Rhinelander v. . Farmers' Loan Trust Co.

65 N.E. 499, 172 N.Y. 519, 10 Bedell 519, 1902 N.Y. LEXIS 698
CourtNew York Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 9, 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 65 N.E. 499 (Rhinelander v. . Farmers' Loan Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New York Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rhinelander v. . Farmers' Loan Trust Co., 65 N.E. 499, 172 N.Y. 519, 10 Bedell 519, 1902 N.Y. LEXIS 698 (N.Y. 1902).

Opinions

Bartlett, J.

The actions are brought by bondholders as the cestui gue Bust in a railroad mortgage against the defendant as the trustee therein, to hold the defendant liable for its affirmative act of certifying, issuing and delivering bonds, to be sold to the plaintiffs, or whoever might become the purchaser thereof, as first mortgage land grant bonds, secured by mortgage on the land grant described therein, contrary to and in violation of the covenants of the mortgage. ' . ;

The plaintiff Rhinelander is the holder ot twenty bonds of the Oregon Pacific Railroad Company, purchased in the year 1887, and the plaintiff Fleisher is the holder of five bonds purchased in the year 1889.

Two questions are presented on this appeal: (1) Do the complaints set forth a cause of - action? (2) Are these actions brought upon a sealed instrument and barred only by the twenty years’ Statute of Limitations; or upon an implied covenant or obligation springing from a breach of duty on the part of the trustee, not found in specific terms in the mortgage, and barred by the ten years’ Statute of Limitations ?

*523 On the first day of October, 1880, the Oregon Pacific Railroad Company executed its first mortgag'e, land grant, sinking fund, gold bonds for $15,000,000, par value, being 15,000 bonds of $1,000 each, due October 1st, 1900, the payment of which was secured by a mortgage executed by said Oregon Pacific Railroad Company, as party of the first part, the defendant, the Farmers’ Loan and Trust Company, as party of the second part, and the Willamette Valley and Coast Railroad" Company, as party of the third part. The bonds state upon their face that they are limited in issue to $25,000 per mile of the said railroad ; ” they also state that they are secured by a mortgage or deed of trust, signed by the Oregon Pacific Railroad Company jointly with the Willamette Valley and Coast Railroad Company to the Farmers’ Loan and Trust ConqDany as trustee for the holders of the said bonds, conveying the property and franchises of the said two railroad companies, including land grants and all other real estate owned or to be owned by them.

The complaint alleges, among othe.r things, that the Oregon Pacific Railroad Company was incorporated under the laws of the state of Oregon about September 14th, 1880, with authority to construct and operate a line of railroad from Taquina Bay, Benton county, Oregon, to Boise City in the state of Idaho ; and to construct and operate the line of railroad of the Willamette Valley and- Coast Railroad Company ; also to issue the bonds secured by the .mortgage, to which reference has already been made.

It is further alleged that the Willamette Valley and Coast . Railroad Company was 'incorporated under the laws of the state of Oregon in July, 1874, with authority to construct and operate a line of railroad from Corvalis in Benton county, Oregon, to the tide water on Taquina Bay in the same county and state ; and by acts of the legislature of the state of Oregon there was granted to said railroad company all the tide and marsh lands situate in said county of Benton; and the right to take from the lands of the state adjacent to the line of said road, timber, stone, water and other materials necessary *524 to its construction, with other rights that need not be specifically stated; that the "Willamette "Valley and Coast Railroad Company, at the time its franchise and property were con- ■ veyed to the Oregon Pacific Railroad Company, possessed the right to become the owner hy payment of six hundred thousand dollars, of all the shares of the capital stock of the Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain Wagon Road Company, an Oregon corporation ; and also the grant of land known in this case as the land grant of the said wagon road company, amounting to 850,000 acres, the same being a right of selection from twice that number of acres of land located within the limit of six miles on either side of the route of the said wagon road company, which stocks and lands were subject, before the title thereto could be acquired by the said the Willamette Valley and Coast Railroad Company, to the payment of said sum of six hundred thousand dollars.

The questions presented by this litigation involve the construction of the fourth and fifth subdivisions of the mortgage, which read as follows :

Fourth. That the party of the first part shall and will, and it hereby covenants and agrees to apply the net proceeds arising from the sale of the bonds secured by this indenture, in the first place to the liquidation and discharge of the herein-mentioned incumbrance, amounting to six hundred thousand dollars or thereabouts, now existing upon the land grant known as the grant of the Willamette Valley and Cascade Mountain Wagon Road Company, and subsequently to the building, grading and otherwise constructing the line of the said railroad, as the same may have been or may be surveyed and laid out, and for the full and complete furnishing and equipping of the said railroad, and the purchasing and procuring of locomotives, engines, cars and other proper equipment, and rolling stock, and other proper and suitable appurtenances for the said railroad, and for erection of depots, station houses, and such other buildings as may be suitable and proper for the same, and also for the purchasing, furnishing, equipping and operating of such steamships, *525 steamers, barges, ferryboats and other water craft as may be suitable and proper for the carrying out of the purposes for which the party of the first part was incorporated, or any of them, and also for such other and further purposes as may enable the party of the first part to engage in the other enterprises and purposes for which it has been so incorporated, and further, that the proceeds of the first issue of the said bonds to the extent of three million two hundred and fifty thousand .dollars of principal shall be applied in the first place to the satisfaction of the said incumbrance, and to the building, constructing and equipping of the first one hundred and thirty miles of the said railroad from the ocean eastward in case of surplus to the acquiring of necessary water craft.
“Fifth. That the party of the first part shall and will, and it hereby covenants and agrees, after the said bonds shall have been duly executed by and on behalf of the party of the first part, to deposit the same with the party of the second part, to be certified and issued from time to time as the same may be sold or otherwise disposed of, and the said trustees may certify and issue any of said bonds at any time on the request of the party of the first part, or of its president, in writing, and the net proceeds which may be realized on the sale of the said bonds shall be paid over to and remain in the hands of the said trustee for the purposes above enumerated, and shall he paid out only on the written order or request

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Bluebook (online)
65 N.E. 499, 172 N.Y. 519, 10 Bedell 519, 1902 N.Y. LEXIS 698, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rhinelander-v-farmers-loan-trust-co-ny-1902.