37 S.C. 88 | S.C. | 1893
The opinion of the court was delivered by
The facts of this case are correctly stated in the argument of the appellants, as follows: “The action was commenced August 5, 1890, by the plaintiff, a married woman, against the defendant, a foreign corporation, with its place of business in Scotland, to perpetually enjoin the sale of her lands under power contained in a mortgage executed by her on April 25, 1885, to secure a loan from the defendaut of $1,000, upon the ground that the mortgage and note thus executed by her alone were intended merely as security for a debt of her husband, and was, therefore, null and void. An injunction was granted pending the litigation. The cause was referred to take the testimony, all of which is printed in the brief; and came on to be heard upon the pleadings and testimony so taken, before his honor, Judge Izlar, at the March term (1891) for Barnwell County, who granted the relief prayed for, and ordered the note and’ mortgage to be delivered up to be cancelled, as follows: ‘Ordered, adjudged, and decreed, that the note and mortgage executed by the plaintiff to the defendant corporation, and bearing date April 25, 1885, be, and the same is hereby, set aside as null and void, and that the same be delivered up to the plaintiff cancelled, and that the injunction heretofore granted be, and the same is hereby, made perpetual,’ ” &c.
From this decree (which ought to appear in the report of the case) the defendaut appeals to this court upon the following-exceptions :
I. That his honor erred in holding that the Corbin Banking Company was the agent of the defendant company, in negotiating the loan to the plaintiff.
II. That his honor erred in holding (1) that the Corbin Banking Company, as agent of the defendant company, had under its control the funds of said defendant company; (2) that said Corbin Banking Company furnished blanks to W. H. Duncan for the purpose of receiving applications for loans; (3) that said Corbin Banking Company fixed the terms on which loans were to be made; (4) That said Corbin Banking-Company accepted the security offered by plaintiff Bates, and otherwise directed the application of the funds entrusted to it,
III. That his honor erred in holding that W. H. Duncan was the agent of the Corbin Banking Company, notwithstanding the said Duncan was employed and paid by the plaintiff.
IV. That his honor erred in holding that W. H. Duncan advertised himself as the agent of the Corbin Banking Company.
V. That his honor erred in holding that either the Corbin Banking Company or the defendant company should be charged with knowledge of communications made by J. B. Bates, the husband of plaintiff, to W. H. Duncan.
VI. That his honor erred in holding that J. B. Bates, the husband of plaintiff, was not her agent in receiving the money borrowed by plaintiff.
VII. That his honor erred in holding that the money borrowed by the plaintiff was not for her separate estate, use, and benefit.
VIII. That his honor erred in holding that knowledge communicated to W. H. Duncan by J. B. Bates (held not to be the agent of his wife, the plaintiff,) was, nevertheless, to be imputed to the defendant company.
IX. That his honor erred in holding that the note and mortgage of plaintiff are null and void, and not enforceable against her separate estate.
X. That his honor erred iu refusing the relief demanded by defendant.
XI. That his honor erred in rejecting the testimony of F. W. Dunton.
The questions involving the rights of married women under the Constitution and laws of this State has been so often and fully considered in our courts, that we do not think it necessary in this case to go into the general subject again.
Now, if the defendant company itself had negotiated the loan, and had been informed by Mr. Bates that he was obtaining the money to pay his own debts, the comjaany, under our decided eases, could not as lenders have recovered the bond and mortgage. And further, if Duncan had been the direct agent of the company, and received the information referred to, it would have been imputed to the company lending the money, and they could not have recovered the bond and mortgage. ‘ ‘Notice to the agent is notice to the principal. In the relation of the principal to a third party, the undisputed rule exists, that notice to the agent is notice to the principal, if the agent comes to the knowledge of facts, while he is acting for the principal.” 1 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law, 419 (agency); Pritchett v. Sessions, 10 Rich., 293. “A married woman has no power to borrow money for the use of her husband, nor to give her note therefor, nor bind her separate estate by a mortgage executed to secure such note. Therefore, such note and mortgage can not be enforced against the maker, when the lender knew that the money was to be used in paying a judgment debt of the husband; and knowledge by the lender’s agent, through whom the loan was negotiated, -was knowledge by the lender himself.” Salinas v. Turner, 33 S. C., 231.
So far the matter is plain, but it is insisted that the doctrine does not apply when another or sub-agent is introduced—that
There is, however, a line of cases which, at first view, would seem to modify the above rule, of which Hoover, assignee, v. Wise et al., 91 U. S., 308, is generally regarded as the leading-authority. The case was decided by a divided court, Justices Miller, Clifford, and- Bradley dissenting. Upon considering carefully the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Miller, as well as the principal opinion, we think it will be found that even that case does not question the general rule, but labors to limit it by an exception, in reference especially to banks acting as collectors of money among themselves, <&c. We might not be willing to go so far in the direction of the exception as indicated in the opinion, but that case announces this doctrine: “The rule of law is undoubted, that for the acts of a sub-agent the principal is liable, but that for the acts of the agent of an intermediate independent employer, he is not liable. It is difficult to lay down a precise rule which will define the distinctions arising in such cases. The application of the rule is full of embarrassment. Without attempting to harmonize or to classify the conflicting authorities, we think the case before us falls within a particular range of decisions,” &c. We do not think this case is analogous to that of Hoover v. Wise, or that the Corbin Banking Company, in its connection with this case, was an independent employer. Athough the parties were widely separated, it was one transaction, in which the defendant companj»' never relinquished their place as principal; the
The judgment of this court is, that the judgment of the Circuit Court be affirmed.