37 N.J. Eq. 426 | New York Court of Chancery | 1883
This suit is brought to foreclose a mortgage for $5,000 and interest, on land in Camden county. The mortgage was given in September, 1869, by Jonathan H. Morgan and his wife to the complainant, who took it in trust for his business firm of Bodine, Thomas & Co., of Williamstown, in that county, as security for the payment of $5,000, which they claimed was due to them from Morgan and his son, Amos F., then known as Frank Morgan, for the alleged fraudulent taking and appropriating to their own use of business orders of the firm, payable in goods, and goods of the firm. The firm, which then consisted of the complainant, Isaac Sharpless, Charles E. Thomas and Walter R. Thomas, were and had been the proprietors of a glass factory, a country store and a flouring mill, and they paid their workmen in the factory in part with orders for goods, redeemable at their store; and un
“Well, that is a good deal more than I thought it would be. I think you have got it a little high, but still I cannot recollect the particulars of it.”
He further says there was a settlement arrived at, at that time in that room, between the firm and Morgan, and that the latter said, “You know I have no money to pay with,” and he, the witness, said he, Morgan, could give a mortgage for the amount and they would make it even $5,000, to which Morgan agreed, and furnished to Mr. Bodine, who drew the bond and mortgage, his deeds, in order that he might be enabled to describe the property in the mortgage. Mr. Bodine also says that at the time when the arrangement was made for Morgan to give the mortgage, the whole matter was explained to him—where they alleged those moneys had gone, and the amount of each item given to him as Mr. Bodine had stated it in his memorandum, and that it was after this explanation and statement that Morgan agreed to give the mortgage, and that the agreement was entirely voluntary. Mr. Thomas says that their investigation resulted in an interview with Morgan ; that the items were, in that interview, definitely stated on paper; that they made the' investigation to find out, as nearly as they could, the amount of the alleged peculations ; that the investigation had béen pursued somewhat independently by Mr. Bodine and himself, and the exhibit showed a substantial agreement of those items that they had both gone over, which amounted in the gross to $5,000; that the amounts were called off, but he is not certain that the memoranda were shown to Morgan, but he says the items were severally named, and also the sum total; that, as before stated, he understood Morgan substantially to admit the truth of the charges then made, and he says that an understanding was come to and an