State ex rel. Shipman v. Allen

111 S.W. 622, 132 Mo. App. 98, 1908 Mo. App. LEXIS 510
Missouri Court of Appeals·Decided June 4, 1908·Published·Cited by 4 cases

Opinion

GOODE, J.

This is an action on an attachment bond executed by L. L. Allen, A. Forsythe and J. F. Stark, three of the defendants. The other two defendants are L. L. L. Allen, and J. Forsythe. Those five men composed a firm styled Allen, Stark & Co. This firm in May 16,1893, sold to W. S. White an ore crusher for which White gave his promissory note of said date for $450 payable in six months, with J. A. White, J. N. Scott and J. W. Shipman, who is the relator in the present action, as sureties. Said note was endorsed on the back by W. H. Smith, at the request of L. L. Allen, some time after its execution and delivery to the payees. When it matured November 15, 1893, L. L. Allen, one of the members of the firm of Allen, Stark & Co. and its active representative in the transactions with de[100] fendants, told the principal in the note, W. S. White, an extension of the debt would be granted if a new note was given in lieu of the first one. A note for $450, dated November 15, 1893, and payable in three months, was made out by Allen and given to W. S.- White to be signed by himself as principal and, he says, by George Davis and others, presumably the sureties on the first note, as sureties. It was signed by W. S. White as principal and by George Davis, George Messick and J. W. Shipman, the relator, as sureties. The testimony goes to show relator signed it on an understanding that it was not to be delivered to L. L. Allen, for the firm of Allen, Stark & Co. until W. S. White had procured the signatures of George Davis, J. N. Scott, J. A. White and W. H. Smith, besides relator’s own, as sureties. After W. S. White had procured the signature of relator, J. W. Shipman, George Messick and George Davis, he hap-pended to be in L. L. Allen’s bank on other business, and showed the note in that condition to said Allen, when the latter took and kept it, saying it was good enough with the names already on it. W. S. White protested against this, saying his agreement .with the parties who had signed was it was not to be delivered until the other sureties on the first note had signed it. Allen retained it. The foregoing is according to the testimony of W. S. White given for relator. The testimony in regard to who was to sign the second note is not altogether consistent with the names actually on it. George Davis signed it though he had not signed the first note. It seems this was done at Allen’s request. George Messick also signed it. He was not on the first note and no explanation is given regarding his signature. We are safe in saying the testimony for relator goes to show he signed on condition that the signatures of certain other persons as sureties were to be procured, and that some of the signatures that were to be procured, before it was delivered, were not on it when Al[101] len got and kept it, and that Allen was notified at the time he took the note of the condition on which relator, signed. Allen himself gave testimony tending to show no conversation passed between him and W. S. White, at the time the note of November 15th was turned over to him (Allen) for the firm of Allen, Stark & Co. Allen’s testimony too, goes to prove the original note was treated by him, as the representative of his firm, as having been paid by the second one and was marked paid across the face. Instead of being surrendered to the makers, it was placed among the canceled notes in the bank of which Allen was cashier. Three payments were made and endorsed on the note of November 15th, as follows: January 18, 1895, $32.50; November 7, 1895, $11; May 4, 1896, $38. Eelator Shipman turned over to Allen the last of those payments, but swore he did so merely to accommodate the principal W. S. White and one W. G. Craig, who furnished the money and sent it by relator, as he was going to Pierce City for the mines where the ore crusher was located. Allen gave a receipt saying the payment was received of W. G. Craig, secretary of the Spring Eiver Mining Company, through J. W. Shipman, and that the money was to be credited on the note of W. S. White, George Mes-sick, et al., namely; the second note. In January, 1901, an action was instituted by the payees on said note against all the signers, including relator. Eelator pleaded in defense the condition on which he had signed it as above stated, and after the taking of some depositions this action was dismissed. In August, 1901, Allen, Stark & Co. filed suit on both notes, and in aid of the action sued out a writ of attachment against the relator Shipman, presumably on the ground of non-residence.The plaintiffs in that action elected to proceed to trial on the note of May 15th and dismissed as to the other. Eelator obtained judgment on the plea in abatement dissolving the attachment, and at the trial on the merits, [102] after evidence had been taken and the case submitted to the jury, plaintiffs took a nonsuit as to said note of May 15th. What the issues were on the merits is not shown in the present record. Relator having succeeded in defeating the attachment, instituted the present action to the March term, 1906, of the Lawrence circuit court on the attachment bond, which had been executed, as said, by only three of the firm of Allen, Stark & Oo. The two other members of the firm, L. L. L. Allen and J. Forsythe, were made parties defendant as being parties in interest, a ruling approved by this court on a former appeal of the present case and not now in question. [State ex rel. v. Allen, 124 Mo. App. 465, 476, 103 S. W. 1090.]

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State ex rel. Shipman v. Allen, 111 S.W. 622, 132 Mo. App. 98, 1908 Mo. App. LEXIS 510 (Mo. Ct. App. 1908).

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