Quebec Bank v. Weyand

2 Cin. Sup. Ct. Rep. 538
CourtOhio Superior Court, Cincinnati
DecidedApril 15, 1873
StatusPublished

This text of 2 Cin. Sup. Ct. Rep. 538 (Quebec Bank v. Weyand) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Superior Court, Cincinnati primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Quebec Bank v. Weyand, 2 Cin. Sup. Ct. Rep. 538 (Ohio Super. Ct. 1873).

Opinion

O’Connor, J.

This is a petition in error to reverse a judgment rendered at Special Term.

On the 9th November, 1869, Thomas Clarkson & Co. shipped at Toronto, Canada, 15,000 bushels of barley to Cincinnati, consigned to the order of the Quebec Bank of Toronto, to be delivered at Brighton Station, Ohio, and the next day drew on Geo. M. Bacon & Co., at twenty-five days after date, for the sum of |6,502, in gold. This draft was discounted for Clarkson & Co. by the Quebec Bank of Toronto, they delivering to the bank the bill of lading for the barley, and the Quebec Bank sent the draft and the bill of lading to its agent, the Merchants’ National Bank, Cincinnati, for collection. Geo. M. Bacon & Co., for whom the barley was intended when paid for, or when the gold draft was secured to be paid, accepted the draft. Afterward, by the mistake of Reynolds,Whiting & Bangs, of Toledo, Ohio, probably induced by the advice of Sanford C. Hughes, of the firm of Geo. M. Bacon & Co., the barley was shipped from Toledo by canal, instead qf by railroad, and the result [540]*540was that Geo. M. Bacon & Co. obtained the possession of the barley without either paying the gold draft, or securing its payment, and they sold the barley and obtained the proceeds. Afterward, on the 23d December, 1869, after the gold draft was past due and unpaid, Geo. M. Bacon & Co. executed a promissory note for the sum of $6,616, in gold, payable forty-five days after date, to the order of Thos. Clarkson & Co., at the Merchants’ National Bank, indorsed by John Hughes, and this note was delivered to the Merchants’ National Bank, as the agent of the Quebec Bank, as collateral security for the payment of the gold draft.

"When this last note was about falling due, Geo. M. Bacon, of the firm of Geo. M. Bacon & Co., called on Jung, of the firm of Weyand & Jung, the defendants in this case, and representing that he (Bacon) wanted to get the barley, and that he could not get it without payment of the gold draft, and concealing from Jung that he had long since obtained the barley and sold it, requested Jung to give him an accommodation note of the firm of Weyand & Jung, to get discounted, to take up the gold draft. This request Jung .complied with, and gave the firm-note of Weyand & Jung, for the sum of $5,000, payable sixty days after date, to the order of Geo. M. Bacon & Co. This note Geo. M. Bacon took to the Merchants’ National Bank for the purpose of getting discounted, and applying the proceeds in payment of the gold draft, or of the note given to secure the payment of the gold draft. At this point there is much conflict in the testimony, Bacon claiming that the bank refused to. discount the note, and that he took the note away with him from the bank, to make efforts to have it discounted elsewhere, or to procure other indorsers, and that failing to do so, that on a subsequent day, after having a deed of assignment for the benefit of creditors drawn up, but not yet signed, another effort was made to have the note discounted by the Merchants’ Bank, which the bank again refused; that then the deed of assignment was executed, and on the [541]*541next morning after, it was accepted by the trustees, the bank sent for Bacon & Co.; that both members of the firm went to the bank, and. the cashier desiring to see th% note they gave it to him, and that he said the bank would retain it, and keep them “all,” meaning the gold draft and the note, to secure its payment, and the note for $5,000 now in suit. That to this Bacon & Co. objected unless the gold draft was delivered up, and saying that they had already made an assignment. The Merchants’ Bank, on the other hand, claim, that they did take the note in part payment of the gold draft, and that such was the understanding, and that this was done before the assignment for the benefit of creditors.

However this may be, a few days afterward, John Hughes, the assignee for the benefit of creditors under the assignment of Bacon & Co., indorsed the $5,000 note in his individual capacity, .the note then being in possession of the bank. The bank duly protested the note for $6,616, given to secure the payment of the gold draft, and when the $5,000 note, now in controversy, became due, the Quebec Bank of Toronto brought its action upon it in this court.

To this action the defendants, Weyand & Jung, answered, and say, that “ they, nor either of them, received any value or consideration whatsoever for the note, nor is plaintiff the bona fide owner or holder of said note, nor was said note for a valuable consideration assigned or delivered to plaintiff!” And they deny that there is due from them, or either of them, anything to the plaintiff. And they aver that the note was obtained without consideration and held in fraud of their rights, and they ask that it be so adjudged, and that plaintiff be ordered to deliver up said note to them, and for such other relief as equity may require. After the filing of this answer and counter-claim by Weyand & Jung, the plaintiff replied, and then dismissed its action without prejudice, and instituted a suit upon said note in the Circuit Court of the United States, and the same is now pending there for the full amount of the note against Wey- [542]*542and & Jung. The plaintiff then, without filing any motion or demurrer, went to trial upon a reply to the answer and counter-claim, in which it denies all the allegations of the answer, and says “that the note sued on in the petition was given in part payment of a note of the said defendants, George M. Bacon & Co., for $6,616.35, upon the 7th day of February, 1870; that the said defendant, John Hughes, was indorser upon said note of $6,616.35, then about due, and that, in consideration of further time given to said George M. Bacon & Co. and said John Hughes, upon part of said note, the said defendants, George M. Bacon & Co., transferred the note sued on in the petition to this plaintiff at the day of its date, and the defendant, John Hughes, indorsed the same for value as aforesaid. The plaintiff had no knowledge of any alleged defense of the defendants, Weyand & Jung, to the said note, and received, the same in good faith in the usual coui’se of business. Plaintiff says that the amount recovered in this suit on said note is a credit upon said note of Geo. M. Bacon &• Co. for $6,616.35. The plaintiff says that it is now, and has been the bona fide holder and owner of the note sued on in the petition since the 7th day of February, 1870, at which time it was delivered to it. Wherefore plaintiff asks judgment against the defendants as in the petition.

We give the answer and reply in full, for the purpose of showing that the merits of the case were submitted to the court. The case was tried to the court without the intervention of a jury, and upon request of the plaintiff, the court found the facts and conclusions of law separately. The court found the facts as follows:

“1. That the promissory note in litigation in this action was made in the city of Cincinnati, by said Weyand & Jung, without consideration, merely for the accommodation of said payees, Geo. M. Bacon & Co., and there delivered by them to said payees upon this consideration, and no other, to wit., to be discounted by said payees at the Merchants’ National Bank, in Cincinnati, to enable them to pay off and [543]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
2 Cin. Sup. Ct. Rep. 538, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/quebec-bank-v-weyand-ohsuperctcinci-1873.