Young Co. v. Minchew

155 S.E. 356, 42 Ga. App. 228, 1930 Ga. App. LEXIS 304
CourtCourt of Appeals of Georgia
DecidedOctober 8, 1930
Docket20703
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 155 S.E. 356 (Young Co. v. Minchew) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Georgia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Young Co. v. Minchew, 155 S.E. 356, 42 Ga. App. 228, 1930 Ga. App. LEXIS 304 (Ga. Ct. App. 1930).

Opinion

Luke, J.

D. F. Minchew brought his action for damages against J. L. Young Company, a corporation, and J. L. Young. At the conclusion of the plaintiff’s evidence he waived any claim against J. L. Young. The jury rendered a verdict “in favor of the plaintiff for $200 and interest,” and the court entered up a judgment against J. L. Young Company. The company excepts to the overruling of its motion for a new trial. The record brings also to our consideration the overruling of a demurrer to the petition.

Omitting the formal parts of the petition and some of its allegations that need not be considered in passing upon the questions presented, the petition makes this case:

2. Defendants have damaged petitioner in the sum of $300, with interest thereon at seven per cent, since October 23, 1926.

3. On October 24, 1924, petitioner became the owner of three shares of stock in the Alam State Bank, said stock being of the par value of $100 per share.

[230]*2304. At said time petitioner was indebted to J. L. Young Company on open account in a sum exceeding $300, and said company had instituted suit against petitioner to the March, 1924, term of the city court of Douglas through its attorneys of record, Dart & Slater. No judgment was taken in said suit, and in the latter part of October, 1924, or in November of that year, petitioner negotiated and consummated a settlement of said case with J. L. Young Company through its attorney, John E. Slater, whereby petitioner conveyed to defendants said three shares of stock, and executed and delivered to defendants some two or three checks payable to J. L. Young Company or its attorney. John E. Slater, as attorney for defendants, requested petitioner to sign a transfer of the stock certificate in blank, in order that J. L. Young might determine later to whom he wished said stock transferred and then fill in the blank; and said certificate was assigned in blank.

5. “The assignment and delivery of said stock was intended to pass the full title, and did pass the full title out of petitioner and into J. L. Young Company or such other person or concern as the said J. L. Young or J. L. Young Company might dete^irme to fill in the blank, and. thereafterwards petitioner exercised no further control over said certificate of stock.”

6. All of said checks given by petitioner to complete said settlement of said suit were paid except one check for $20, and petitioner does not know whether this cheek was presented for collection. He shows, however, that he had sufficient funds in the bank at all times to pay said checks; and he now offers to pay said check, with interest, and '“to pay the same into court.”

7. Petitioner did not give said bank legal written notice that he had sold said stock, because he assumed that defendants would have the stock transferred on the books of the bank, there being a duty resting upon them to present said certificate of stock to said bank within six months of said transfer and have same transferred on the books of the bank, so as to relieve petitioner of his statutory liability as a stockholder.

8. In the early part of July, 1926, said bank failed and was taken over by the superintendent of banks.

9. Defendants did not have said stock transferred on the books of the bank as it was their duty to do, and it appeared on the books of the bank as petitioner’s property.

[231]*23110. Said superintendent of banks made an assessment against petitioner on said three shares of stock, and petitioner requested defendants to pay same, but they refused to do so. When an execution was issued against petitioner on said assessment on October 33, 1936, petitioner requested defendants to pay said execution, but they refused to do so, and petitioner paid said execution in full on April 3,1937, in order to protect his property.

11. For the reason that said stock had never been transferred on the books of the bank, petitioner was primarily liable for said assessment, but defendants are liable to petitioner for the money paid out by him on said assessment, with interest thereon.

The petition was amended substantially as follows: Said settlement between petitioner and defendants was agreed upon before petitioner procured said stock, and petitioner procured said stock and had same issued in his name for the specific purpose of selling the same to J. L. Young Company in settlement of said suit; and when petitioner got said stock it was immediately transferred in blank and delivered to J. L. Young Company through its attorney at law, John E. Slater. At said time said bank was apparently solvent, and petitioner had no other stock therein and did not attend any directors’ or stockholders’ meetings, and had no opportunity to learn anything about the solvency or insolvency of said bank. It was impracticable for petitioner to notify the bank that said stock had been transferred, for the reason that he did not know whose name was to be inserted in the blank as transferee.

The demurrer to the petition is substantially as follows: 1.

The petition sets out no cause of action. 3. “In no event would the plaintiff be entitled to recovery sued for by the application of any rule or measure of damages, as applied to the allegations of fact in said petition.”

The gist of the answer is: that “D. F. Minchew approached John E. Slater, of counsel for J. L. Young Company, . . and offered to deliver three shares of the capital stock of the Alam State Bank to J. L. Young Company, and to pay a stipulated sum in cash settlement of the amount due said J. L. Young Company by said D. F. Minchew,” and that J. L. Young Company and its said counsel “declined to accept said shares of stock and the checks aforesaid in settlement of the amount sued for, . . but did then and there agree . . to accept said checks to apply on the amount [232]*232due, and to endeavor to sell . . the shares of stock for the purpose of applying the proceeds therefrom on said indebtedness, with a further . . agreement that if it were possible to sell and dispose of said shares for a reasonable amount, the amount so received would be accepted as a compromise settlement . . of said sum sued for, and that said shares would be accepted in no other manner, and on no other terms.” The answer further sets but that said transfer of said stock was “to enable the defendant, J. L. Young Company, to secure any equity that might exist therein for application on the account due and owing by D. F. Minchew to the said J. L. Young Company, without incurring any stockholder’s liability on account thereof.”

1. We shall first consider the demurrer. Counsel for plaintiff in error insist in their brief that the demurrer is good for the reason that the petition is duplicitous, in that it does not allege specifically to whom the bank stock in question was sold. The demurrer is a general one, and duplicity is not necessarily a fatal defect in a petition. In the absence of a special demurrer upon the ground of duplicity, the question of duplicity is not properly before this court. In tins connection see City of Albany v. Jackson, 33 Ga. App. 30 (1) (125 S. E. 478). Counsel further' insist the alleged act of J. L. Young Company’s accepting the bank stock in settlement of the account was ultra vires. The petition does not set out a copy of the charter of J. L. Young Company or the material part of the charter. The courts of this State adhere strictly to the rule that the pleadings alone are to be considered on demurrer. See Cann v.

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Bluebook (online)
155 S.E. 356, 42 Ga. App. 228, 1930 Ga. App. LEXIS 304, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/young-co-v-minchew-gactapp-1930.