State ex rel. Sorensen v. State Bank

253 N.W. 356, 126 Neb. 343, 1934 Neb. LEXIS 263
CourtNebraska Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 9, 1934
DocketNo. 28803
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 253 N.W. 356 (State ex rel. Sorensen v. State Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Nebraska Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Sorensen v. State Bank, 253 N.W. 356, 126 Neb. 343, 1934 Neb. LEXIS 263 (Neb. 1934).

Opinion

Rose, j.

This is a proceeding in equity to cancel a guaranty alleged to have been procured by the State Bank of Omaha from Cora Wolf by fraud, to repossess securities pledged by her as collateral for her obligation as guarantor and to require pledgee to account for the income from, or proceeds of, the collateral pledged. The guaranty bore [344]*344the signature of Jake Spiesberger, Cora Wolf and E. Treller.

In an action to wind up the affairs of the State Bank of Omaha, an insolvent corporation in the hands of E. H. Luikart, receiver, Cora Wolf, intervener, pleaded that, through fraud, she was induced to sign a 50,000-dollar guaranty for payment of past and future debts, however evidenced, owing by M. Spiesberger & Son Company, hereinafter called the “company,” to the State Bank of Omaha, hereinafter called the “bank;” that intervener pledged, and the bank received as collateral, notes, mortgages and bonds aggregating in amount and value $25,-000; that, to induce intervener to sign the guaranty and make the pledge, the bank, by its president, falsely stated to intervener that the company had pledged collateral of the value of $25,000 to secure debts owing by the former to the latter; that the collateral so pledged by the company would first be applied to the extinguishment of its obligations to pledgee and that the securities pledged by intervener would only be used in the event the securities pledged by the company would prove to be insufficient; that such statements were false, and intervener believed them and relied on them and was thus induced to sign the warranty and make the pledge; that, as a further inducement, the president of the bank promised to deliver to her the income from the collateral pledged by her; that the company filed a petition in bankruptcy and listed the bank as a creditor in the sum of $34,400, a claim for which was filed in the bankruptcy court January 13, 1931; that the department of trade and commerce took charge of the bank August 10, 1931, and the receiver thereafter threatened to sell intervener’s pledged collateral and to apply the proceeds in payment of the bankrupt’s indebtedness to the bank; that intervener made a futile demand for the return of her pledged securities.

The receiver denied the fraud charged by intervener and pleaded that her guaranty and pledge were in full [345]*345force and effect; that, when the receiver took charge of the bank, the debt owing to it by the company, payment of which had been guaranteed by intervener, was $34,400; that upon payment thereof the receiver would surrender the collateral in his possession and account for money already realized from pledged securities. The receiver prayed for an accounting to determine the amount due on intervener’s guaranty, for judgment therefor, and for authority to sell the collateral and apply the proceeds on the judgment, if not paid when directed by the court.

A reply put in issue the facts on which the receiver based his prayer for relief.

Upon a trial of the cause the district court found all the issues in favor of Cora Wolf, intervener; canceled the guaranty for fraud; ordered the receiver to return to intervener her securities in his hands; directed payment of proceeds of her collateral in the sum of $18,960 to her as a trust fund in the receiver’s hands. The receiver appealed.

The finding that intervener was induced by fraud of the bank to sign the guaranty and to make the pledge is vigorously assailed as erroneous. The principal witnesses who testified on this issue were Cora Wolf, intervener, and Albert L. Schantz, president of the bank. Their testimony is in direct conflict on the crucial point. Who told the truth? The district judge who believed intervener saw and heard the witnesses. The appellate court is deprived of that advantage and, on a trial de novo, may consider the fact that the court below gave credence to the witness Cora Wolf rather than to the witness Schantz, their testimony being in conflict. Broeker v. Day, 124 Neb. 316; Maryland Casualty Co. v. Geary, 123 Neb. 851.

The company was a corporation which had been engaged in the wholesale millinery business in Omaha for 30 years. Jake Spiesberger, a brother of Cora Wolf, was an executive officer and manager of the company. Other Spiesbergers were also interested in it. The company [346]*346wanted credit and Jake arranged with Schantz, president and manager of the bank, for loans, when needed, to the extent of $50,000. The bank was closed on account of insolvency August 10, 1931, when its unpaid loans to the company were $34,400. The company went into bankruptcy December 4, 1931. Intervener signed the guaranty for $50,000 February 8, 1926, and pledged as collateral $25,000 in bonds secured by mortgages on real estate. She testified she had a conversation on that date with Schantz in his office in the bank and that they were the only persons present. Referring to what then and there occurred before she signed the guaranty she said:

“I went down to the bank and went into the little room and talked with Mr. Schantz and he had these papers for me to sign, and I asked him how I was going to be protected. He told me that he had $25,000 in securities from Spiesbergers; he had them, and that they would be used first in case it would be needed before they would take mine.”

Uncontradicted evidence proved that the bank did not then have or thereafter acquire from the company $25,000 in collateral. Cora Wolf’s testimony tends to prove the following facts: Schantz was president and head of the bank. She believed his statements were true and relied on them. She would not have signed the guaranty except for his statements. She had not owned any stock in the company for 20 years; never signed any notes payable to it; never was at the bank at any other time. Her securities were there when she arrived. Jake had told her the company had deposited $25,000 in securities and for her to go to the bank and sign the papers. Her pledged securities were all the property she had except her residence. She lived on the income from the bonds pledged, having received the interest thereon indirectly from the bank through the company after she signed the guaranty. Two weeks after the bank closed she first learned that the company had not deposited $25,000 in securities. •

[347]*347Schantz was a witness for the receiver of the bank and told a different story. He said Jake prepared and signed the guaranty before Cora Wolf came to the bank, where the papers had been left. Her part in the transaction was narrated by Schantz as follows:

“Mrs. Wolf came to my desk, and said that she had come into the bank to sign the papers that Jake, her brother, had sent her up there to sign, and I took her in my private office and gave her the assignments on the mortgages and the guaranty which she signed. There was no other conversation.”

On the witness-stand Schantz denied he made the statements to which intervener testified. He said in substance that he did not tell intervener the bank had received collateral from the company or its officers and denied that he told her the company’s collateral would be exhausted before resorting to her pledged securities; that she voluntarily signed the guaranty and the assignments of her pledged paper. If credence is given to his testimony it proves that the guaranty was not procured by fraud.

Some of the circumstances surrounding the transactions seem to strengthen intervener’s testimony. Willard L.

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Related

State ex rel. Sorensen v. State Bank
260 N.W. 195 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1935)

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Bluebook (online)
253 N.W. 356, 126 Neb. 343, 1934 Neb. LEXIS 263, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-sorensen-v-state-bank-neb-1934.