Wehrman v. Moore

177 Iowa 542
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedSeptember 26, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 177 Iowa 542 (Wehrman v. Moore) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Wehrman v. Moore, 177 Iowa 542 (iowa 1916).

Opinion

Salinger, J.

ap?" of iitigatedale ehaserpricein escrow. • I. The intervener has dismissed his appeal. It is idle to go into the question of his motives for doing so. On the face of the,record, an appeal remains on part of Wehrman and Trueblood. It appears from the record made on the granting of said order that one question involved is whether the award to Heins does not include some $1,400 usury. While Wehrman and True-blood have sold to Grossman, $4,000 of the purchase price is in escrow, awaiting final determination of this appeal. Notwithstanding the dismissal by Grossman, then, plaintiffs have the right to maintain this appeal, and all arguments on whether they will or should be successful must be reserved for the final submission, and have no place in a motion to dismiss the appeal. This would, of itself, dispose of the claim that it was agreed between the partners and Grossman that part of the purchase price should be paid to satisfy the Heins decree [545]*545in full. If such agreement is found proved on final submission, it may compel affirmance of the full allowance made Heins below. But whether such agreement was or was not made is not now controlling as a reason for dismissing the plaintiffs’ appeal. Moreover, all the record made on this motion preponderates greatly against the claim that there was such agreement. It was apparent that Grossman would not pay- any of the purchase price until Heins released his lien. Consequently, he did not, as is claimed, agree to pay over any money before the lien was discharged. Money that, confessedly, was not to be turned over until after Heins released, could not have been available, as Heins says it was, to obtain the release. And there are letters in the record written by Heins after the alleged agreement which are quite inconsistent with his claim that he knew of and relied upon such an agreement. There is other subsequent conduct on his part which is-ineonsistent with this position. Repeating': it is highly improbable that Milner would be given money by Grossman to pay Heins in full while the plaintiffs were quarreling with Heins and with each other, and give it to him before release, when his essential position was that he would pay no money until after a release had been obtained. Again, proof that there was such an agreement would have been exceedingly material on the application for restraining order. It was so much discretionary that it may be doubted whether it would have issued if a satisfactory showing had been made that the parties seeking to stay enforcement had contracted to sell the property in dispute and with its proceeds to pay Heins in full. No such point was as much as intimated on that hearing.

2' EOE^perfSting’ ance of:service" torney.lty °f at" II. As to the challenge of authority of Milner to accept notice of appeal for True-blood, since it is undisputed that Milner was, at events, the attorney for Trueblood in the trial below, the statute on notice of appeal is sufficient answer.

[546]*5462.

3. appeal and hrtanoe o£Sappei-°’ tain ¡"effect?" Heins started out by saying that Trueblood did not authorize or join in the appeal. There is much evidence that he did, but it is _ unnecessary to exhaust it. While it is true that, for a time, Trueblood demanded that the appeal be dismissed, and made affidavits tending to sustain the claims of Heins, more or less, it appears that, by paper filed in this court on May 2, 1916, Trueblood concluded to change his position and to have the appeal proceed. Nor need we go into the question of what the effect would be upon the appeal of Wehrman if Trueblood withdrew, and what the situation would be on failure to have served notice on True-blood, the necessity for such notice appearing only after it was too late to serve such notice.

3.

4' ouENT^authorinte?vean«orn fy: service °f pteaaAs to the challenge of Milner’s authority to aecept.service of the filing of the petition of intervention, it seems to us that there was general authority to serve him with notice of any pleading filed in the ease; that it is not very materlal on this motion whether any n°tiee was served, nor material, as is claimed an¿ disputed, that the petition was not filed until after decree was entered. No objection was made to the late filing. On the contrary, Heins entered appearance through his attorney who stipulated with reference thereto. We do not think it is seriously contended that those attorneys had no authority. For one thing, they represented Heins on the subsequent application for the restraining order, and still represent him in this court, and no such argument was advanced on that application.

[547]*5474.

5' EOKfperfeéting1 party without' interest. As to failure to serve notice of the filing on Moore: he was before the court; and, at the same time that it recognized the petition of intervention, it recoguized also the stipulation by which Moore’s interest had been cut off; and he had no . , , n interest at the time, having quitclaimed all the interest he had.

6' dicta>nS-:write’ peUate jurtsdnipower of court, III. Wehrman, Trueblood and Moore became partners. The partnership, or some of its members, owned or had an interest in certain stocks of the Chandler Motor Car Company and in a Chandler ear used for demonstrating Purposes. TIeins asserts that, by reason of advances made, he was the pledgee of said property. Litigation was had below, which resulted in a decree establishing the lien claimed by Heins, and settling the amount due him for which the pledge was security. One Grossman intervened at some stage of the proceedings, joining the plaintiffs, and claiming that, by purchase from them, he had become the owner of the property in controversy. Wehrman and Trueblood perfected an appeal from said order and decree. Intervener made application to the writer to restrain Heins from enforcing his pledge by sale pending the appeal. He asserted that the property was of highly fluctuating valué; that its possession was, therefore, necessary to intervener so that he might avoid loss which might ensue, because, pending appeal, the property which he might sell, if he had control of it, would greatly -depreciate in market value; that Heins could not be made to answer for a loss resulting, pending appeal, from decline in the market value of the property. There was offer to deposit with the clerk of this court a sum sufficient to pay Heins in full if affirmance should ensue, and urged that, since he had no rights except as pledgee, and to not more than the allowance in the decree, such deposit wuuld save [548]*548him harmless, no matter how the appeal was decided; that, on the other hand, though the appeal resulted favorably.to appellants, they, instead of being saved harmless in that event, as Heins would be if he prevailed, might still sustain great loss. Respondent Heins appeared by counsel, and objected: (1) that there is no. power to compel him to accept a deposit in the office of the clerk in lieu of his contract right to be paid the money due him, and that so to order would violate constitutional guaranties, both state and Federal, prohibiting the impairment of contract rights; (2) that neither the Supreme Court, much less, any judge thereof, had power to issue the order applied for. An order was granted restraining Heins from proceeding to enforce his claims pending appeal, and commanding Heins to surrender said property to intervener, if a deposit named in the order were made with the clerk.

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Bluebook (online)
177 Iowa 542, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/wehrman-v-moore-iowa-1916.