Utah-Idaho Sugar Co. v. Lewis

187 P. 590, 95 Or. 224, 1920 Ore. LEXIS 26
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 10, 1920
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 187 P. 590 (Utah-Idaho Sugar Co. v. Lewis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Utah-Idaho Sugar Co. v. Lewis, 187 P. 590, 95 Or. 224, 1920 Ore. LEXIS 26 (Or. 1920).

Opinion

BENSON, J.

1. The first assignment of error challenges the propriety of the court’s action in ordering [227]*227the substitution of Lewis as defendant in the action. If, in the first instance, there was any merit in this contention, the defendant by answering and seeking affirmative relief, has made himself a proper and necessary party and waived any objection he may have had to being made a defendant: Johnson v. White, 60 Or. 611 (112 Pac. 1083, 119 Pac. 769).

2. It is next urged that it was error to overrule the demurrer to the complaint. It must be remembered that this demurrer was filed by the former defendant prior to the substitution, and as to him, it was a perfectly good complaint. It is true that this pleading was never amended, and contains no allegations which in any manner connect the defendant Lewis with the transaction narrated therein, but this defendant has voluntarily answered, and in his further and separate answer he has supplied all of the allegations which are lacking in the complaint, and the case was tried upon the issues joined by this answer and the reply thereto. It has been held in many cases that under such circumstances the answer aids the complaint and makes it good: Turner v. Corbett, 9 Or. 79; Catlin v. Jones, 48 Or. 156 (85 Pac. 515); Treadgold v. Willard, 81 Or. 658 (160 Pac. 803).

3. The next assignment is that the court erred in overruling defendant’s objection to the admission of a certain deed record of Josephine County, disclosing a conveyance from the Oregon-Utah Sugar Company to the plaintiff of all of its assets, both real and personal. The record disclosed that the deed was executed June 7,1916, filed for record January 22,1917, and recorded January 12, 1918. We find defendant’s objection to the admission of this deed stated thus, in the bill of exceptions:

[228]*228“This evidence was objected to by defendant as incompetent on account of the dates shown of transfer and recording being subsequent to date of attachment, also the volume being the Deed Record could not impart any notice of transfer of personalty and that the tractor and auto attached not named in the list of property transferred.”

The property in question was attached by Sheriff Smith on June 24, 1916, seventeen days after the execution of the deed in question. It does not appear that it was offered for the purpose of imputing notice to the defendant of plaintiff’s claim of ownership, but simply as evidence of the ultimate fact that plaintiff had purchased the property prior to the levy of attachment. The language of the deed, so far as it relates to the personal property, reads thus:

“Also, all other lands, tenements, hereditaments and appurtenances and all and singular the goods, chattels, money, choses in action, all contracts and property, real, personal and mixed of every name, nature and description whatsoever now owned by the said Oregon-Utah Sugar Company, and wherever the same may be situate.”

There was other evidence tending to show that the tractor and automobile involved herein had been owned by the Oregon-Utah Sugar Company, and the defendant himself contended that the debtor for whose debt it had been attached, had acquired title from the same source. The evidence was clearly admissible, as tending to prove the purchase of the property by plaintiff.

4. For the purpose of showing ownership of the property in the judgment debtor in the action wherein the attachment was issued, defendant offered in evidence a writing which was in form a letter signed by the vice-president of the Oregon-Utah Sugar Company, addressed to W. W. Harmon and A. A. Flynn, in which [229]*229it was proposed that the latter should at once organize a construction corporation which should undertake the construction of all the improvements contemplated by the Sugar Company, upon the terms therein specified. It also suggested that when the parties to whom the letter was addressed should sign their acceptance of its terms, it should be a binding contract. Paragraph 6 of this writing is as follows:

“To encourage the incorporation of the construction company on a substantial basis, the sugar company will subscribe for five thousand dollars of the proposed twenty-five thousand dollars of capital stock of the proposed construction company, and the sugar company will turn over to the construction company immediately, as part payment of said five thousand dollar subscription, two automobiles, one caterpillar tractor engine, and plows, and such other construction equipment as it now has on hand. The amount credited on such subscription shall be the actual cost of such equipment as is turned over.”

To this offer the plaintiff objected upon the ground that it was not shown that the vice-president of the Sugar Company had any authority to enter into such contract. There is no evidence in the bill of exceptions showing that such construction company was ever incorporated or that any stock subscription was ever made, or that the vice-president was authorized ^o execute such agreement, or that it was ratified by the Sugar Company. It is said in 10 Cyc. 922, that:

“There is no office pertaining to' a private corporation about which both the statute and case-made law have so little to say as that of vice-president. The etymology of the term would indicate that the officer has no functions to perform other than those of an ordinary director, except in case of the absence, disability, or death of the president, when he acts in his stead, pre[230]*230siding at the meetings of the hoard of directors and performing the other functions of the office.”

It is true, that the vice-president signs the instrument in the following style:

“Oregon-Utah Sngar Company,
“By Geo. E. Sanders, Vice-President & Manager.”

But without some evidence of his authority, in either capacity, to encourage the organization of .an independent corporation, and to subscribe for its capital stock, an instrument like the one offered would not be competent evidence, since the court cannot presume that acts of the peculiar sort set out are within the implied powers of the manager: Wilson v. Investment Co., 80 Or. 233 (156 Pac. 249).

5. The next assignment is that the court erred—

“In refusing the defendant continuance until the minutes of the Oreg-on-Utah Sugar Company could be produced by Mr. Alex Nibley, secretary of said corporation. ’ ’

This subject is not discussed in defendant’s brief, nor do we find in the bill of exceptions any application for a continuance. All that we find is this:

“The court sustained the objection to the admission of the instrument [referring to the letter which we have just discussed] but permitted it to he identified for the purpose of the exception of the defendant. The defendant thereupon demanded the minutes and resolutions of the board of directors of the Oregon-Utah Sugar Company covering this transaction, 'from Alexander Nibley, secretary of the Oregon-Utah Sugar Company, and the same were not produced.

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Bluebook (online)
187 P. 590, 95 Or. 224, 1920 Ore. LEXIS 26, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/utah-idaho-sugar-co-v-lewis-or-1920.