts for the cotton. He also indorsed its check to him, and handed same, together with his bank passbook and deposit slip for the amount, back to said Richard Vest, with request that he deposit same to Parma’s credit in appellee bank.

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Parma v. First Nat. Bank of Cameron, 63 S.W.2d 692 (Tex. Super. Ct. 1933).

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