United States v. Conti

27 F. Supp. 756, 1939 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2688
CourtDistrict Court, S.D. New York
DecidedApril 17, 1939
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 27 F. Supp. 756 (United States v. Conti) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, S.D. New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
United States v. Conti, 27 F. Supp. 756, 1939 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2688 (S.D.N.Y. 1939).

Opinion

CONGER, District Judge.

Plaintiff, the United States of America, is the assignee of a claim in the amount of $1,709.01, given by the defendants to the National City Bank of New York pursuant to an application for a loan, said application having been made in writing by defendant Mamie Conti upon a form provided by the Federal Housing Administrator to a bank insured under the National Housing Act, as amended, 12 U.S.C.A. § 1701 et seq., for the purpose of securing a loan so insured. Both Mamie Conti, the applicant and maker of the note which secured the loan, and Anthony R. Conti, the co-maker on the said note have defaulted in the payment of the installments thereon, and in accordance with the option provided in the note, the National City Bank of New York (hereinafter referred to as the “Bank”) instituted suit against these defendants in the City Court of the County of [757]*757New York (Southern District of New York) in October, 1936.

Subsequently and in accordance with the requirements and regulations of the Federal Housing Administration, the Bank applied for reimbursement for the loss it had sustained. Pursuant to its contract of insurance with the Federal Housing Administration, the Bank was reimbursed on January 13, 1937 in the amount of $1,709.01 representing the face amount of the note less the unearned interest. Thereupon the claim of the Bank against these defendants was assigned to the Federal Housing Administrator, acting on behalf of the United States of America, who has instituted an action against these defendants for the amount of the assigned claim, together with interest thereon from the date of the assignment.

This motion is by the plaintiff for an order striking out defendants’ answer and for summary judgment pursuant to Rule 113 of the Rules of Civil Practice of the State of New York. Defendants’ answer is a general denial of the material allegations of the complaint and in objecting to these motions, they, urge three defenses for the consideration of the Court, namely, (1) that there has been a failure of consideration in that they never received any part of the loan, (2) that the previous action by the Bank against these defendants in the City Court is still pending and undisposed of, therefore barring this action in the Federal District Court, and (3) that this Court has no jurisdiction of the subject of this action or of the parties hereto for the reason that had plaintiff’s assign- or, the Bank (a resident of the same State and City as defendants), brought said action, this Court would not have had such jurisdiction.

Defendants’ first contention is untenable. The applicant Mamie Conti specifically designated in her application for said loan that the check was to be sent to her, but that it was to be made payable to one Matthias Bauer. Therefore, it is obvious that these defendants themselves would never receive the money, but it would go to their designee. Furthermore, Section SO of the Negotiable Instruments Law of New York, Consol.Laws, c. 38, reads as follows: “Every negotiable instrument is deemed prima facie to have been issued for a valuable consideration; and every person whose signature appears thereon to have become a party thereto for value.”

Defendants’ argument has produced nothing upon which the Court can say the presumption, statutorily granted, has been overcome.

The note here in question reads in part as follows: “Three years after date for value received, I (we) the undersigned promise to pay to the order of the National City Bank of New York * *

The words in said note “for value received” are presumptive evidence of consideration. Lasher v. Rivenburgh, 191 App.Div. 676, 181 N.Y.S. 818.

Under the wording of the statute, this prima facie presumption exists in favor of a plaintiff remote to the maker, with the result that, in an action by such plaintiff against such maker, the presumption operates as prima facie proof that plaintiff gave value to his transferor. Irving Trust Co. v. Horowitz, Sup.Ct., 185 N.Y.S. 370.

The Court can follow no such reasoning as defendants advance in support of their second defense, i. e., that the same issue is involved in the action pending in the New York City Court. That the pendency of one suit in the City Court is not a bar to this action in the District Court was well settled in the case of Woren v. Witherbee, Sherman & Co., 240 F. 1013, in which the Court stated: “The pendency of the one suit in the one court is not a bar to the suit in the other or to its prosecution. * * * True, an action on this cause of action (each case) was first brought in the state court and is still pending, and the exercise of its powers and jurisdiction invoked; But this was no bar to the bringing, and is no bar to the prosecution, of a suit in the federal court thereafter brought on the same cause of action and between the same parties (McClellan v. Carland, supra [217 U.S. 268, 30 S.Ct. 501, 54 L.Ed. 762]), and is no bar to the prosecution of the suit in the federal court.”

This proposition was stated previously in City of Ironton v. Harrison Construction Co., 6 Cir., 212 F. 353, at page 355, as follows: “The city complains that this suit was not abated, or, at least, stayed, because of the prior suit in the state court. Of this claim it is sufficient to say that there had been no final judgment in the state court; that the plea was therefore, in effect, not one of prior adjudication, but one of prior suit pending, and that a prior suit pending in a state court will not abate a later suit in a federal court, even if be[758]*758tween the same parties upon the same issue, and even if the two courts are in the same district of the same state. City [of North Muskegon] v. Clark (C.C.A. 6) 62 F. 694, 10 C.C.A. 591; Bank [of Kentucky] v. Stone (C.C.) 88 F. 383, 398.”

And in United States v. Deasy, D.C., 24 F.2d 108, 110, which involved the federal question of the right of the United States to enjoin interference with cutting and removing timber in a national forest under a contract of sale therefor, notwithstanding the same issue was involved in a pending action in the state court, the Court there stated that: “The United States is. not a party in that suit, it being one solely between the defendants and the company; nor is the government in the present case seeking to enjoin the state court from proceeding further with that action * * *. It seems now settled that the United States may bring a suit in the courts of the United States, where there is involved the question of its right to dispose of or to administer its property (United States v. Comet Oil & Gas Co. (C.C.) 187 F. 674), although there may be at the same time pending in the state court an action between other parties presenting the same question.”

Defendants’ third defense, namely, that this Court lacks jurisdiction for the reason that the plaintiff’s assignor could not have sued here and therefore plaintiff cannot sue here, must fail in view of the statute and the cases applying thereto.

The pertinent portion of Section 24(1) of the Judicial Code, 28 U.S.C.A. § 41(1), reads as follows: “The district courts shall have original jurisdiction as follows: (1) First.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
27 F. Supp. 756, 1939 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 2688, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/united-states-v-conti-nysd-1939.