United Security Life Insurance Co. v. Birmingham Trust National Bank

211 So. 2d 139, 282 Ala. 295, 1968 Ala. LEXIS 1128
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedMay 2, 1968
Docket6 Div. 407
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 211 So. 2d 139 (United Security Life Insurance Co. v. Birmingham Trust National Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United Security Life Insurance Co. v. Birmingham Trust National Bank, 211 So. 2d 139, 282 Ala. 295, 1968 Ala. LEXIS 1128 (Ala. 1968).

Opinion

HARWOOD, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment entered in a garnishment proceeding. The 'Birmingham Trust National Bank; hereinafter referred to as the plaintiff or the bank, recovered a judgment against Joe W. Reid, hereinafter referred to as the defendant.

In an effort to collect this judgment of $4,486.36, the plaintiff instituted garnishment proceedings against Reid’s employer., the United Security Life Insurance Company, hereinafter referred to as the gar-, nishee or garnishee-appellant.

The garnishee filed an answer to the garnishment asserting it was not indebted to the defendant. Reid and the bank filed contests of the garnishee’s answer. The garnishee then filed a number of pleas, to these contests of garnishee’s answer. Demurrers to pleas 4, 5, 6, and 9, which were pleas of set off, were sustained, and were overoverruled as to pleas 7 and 8, which were also pleas of set off.

At the conclusion of the nine day hearing, had without a jury, the court adjudged that the garnishee was indebted to the defendant Reid in the amopnt of $13,460.87, of which amount the garnishee was ordered to pay the plaintiff the amount of its judgment to the plaintiff bank.

The garnishee perfected an appeal from this judgment and the defendant Reid has attempted to cross assign errors. The plaintiff bank has not joined in the appeal.

This has been a most tedious record to review. It is some 585 pages in length, with many exhibits in the form of ledger sheets, and much testimony relating to figures, calculations, and accounts. Added to this, the transcript of the evidence is heckled continuously throughout by the wrangling and colloquy between counsel.

The evidence shows that the defendant Reid went to work for United Security in 1958 as manager of its credit life department. His compensation was to be one half of the profits of his department after certain expenses, including the general ofr fice expenses .of. his department.;wefe dey *298 ducted. Reid could draw against liis prospective earnings, such prepayments to be recognized upon annual settlements.

There were disputes between Reid and the company as to whether certain expenses charged to him were valid, and in 1959 his contract of employment was orally modified to fix his expenses at a flat $1200.00 per year. In 1961 or 1962 the company again modified the contract to fix Reid’s department expenses as 1% of the overall overhead expense of the home office expenses. Reid contends he never agreed to this latter change.

... The garnishee’s evidence was directed toward showing that Palmer Keith, Jr., a director of United Security, Sykes Ma-nasco, and Joe Dust formed a corporation in 1966 to deal in used automobiles. After several months Reid acquired Manasco’s interest in this corporation (Joe Dust, Inc.). Mr. William DeLong, then president of the garnishee, also purchased $15,000.00 of unissued stock in Joe Dust, Inc., shortly before a loan was made by United Security Life Insurance Company through its officer DeLong to Joe Dust, Inc.

Joe Dust, a witness for the garnishee, testified that he was in complete charge of Joe Dust, Inc., and neither Reid nor Keith exercised any control over his operation of Joe Dust, Inc.

Dust further testified that around 1 February 1966, Joe Dust, Inc., owed C.I.T. approximately $50,000.00, and that Reid and Keith were personally liable as endorsers on this account. Dust then went to De-Long, then president of the garnishee, and obtained a loan from the garnishee sufficient to pay off the C.I.T. account. Reid and Keith were not endorsers of this loan from the garnishee.

Dust testified he did not discuss the matter of obtaining the loan from the garnishee with either Reid or Keith, and did not notify them of the transaction until several' days after the transaction had been completed. Reid and Keith testified to this same effect. DeLong died on 8 March 1966.

It is garnishee’s contention that the above facts necessarily raise the inference that Keith, Reid, and Dust conspired to obtain the loan from the garnishee in order to relieve themselves of personal responsibility on the C.I.T. loan by paying off that loan with the proceeds of the loan from the garnishee, for which the Joe Dust, Inc., only would be liable. Joe Dust, Inc., had little, or no, assets.

To draw this inference, however, the court below would have had to disregard the testimony of the garnishee’s own witness, Joe Dust, for whom the garnishee had vouched by placing him on the stand.

The defendant Reid’s evidence was directed toward showing that the garnishee had never properly accounted to him for monies owing under the contract between himself and garnishee, and that for the years 1961-63, the garnishee owed him a balance of $43,879.08, for 1964 $6,153.25, and for 1965 $5,311.31. Reid’s testimony was based on calculations made from his own records, and from the records of the company. On the other hand, officials of the garnishee testified that only $45.76 was owed Reid on his account through 1965.

In this connection it might be noted that garnishee’s witness Latsis testified that an error of $15,000.00 had been made in garnishee’s records in determining the profits of Reid’s department payable in 1964, and with a proper entry of this $15,000.00, Reid would be due half of this $15,000.00 in determining the amount due him for 1964.

Garnishee-appellant’s assignments of error 1, 2, 3, and 4, relate respectively to the action of the trial court in sustaining demurrers to its pleas 4, 5, 6, and 9, which were pleas of set off filed to contests interposed by Reid and the bank to the answer of the garnishee denying it was indebted to Reid.

*299 The appellant-garnishee also filed pleas 7 and 8 to said contests and demurrers to these pleas were overruled.

It appears rather clearly from a reading of all the pleas that all matters provable under pleas 4, 5, 6, and 9, were likewise subject to proof under pleas 7 and 8, to which appellant’s demurrers were overruled. No reversible error therefore resulted from the court’s action in sustaining the demurrers to pleas 4, 5, 6, and 7. First National Bank v. Steiner, Lobman and Frank, 168 Ala. 243, 53 So. 172; Bush v. Thomas, 172 Ala. 77, 55 So. 622; Trammell v. Robinson, 34 Ala.App. 91, 37 So.2d 142.

Assignment of error 5, relates to the action of the court in sustaining objections to a question propounded by the appellant to the witness, J. J. Latsis, as to the amount of annual commissions paid by the garnishee-appellant to all its agents.

Mr. Latsis has been comptroller of the garnishee-appellant since 1962.

The evidence shows that in 1961 or 1962, the method of computing indirect expenses chargeable against Reid was altered to a basis of $1200.00 per year. In 1963, the method of computing the indirect expenses to Reid was changed by the garnishee to 1 % of the general home office expenses.

Reid testified he never agreed to this change.

In this connection Jack S. Parrish, a Certified Public Accountant was employed by Mr. Aspinwall, the then president of the garnishee company to examine the garnishee’s books and procedures. Mr. Parrish testified that Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
211 So. 2d 139, 282 Ala. 295, 1968 Ala. LEXIS 1128, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-security-life-insurance-co-v-birmingham-trust-national-bank-ala-1968.