War Finance Corporation v. Davenport

4 Tenn. App. 599, 1926 Tenn. App. LEXIS 203
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedSeptember 28, 1926
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 4 Tenn. App. 599 (War Finance Corporation v. Davenport) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
War Finance Corporation v. Davenport, 4 Tenn. App. 599, 1926 Tenn. App. LEXIS 203 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1926).

Opinion

CROWNOVER, J.

This was a suit to recover the balance due on a note with interest and expenses incident to the collection of collateral securities, and to set aside fraudulent conveyances. The bill alleged that the First State Bank of Woodbury had been doing a general banking business, had become insolvent, and had been put into the hands of a receiver on August 10, 1923; that during the year, 1922, said First State Bank had borrowed considerable money *601 from tbe War Finance Corporation and bad placed certain notes held by said bank as collateral security.

That in order to obtain said loan the complainant required the directors of said First State Bank to sign what was known as a collateral personal guaranty in the sum of $45,835.45, which was signed by eleven directors, including appellant, S. H. Harris.

That after said First State Bank was placed in the hands of the receiver it still owed the War Finance Corporation a balance on said indebtedness evidenced by a note of $34,365.39 due December 15, 1923, which note provided for five and one-half per cent interest from June 15, 1923, and that it held as collateral notes in the sum of $46,136-.

That after said First State Bank was placed into the hands of the receiver the defendants, directors of said bank, including appellant, -S. H. Harris, signed a waiver or consent agreement, authorizing said War Finance Corporation to collect said collateral notes and apply the same on said indebtedness, which waiver authorized said corporation to renew, extend or compromise any or.all collateral obligations held by it as may be deemed to its best interest, and to compromise and adjust conflicting claims that might arise on the collateral securities.

The bill further alleged that the War Finance Corporation proceeded to collect the collateral securities and after it had collected as -much as possible the said First State Bank owed a balance of $18,386.64 with five and one-half per cent interest from December 15, 1923, and that the expenses of collecting the same amounted to $1,268.79, for which the said complainant sought a recovery against said guarantors.

The bill further alleged that defendant, S. H. Harris, being one of the guarantors did on October 15, 1923, join his wife in conveying one farm of one hundred and twenty acres, another farm of fifty acres, a house and lot and some shares of stock to his children for the recited consideration of $20,000, which conveyance' the complainant insisted was fraudulent as no consideration was paid, and the bill sought to set aside said conveyance as fraudulent.

The defendant, S. H. Harris, and his children, the grantees in said deed, were all made defendants and filed an answer denying that said conveyance was fraudulent and denying that S. H. Harris was liable to said War Finance Corporation as guarantor or otherwise, and insisted that all the collateral notes were ample security for-the indebtedness, and that said War Finance Corporation could have collected all of said notes but instead delayed and permitted them to renew until many of the makers had become insolvent. They also pleaded that several of the original notes that had been executed to the War Finance Corporation had been renewed to the First State Bank, which bank had traded the renewals to the Fourth *602 and First National Bank at Nashville and other renewals to the Hamilton National Bank of Chattanooga, and that after said First State Bank had been placed into the hands of the receiver, said War Finance Corporation entered into an agreement with the said receiver, the Fourth and First National Bank and the Hamilton National Bank, whereby it was agreed that wherever said notes had been duplicated by renewals and traded to other banks that it would collect said notes and divide the proceeds with such bank holding the duplicates, and in this way several thousand dollars had not been accounted for, which in fact should have been credited on the note sued on. They filed their answer as a cross-bill and asked to be subrogated to the rights of the War Finance Corporation on all the other collateral now held by the War Finance Corporation.

Many depositions were taken and read to the Chancellor, who decreed that the said guarantors, including S. H. Harris, were liable to the War Finance Corporation for the balance of principal on said note in the sum of $13,147.22, interest thereon, $1,964.41, and expenses incident to the collection of the collateral notes, $1,268.-79, making a total of $16,380.42; and that the deed executed by S. IT. Harris to his children conveying the farms and property was fraudulent and should be set aside, except as to the interest of the son, Walter Harris, which had been levied upon, sold and bought in by F. C. Allison, in the one hundred and twenty-acre tract of land. The Chancellor further declared a lien on the said property from the date of the filing of the original bill and ordered the land sold. He further decreed that the guarantors should be subrogated to the rights of the War Finance Corporation on the balance of the uncollected notes held by said corporation when said guarantors had paid the amount of the recovery.

The defendant, S. IT. Harris, alone, appealed on the pauper’s oath, and has assigned errors to the effect that the Chancellor erred:

(1) In rendering the decree against the guarantors as there was no proof of the actual amount of the balance due on said note.
(2) The other three assignments of error go to the proposition that the Chancellor erred in decreeing that the deed from S. H. Harris to his children was without consideration, fraudulent and void and that the property should be sold in satisfaction of the decree.

The one determinative question in this suit is whether the complainant is entitled.to recover the amount decreed by the Chancellor.

After an examination of the record, we are satisfied that there is no error in the decree of the Chancellor. Appellant, Harris, insists *603 that the War Finance Corporation had no authority to compromise the collateral securities and to agree to retain only one-half of the notes, renewal duplicates of which had been executed to the First State Bank and fraudulently put up as collateral security with the Fourth and First National Bank and the Hamilton National Bank. In other words, that it had no right to pay one-half of the amount of such notes to the bank that held the duplicate renewals. The guaranty signed by Harris and the other directors provided that they jointly and severally guaranteed the prompt payment at maturity of all notes and obligations executed by the First State Bank to the War Finance Corporation up to the amount of $45,835.45, with interest at the rate of five and one-half per cent per annum and all costs and expenses incurred in the collection of the same.

They further authorized the War Finance Corporation to exchange and renew the obligations and to take additional or exchange security and to release any or all securities without in any manner impairing their joint and several liability.

The guaranty further provided that the War Finance Corporation was not required first to proceed against or exhaust its remedy against the First State Bank or to collect the collateral security.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
4 Tenn. App. 599, 1926 Tenn. App. LEXIS 203, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/war-finance-corporation-v-davenport-tennctapp-1926.