Roehm v. Stetson

50 Pa. D. & C. 98, 1943 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 117
CourtPennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County
DecidedDecember 21, 1943
Docketno. 3400
StatusPublished

This text of 50 Pa. D. & C. 98 (Roehm v. Stetson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Pennsylvania Court of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Roehm v. Stetson, 50 Pa. D. & C. 98, 1943 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 117 (Pa. Super. Ct. 1943).

Opinion

Smith, P. J.,

This matter comes before the court en banc on exceptions filed to the findings of fact and conclusions of law of Fenerty, J., sitting as a judge without a jury. It appears that on June 5,1940, plaintiff, May D. Roehm, obtained a judgment in an assumpsit action against John B. Stetson, Jr. On July 12th, plaintiff issued an attachment sur judgment versus defendant and summoned John B. Stetson Company, a corporation, as garnishee. The same day the attachment on garnishee was made, interrogatories and rule to answer were filed, and on July 30th garnishee’s answer was filed. On August 21, 1940, plaintiff took a rule for judgment against the garnishee for insufficient answers. Supplemental answers were then filed; new interrogatories and an answer were filed on January 13,1941; rule for judgment was discharged and an opinion filed; then an appeal was taken to the Supreme Court. This appeal was quashed by the Supreme Court on the ground that the order was interlocutory and therefore not appeal-able. The record was then returned to this court. Plaintiff took a rule upon defendant garnishee and a plea of nulla bona was made by the latter. Counsel then agreed that the case could be tried before a judge without a jury. The case was so tried and the court found for the garnishee and filed an opinion dismissing the various requests for findings of fact and conclusions of law. Plaintiff now takes exceptions to the findings of the court and its disposition of the requests for findings of fact and conclusions of law.

The facts in this case are not in dispute. A stipulation thereof was filed with the court by counsel for the garnishee and the attaching creditor, Under the stipulation as filed it appears that a judgment was properly entered against John B. Stetson, Jr., by plaintiff in the sum of $5,878.33 and that an attachment [100]*100was issued out of this court attaching the property belonging to him in the hands of John B. Stetson Company, a corporation. The stipulation further shows that on June 27, 1940, the John B. Stetson Company, hereinafter called the corporation, declared a dividend on its preferred stock payable as of the 15th day of July, 1940, and on July 11th the corporation addressed a letter to the Provident Trust Company of Philadelphia, hereinafter called the bank, as follows:

“Gentlemen:
We enclose our check payable to your order in the amount of $60,000 to place you in funds for the payment of the dividend payable July 15th on the preferred capital stock of our company.”

It appears that on other occasions the bank had made distribution of the dividends of the corporation. With that letter there was enclosed a check in the sum of $60,000 drawn by the corporation upon The Pennsylvania Company for Insurances on Lives & Granting Annuities to the Provident Trust Company of Philadelphia. On the same day the bank acknowledged receipt of the letter and the check and deposited it in its account in the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company designated as “Provident Trust Company of Philadelphia, Corporate Trust Funds, Reserve Account”. On July 12, 1940, the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company presented the said check of the John B. Stetson Company drawn to the order of the Provident Trust Company of Philadelphia and the same day it was cleared through the Philadelphia Clearing House and on the same day The Pennsylvania Company, upon which banking institution the corporation had drawn its check, debited the account of the corporation in that amount. On July 12th a check properly drawn by the bank on its corporate trust fund, reserve account, payable to a second account in the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company designated as “Provident Trust Company of Philadelphia, Corporate Trust Fund” was deposited. On July 13th the Provident Trust Company [101]*101of Philadelphia drew a check on its corporate trust fund account in the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company to the Provident Trust Company of Philadelphia, dividend disbursing agent for John B. Stetson Company preferred “to pay the dividends upon the preferred stock of John B. Stetson Company payable on the 15th day of July, 1940”. On July 13, 1940, the bank deposited in its own banking department in an account entitled “Provident Trust Company of Philadelphia, Dividend Disbursing Agent for John B. Stetson Company preferred” its check in the sum of $60,000 drawn upon its corporate trust fund account in the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company. On the same day the said account was credited in that amount. On July 15th the bank then presented its check in the sum of $60,000 drawn to the order of “Provident Trust Company of Philadelphia, Dividend Disbursing Agent for John B. Stetson Company Preferred Stock” upon its corporate trust fund account in the Fidelity-Philadelphia Trust Company and the same day the check was cleared.

On or prior to July 13, 1940, or two days prior to the day the dividends were payable under the resolution of the board of directors of the corporation, the bank drew its own checks upon its account as disbursing agent for John B. Stetson Company preferred in favor of the various holders of the preferred stock of the corporation including a check in the sum of $2,533 drawn to the order of John B. Stetson, Jr., defendant in this action. The bank had no notice of the attachment by plaintiff on the corporation until after the said check to the order of John B. Stetson, Jr., had been presented for payment to the bank and had, in fact, been paid by it on July 15, 1940, from the distribution account of that bank.

The stipulation also states that there was no express agreement, written or otherwise, between John B. Stetson Company and the holders of the preferred shares whereby the said shareholders had agreed to [102]*102look to the bknk in lieu and in substitution for payment by the corporation. It was also stated in the stipulation that there was no express agreement, written or otherwise, between the bank and the holders of the preferred shares of the corporation relating to the payment of dividends on such shares, other than such obligation as arose out of law, if any, from the fact of the issuance of the checks of the bank to those who chose to accept them for payment. The stipulation also says that no notice was given to the holders of the preferred shares in the said corporation by endorsement on their share certificates or otherwise that they should look to the bank for the payment of dividends on their shares.

The attachment was made on the corporation and not the bank. The trial judge in refusing to affirm plaintiff’s request for findings of fact and conclusions of law found that the bona fides of the transaction between the corporation and the bank is unquestioned. He also found in his opinion that the receipt of the money by the bank, with the attending circumstances, constituted it a trustee for the stockholders of the corporation; that the money no longer belonged to the corporation as long as the trust was faithfully executed nor to the bank, but to the stockholders, and that the payment to the bank on July 11, 1940, was in legal effect a payment directly to the preferred stockholders and that by defendant’s acceptance of the check from the bank he ratified the trust.

The opinion also states:

“So far as the equities are concerned, John B. Stetson Company, having in good faith discharged its obligation to defendant, before the service of the writ of attachment, should not be required to pay a like sum to plaintiff in relief of defendant.”

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
50 Pa. D. & C. 98, 1943 Pa. Dist. & Cnty. Dec. LEXIS 117, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/roehm-v-stetson-pactcomplphilad-1943.