Baldwin Bros. v. Potter, 46 Vt. 402

Baldwin Bros. v. Potter

46 Vt. 402 | Vt. | 1874

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Pierpoint, Ch. J.

We do not find it necessary in this case to consider the question as to whether the contract for the sale of the property referred to, by the plaintiffs, to the several persons who purchased it, were contracts made in violation of law, and therefore void, or not. This action is not between the parties to those contracts; neither is it founded upon, or brought to enforce them. If those contracts were illegal, the law will not aid either party in respect to them ; it will not allow the seller to sue for and recover the price of the property sold', if it has not been paid; if it has been paid, the purchaser cannot sue for and recover it back. The facts in this case show that the purchasers *408paid the money to the plaintiffs, not to the plaintiffs personally, but to the defendant as the agent of the plaintiffs, authorized to receive it. When the money was so paid, it became the plaintiffs money, and when it was received by the defendant as such agent, the law, in consideration thereof, implies a promise on the part of the defendant, to pay it over to his principals, the plaintiffs; it is this obligation that the present action is brought to enforce : no illegality attaches to this contract. But the defendant insists that, inasmuch as the plaintiff could not have enforced the contracts of sale as between himself and the purchaser, therefore, as the purchaser has performed the contracts by paying the money to the plaintiffs through me, as their agent, I can now set up the illegality of the contract of sale to defeat an action brought to enforce a contract on my part to pay the money that I as agent receive, over to my principal. In other words, because my principal did not receive the money on a legal contract, I am at liberty to steal the money, appropriate it to my own use, and set my principal at defiance. We think the law is well settled otherwise, and the fact that the defendant acted as the agent of the plaintiffs in obtaining orders for the goods, does not vary the case. Tenant v. Elliot, 1 B. & P. 2; Armstrong v. Toller, 11 Wheat. 257 ; Evans v. City of Trenton, 4 Zab. (N. J.) 764.

We think the certificate granted by the county court was properly granted. It has been urged in behalf of the defendant, that the zeal with which he has defended this case shows that he intended no wrong; but we think the man who receives money in a fiduciary capacity, and refuses to pay it over, docs not improve his condition by the tenacity with which he holds on to it.

Judgment of the county court affirmed.