Proctor v. Cole

17 N.E. 189, 115 Ind. 15, 1888 Ind. LEXIS 291
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 28, 1888
DocketNo. 13,303
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 17 N.E. 189 (Proctor v. Cole) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Proctor v. Cole, 17 N.E. 189, 115 Ind. 15, 1888 Ind. LEXIS 291 (Ind. 1888).

Opinion

Elliott, J.

This suit is prosecuted upon three promissory notes and a mortgage securing them. The controversy has already been before this court, but in a somewhat different form, Proctor v. Cole, 104 Ind. 373.

The present appeal brings the case to us upon the following special finding: “That, on the 31st day of January, 1880, the defendant William Proctor executed the notes sued on, and on the same day he and his wife, the defendant Frances Proetor, executed the mortgage set out with the complaint, to secure the said notes, which mortgage was executed in due form of law and duly recorded; that the notes were made payable, with six per cent, interest and attorney’s fees, to the order of Henderson Cole, at St. Joseph Valley Bank, Elkhart, Indiana, in eighteen and twenty-four months after date respectively; that, afterwards, on the 23d day of February, 1880, and before the maturity of either of the notes, Henderson Cole assigned the notes to Erastus B. Cole, by a written assignment, and afterwards, on the 26th day of February, 1880, he endorsed them in blank; that, on the 23d day of February, 1880, at the time when the notes in suit were assigned by Henderson Cole to Erastus B. Cole, they were in the hands of Baker & Mitchell, the attorneys of Henderson Cole, for safe-keeping; that, on said 23d day [16]*16of February, Henderson Cole gave to Erastus B. Cole an order on Baker & Mitchell for the delivery to him of the notes; that, on the 26th day of February, 1880, Erastus B. Cole presented the order to Baker & Mitchell, and received from them the notes, and on the same day took them to Henderson Cole, who then endorsed the notes in blank by writing his name across the back of each of them; that the consideration for the transfer of the notes in controversy to Erastus B. Cole was as follows: In 1864 the wife of Henderson Cole, then residing in Indiana, sold property belonging to her, and received therefor the sum of $3,500, which she sent to her husband, Henderson Cole, in Colorado, where he then resided, who used it in his own business; afterwards she removed to Colorado also, and while both were residing in Colorado, he promised at her request to pay this money, if he ever became able to do so, by paying it to Erastus B. Cole and Minnie Cole, the children of Henderson Cole and his said wife; that, in 1868, Henderson Cole’s wife died in Colorado, and afterward, on the 23d day of February, 1880, in accordance with and in fulfilment of the promise, Henderson Cole assigned and transferred the said nptes to Erastus B. Cole, he agreeing to pay to his sister, Minnie, one-half, which she agreed to; that, on the 25th day of February, 1880, the defendant William Proctor took such steps, and such proceedings were had, that the Elkhart Circuit Court, on the 25th day of February, 1880, issued a restraining order enjoining Henderson Cole from transferring the notes in controversy, which order was served on Henderson Cole on the 25th day of February, 1880; that Erastus B. Cole first learned of the injunction proceedings after he received possession of the notes, and before they were endorsed ; that, on the 1st day of March, 1880, Erastus B. Cole took the notes in controversy to his uncle, Reuben Cole, the plaintiff in this action, who resided in Michigan, and asked him to buy them; that the plaintiff offered Erastus Cole $2,000 for the notes, which offer was [17]*17accepted, and thereupon Erastus B. Cole sold and delivered the notes to the plaintiff for that sum; that the plaintiff in payment therefor then gave Erastus B. Cole an order on Myron E. Cole for $500, and also executed and delivered to Erastus B. Cole his two promissory notes, one for $1,000, payable in thirty days, and one for $500, payable in seventeen months, to the order of Erastus B. Cole, at St. Joseph "Valley Bank, in Elkhart, Indiana; that when the plaintiff ;gave the order on Myron E. Cole he had no money in his hands, but he had a credit with him for that amount, and when he gave the order he executed and delivered to Myron E. Cole his note of $500, payable in bank at Elkhart, Indiana, to the order of the said Myron E. Cole; that the order on Myron E. Cole was duly accepted by him, and the note of $1,000 was paid by the plaintiff, at its maturity, to Erastus B. Cole, and that the $500 note remains untransferred and unpaid, and in the hands of the clerk of this court, where it was placed by order of the court; the $500 note by Myron E. Cole is also untransferred, is past due, and remains unpaid; that the plaintiff had no knowledge of any defence to the notes in controversy, nor of the injunction proceedings then pending in the Elkhart Circuit Court against Henderson Cole on the 1st day of March, 1880 — not until he had paid the note of $1,000; that, on the 15th day of April, 1869, Henderson Cole executed his note of $2,000, payable to the order of M. E. Cole; that afterward M. E. Cole endorsed said note to Alma S. Wells, who transferred the note to the defendant William Proctor on the 25th day of February, 1880; that afterwards William Proctor recovered judgment in Elkhart Circuit Court against Henderson Cole on this note for $4,198; that this judgment was recorded on the 12th day of April, 1880, at which time, also, the injunction was made perpetual; that no part of the said judgment has been paid, and that it is the set-off claimed by the defendant in this action; that the note of Henderson Cole [18]*18transferred by Alma S. Wells to William Proctor was transferred for the consideration of one dollar — the said William Proctor agreeing at the time in writing that he would pay said Alma S. Wells an amount equal to one-half of the net proceeds that he might be able to make out of said note,, either directly by way of collection, or indirectly by way of set-off, and that if he made nothing he should pay nothing-to said Alma; that, on the 13th day of April, 1880, the defendant William Proctor brought an action in the Elkhart Circuit Court against Erastus B. Cole, in which it was in issue whether the said Erastus B. Cole was the equitable owner of the notes here in controversy on the 23d day of February, 1880, and prior to the time when the defendant William Proctor came into possession of the note of Henderson Cole by assignment from Alma S. Wells, and it was denied by the defendant that the defendant William Proctor, then the plaintiff, was the owner of the note assigned by Alma Wells to him and of the judgment rendered thereon ; but it was alleged that he, the said Proctor, held the same in trust only, which facts were in issue in said action, wherein the jury trying said cause found the ownership of the note claimed by said Proctor to be as hereinbefore stated, and such proceedings were had in said 'cause that the said Elk-hart Circuit Court, at its February term, 1884, found for the defendant therein, and adjudged that the said Erastus B. Cole was, on the said 23d day of February, 1880, the owner of the notes here in suit as by him alleged; that a reasonable attorney’s fee on the notes in controversy is $150; that there is now due on the notes in controversy the sum of $3,020.74, payable without relief from valuation and appraisement laws ; and that there is now due on the judgment of William Proctor against Henderson Cole the sum of $5,716.75.”

The law is with the appellee on the facts, and the judgment of the trial court-is right. We do not deem it necessary to discuss in detail the propositions stated, by the appellee’s counsel in support of the judgment, nor do we find it [19]*19necessary to decide the question of practice discussed by them.

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Related

State Bank v. Hayes
92 N.W. 1068 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1902)
Proctor v. Cole
22 N.E. 101 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1889)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
17 N.E. 189, 115 Ind. 15, 1888 Ind. LEXIS 291, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/proctor-v-cole-ind-1888.