President of the Bank of the United States v. Lyman

2 F. Cas. 709, 1 Blatchf. 297, 20 Vt. 666
CourtUnited States Circuit Court
DecidedMay 15, 1848
StatusPublished
Cited by19 cases

This text of 2 F. Cas. 709 (President of the Bank of the United States v. Lyman) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering United States Circuit Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
President of the Bank of the United States v. Lyman, 2 F. Cas. 709, 1 Blatchf. 297, 20 Vt. 666 (uscirct 1848).

Opinion

Prentiss, J.

The declaration in this case contains two counts, one for money had and received, and the other on an account stated. In support of the counts two promissory notes were given in evidence, with several accounts current, letters of correspondence, and other documents and testimony. Out of the evidence so given various questions have arisen, some involving the admissibility, and others the effect, or sufficiency, of the evidence. The questions possess different degrees of importance, both intrinsically and in their bearing upon the case; and I shall notice them in such order and manner, as will enable me to dispose of them with as much brevity and as little repetition as practicable, entering no farther into the facts, than may be necessary to present, fully and intelligibly, the grounds of decision upon each particular point.

1. The plaintiffs were incorporated as a banking company, by the name of the Bank of the United States, by an act of the State of Pennsylvania passed February 18,1836. The contract, which is the origin, or foundation, of the principal claim in question, was made some time after the 10th of March, and carried into execution the 1st of April, of the same year. The precise day of the organization of the plaintiffs as a banking company not being shown, it is objected, that it does not appear, that they were organized and competent to act as a corporate body, at the time the contract was made. To this, it seems to me, an answer was given by the counsel for the plaintiffs, which is quite sufficient. The act of incorporation having provided, that notice of the organization should be given on or before the 3d of March then next ensuing, and the bank being found in operation afterwards under the act, it is to be presumed, that it was organized as early as the time prescribed, which was of course before the making of the contract.

2. It appears, that the Bank of the United States incorporated many years before by an act of congress, although it ceased to have any power to carry on banking operations after the 3d of March, 1836, continued in existence two years thereafter, for the purposes of suits for the final settlement of its affairs, and for the sale and disposition of its estate and effects. As that company established the branch at Burlington, and was in existence at the time the contract for the purchase of the property of the branch was entered into, it is insisted, that it must be taken, in the absence of direct [670]*670proof showing it to be otherwise, of which it is said there is none, that the contract was made with that company; and consequently, that the plaintiffs, as to one and much the most considerable of the claims in question, are mere strangers, for any thing that appears, without right or interest.

But it is to be observed, that the company established by the act of Pennsylvania was established in anticipation of the dissolution, so far as banking powers were concerned, of the company established by the act of Congress,' — the new company having, with one exception, the same stockholders and capital, the same name and style, and the same capacity, so far as a state institution could have the capacity of a national institution. It was the substitution of a new charter under the state government in place of the old charter under the general government, so that the banking operations, which would cease under the one, might be continued, without intermission or interruption, under the new powers given by the other. Accordingly the new company, as we have seen, was to come and did come into existence, as an organized corporate body, before or simultaneously with the termination of the banking powers and operations of the old company; and all the estate and effects of the old company were transferred to the new. The particular time of the transfer, it is true, does not appear. But it is obvious, that it would naturally follow the organization immediately, in order to fulfil the purposes in view; and one of the witnesses states expressly, that it included the estate and effects sold to the defendants. This, therefore, connected with the bringing of the action and possession of the written evidences of the debt by the plaintiffs, is sufficient and very decisive evidence, that the contract was in fact made with the new company.

3. To establish several material facts in the case, various letters, acts, and admissions of John Peck, one of the defendants, were given in evidence. This evidence, it is said, was inadmissible, at least so far as it concerns any of the defendants but Peck himself. The objection to it rests upon the ground, that, though the defendants were joint purchasers of the property, and gave their joint notes for the price, they were not partners, at least in such a sense as to make the acts and admissions of one evidence-against the others. Admitting that the defendants are to be regarded, not as partners prop[671]*671erly and strictly speaking, but only as joint contractors, or promts sors, still the evidence, to some purposes, was undoubtedly admissible. It is a familiar rule of law, that the acknowledgment of one of several joint debtors, either by word or act, is evidence to take the debt out of the statute of limitations as to all. Thus payment by one, says Lord Mansfield in Whitcomb v. Whiting, 3 Doug. 652, is payment for all, the one acting, virtually, as agent for the rest; and in the same manner, he adds, an admission by one is an admission by all. This principle, however, does not extend to the creation of a new substantive obligation, or a new additional liability; nor to any thing, which is necessary to be done by the party claiming to perfect or give effect to a conditional or imperfect obligation, or liability, — such, for instance, as a demand of payment and notice of non-payment of a promissory note indorsed by several joint payees. There the admission of one of the indorsers, either as to the demand, or notice, is probably no evidence against the other, especially so, as notice is necessary to each. But payment by one on a note in pursuance of an existing joint liability, or an admission by one that the note is unpaid, or that a particular balance is due upon it, whether by stating an account, or otherwise, is good evidence against all, in an action for the money due upon the note. That neither creates a new contract, nor enlarges the pre-existing obligation, or liability, but merely shows, that that obligation, or liability, has not been discharged, or discharged but in part only.

But however that may be, if it sufficiently appear, that Peck was; the agent to take care of the joint concern, and transact the business-growing out of it, in behalf of the other defendants as well as himself, his acts or admissions while so acting, relative to anything-within the scope of his authority, are, undoubtedly, in law, the acts and admissions of all and binding upon all. Now it very fully appears, that the business was in fact conducted and transacted wholly by and through Peck. The original proposition for the purchase was signed “John Peck for himself and others;” and this was ratified by the others, by their joining in the notes and completing the contract in pursuance of that proposition. As at the first, so throughout to the last, Peck acted as the ostensible manager, without the appearance, from anything that is disclosed in the evidence, of any objection or interference on the part of the other defendants. [672]

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Bluebook (online)
2 F. Cas. 709, 1 Blatchf. 297, 20 Vt. 666, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/president-of-the-bank-of-the-united-states-v-lyman-uscirct-1848.