104 La. 548 | La. | 1900
The opinion of the court was delivered by
In the matter of the “Ruston State Bank vs. S. A. Cameron et alsf’ the plaintiffs caused to be seized, under a writ of execution, a certain cotton compress situated in the town of Ruston; whereupon Willis Curl brought this suit, injoining the seizure, alleging that he is the owner of said compress, and praying for the perpetuation of said injunction. The bank, defendant in injunction, admits that the seizure was made'by its authority and proceeds to set forth at length its reasons for asking that the injunction thus issued be dissolved with damages, urging, among other matters, that the plaintiff in injunction
Some time in 1896, one S. A. Cameron visited Euston, in the parish of Lincoln, and entered into an arrangement which, we infer, was rather tentative than definite, with some of the citizens, having in view the removal to that town of a cotton press, of which he claimed to be the owner, and which he represented as being at York Station in the State of Alabama. The exact nature.of this agreement is not made apparent in the'record, but, in February, 1897, Mr. Cameron wrote, from York Station, where he was living, to a Mr. Thompson, of Euston, to the effect that he had raised $2500, himself, but'needed as much more to move, erect and equip his press, and asking Mr. Thompson to get the Bank of Euston to lend that amount, offering, as security, to “mortgage” the press and insure it, and also to place with the bank, as collateral, his “contract” with the citizens of Euston. One or two other letters were written to the same effect, and, on the 22nd of March (1897), Cameron wrote to Thompson that he had received a letter from the president of the bank, from which he was hopeful that the desired loan would be made. We infer, however, that the bank and the citizens who were interested decided, before going further in the matter, to make some investigation at the Cameron end of the correspondence. Mr. Thompson, therefore, went to York Station to see Mr. Cameron. Upon his arrival, and as he was going, as he understood, in the direction of Cameron’s house, he met an old man whom he did not then know, but who was, and is, Willis Curl, the plaintiff in the instant case and father-in-law of Cameron. Not being altogether sure of the location of Cameron’s residence, Thompson asked Curl for information on the subject, and as there was more than one Cameron living at York Station, he particularly mentioned the fact that he was looking for the Cameron who owned the compress. Curl thereupon directed him to the residence of his (Curl’s) son-in-law, S. A. Cameron, and said that “lie guessed that he would have no trouble making a deal with that gentleman.” Thompson then went to Cameron’s home and entered into an agreement with him, as a result of which, shortly afterwards, Cameron visited Euston and perfected arrangements for the raising of funds necessary for the removal of the press. Those arrangements were as follows, to-wit: A public meeting was held, at which it was stated that Cameron was the owner of the press located at York Station, Alabama, and the questions of the advisibility of removing it to Euston, and of the ways and means, were discussed,' with the result that an agreement
The claim thus made by Curl that he was the owner of the press, upon the basis of the ownership and pledge of which, in, and by, Cameron, the latter’s note had been indorsed, and $2,500.00 in cash had been obtained, was a startling development, and there were probably indications that the indorsers contemplated taking proceedings for their own protection. To allay their apprehensions, Mr. J. W. Ilolbert, whom Curl had appointed his agent and attorney in the matter, upon May .4, 1899, wrote to Dr. Booles, as follows, to-wit: “I am authorized by Mr. “ Curl, of York Station, Alabama, to say to you gentlemen who took “ the pledge on the compress property that he fully recognizes the “ pledge for the sum advanced, $2,500 (advanced on the strength of the “ pledge), and trust that you will not incur any further cost in the matter.” This was followed by a letter from Curl, himself, of date May 6, 1899, addressed to “Dr. J. J. Booles and others,” which reads: “! “ want you gentlemen to understand that I fully recognize the pledge “ you have on my compress. I authorized the property to be pledged to “ you gentlemen for $2,500. I, don’t think it would be honest in me to “ try to beat it, even if I could. I fully indorse your action in taking “ the pledge, and I shall carry out its terms.”
The bank, however, was dissatisfied with the outlook, and in July, 1899, brought suit against Cameron and his indorsers, upon the note held by it, and, Cameron having removed from the State, the proceeding was begun by attachment, and a curator ad hoc was appointed to represent the absent defendant. Cameron, nevertheless, appeared by his attorney, W. A. VanHook, Esq., and by way of exception, and as a defence to the merits, set up that J. J. Booles, representing both the bank and the pledgees, had taken charge of the press and had managed the business, and that the revenues therefrom had been more than sufficient to pay the note held by said bank; and that, upon an accounting, there would be a balance due. He, therefore, prayed for the rejection of plaintiff’s demand and for judgment, in reconvention, against the plaintiff bank, ,and against the pledgees of the press, for $2,400, or such sum as might be found due upon such accounting. Thereafter, there were some negotiations between J. W. Holbert, upon the one part, and Booles, or Judge Graham, upon the other, as representing- the bank and, also, as representing the indorsers, with a view to having the bank and the. indorsers suspend any active proceedings until the then pending
Judge Graham, explaining-, as a witness, the purpose of this agreement, says: “Mr. Holbert, before our agreement, assured us, in positive “ and unmistakable terms, that Curl had no resistance whatever to make “ to the bank’s debt, or to the pledgees, * * * the object of Mr. “ Holbert was to secure a suspension of the proceedings until he could “ have Curl’s case” (meaning the case in which Curl .claimed as against the Cooper seizure and the transfer to Andom)” decided in the Supreme “ Court, and we consented to it.” * * *
“I want to state further that if it had not been for that agreement we “ would have gone on and would have gotten a judgment against Cam- “ eren and the defendants in that case before the judgment was ren- “ dored, on the 2nd of April, in which the Supreme Court said that Curl “ was the owner. And, furthermore, we could, at any time, between the “20th of July, 1900, and the 28th of April, 1899, have made Mr. Cuil “ a party to this suit, and we did not do that on account of our confi- “ deuce in Mr. Holbert, and Mr. Curl, that they would keep their prom- “ isos, and offer no resistance to our claims.” This evidence is corroborated by that of Dr. Booles, and is entirely uncontradicted. Under the agreement to rvhich it refers, further proceedings in the suit which had been instituted.by the bank were suspended until April, 1900, (after the rendition in this court of the judgment in which Curl was declared
Before proceeding to announce any conclusion from the facts, as found in the foregoing statement, it is proper that we should notice what may, perhaps, be considered as attempts to controvert some of the facts as thus found. Thus, Mr. Curl undertakes to make it appear by his testimony, that, while visiting Ruston, he informed different persons that he, and not his son-in-law, was the owner of the press, but not a single witness was produced to corroborate this testimony, whilst the president of the Ruston Bank, and others who met him and were interested in the matter, testify that they never heard, until long’ after his visit and only when the press had been seized as the property of Cameron, that he claimed to be the owner. McEIroy, the nephew of Cameron, who had come from York Station and had been given the position of book-keeper in the press, says that Curl passed a good deal of his time at the press, but never hinted that he had any proprietary interest in it. Ilis testimony is as follows: “He was around there, I had a talle with him every few days while he was here. ITe came down there and sat around occasionally. Q. — What knowledge had you of any ownership of the compress on his part? A. — I did not have any. Q. — What inquiries did he make into the business affairs of the compress to indicate ownership ? A. — He did not make any into the press or the books, or any thing. Q. — Who did Mr. Cameron say was the owner of the press? A. — He said he was.” Mr. Curl also undertook to make it appear that he claimed to be the owner, and so acted, in the original negotiations and agreement for the removal of the press from York Station to Ruston. Thus, in testifying in the instant case, he says: “The reason why I permitted my compress to be removed to Ruston, Louisiana, was that it was a better location * * * The people of
“Cameron did not pledge the compress to the people of Ruston to raise the necessary funds to move it from York Station, Alabama, to Ruston, I did that, myself, in order to get the compress moved there. * * * I did not authorize Cameron to pledge it to anyone. * * * All the negotiations preparatory to having it moved were had with me direct by the people of Ruston, and I made the contract with them to have it moved there. All that Cameron had to do with the moving of the com’press, so far as I was concerned, was to suggest the proposition to move it and to bring this proposition to my attention in connection with putting the people of Ruston in communication with me in relation thereto. As I have said, the contract for moving the compress to Ruston was made by me on my own responsibility, on the representations made to me by Cameron and the people of Louisiana.”
The statements thus made are repeated by the witness over and over again. And yet, whereas, for the purposes of this ease, he says that he “did not authorize Cameron to pledge” the press; not many months before, in the suit in which he claimed the press as against Cooper, and the transferree of Andom, entitled Curl vs. Sheriff ei als. (appealed to this court, and reported in the 52 Ann., 1052), referring to the press, he had sworn as follows: “When the said property was moved from York Station, Alabama, to Ruston, Louisiana, I gave S. A. Cameron the right and power to pledge it to the people of Louisiana, to secure the payment of a loan for $2,500, which sum of money was advanced by the bank at Ruston, Louisiana;” and there was introduced into the case on behalf of the plaintiff, an instrument purporting to be a written grant of authority from the plaintiff to Cameron authorizing the latter to pledge the press, which instrument, although bearing date August 5th, 1897 (about the time of the removal of the press from York Station), had never been acted on by Cameron, had never been heard of in Louisiana, and was thus produced, in 1899, to support the claim, then set up for the first time, that Curl was the owner of the press, which, for two years, Cameron had been allowed to deal with as his own. Curl swears, in the instant case, “Cameron did not pledge the compress. I did that myself;”
In view of these facts, the defendant in injunction now urges that, the plaintiff having held Cameron out, and having acquiesced in his appearing and acting, as the owner of the press, and having thereby enabled him to borrow the money which the defendant is seeking to
We find no answer to these contentions either in the record or in the argument of plaintiff’s counsel. By plaintiff’s own categorical admissions, notwithstanding his denials under oath, he authorized Cameron" to pledge the press in order to borrow from the Euston State Bank, defendant herein, the money needed for the removal and equipment of said press. And, from his declarations and conduct, equally expressive, when considered in connection- with the declarations and conduct of Cameron, the conclusion is inevitable that he intended that, in so pledging and borrowing, Cameron should stand towards the bank as the principal in the transaction and as the owner of the property to be pledged. As a matter of fact, Cameron did stand towards the bank as the principal, and only party in interest, and as the sole owner of the press, and in that capacity, and mainly upon the faith of that ownership, obtained from the bank, defendant in injunction, the money which it is now seeking to recover.
It is true that the press is pledged directly to the guarantors of the note executed by Cameron in acknowledgment of the loan made by the bank. And by reason of this circumstance the counsel for the plaintiff in injunction argues that the purpose of the pledge having been to indemnify the guarantors in the event of their being compelled actually to pay the note, the guarantors alone have the right to resort to the pledge, and this only after they have paid the note. The answer to this is that, from the first, the press was held out as the property of Cameron which would afford security to the bank for the loan which it was asked to make. Tn Cameron’s first letter to Thompson, asking him to assist in obtaining the loan from the bank, he wrote: “I want you to do me the special favor to see the bank and see if they will lend me the remaining $2,500, so I can go to work at once removing my press. I will give them mortgage on press and will carry insurance to cover this amount.” Subsequently, when the loan was made and the notarial act was executed by Cameron, said act not only embraced the specific pledge
The same reasoning is applicable to the attitude which the plaintiff in injunction now assumes when considered in connection with the agreement of November 1, 1899, from which the foregoing quotation has been made. It will be remembered that Cameron had made a title to an undivided half interest in the press to one Andom, who had transferred the same to the Merchants and Farmers Bank of Shreveport; 'and Cooper, having obtained a judgment against Cameron, had seized the other undivided half interest under execution. Curl; the plaintiff •now before the court, had then disclosed himself and, asserting that he was'the owner of the press, filed a suit against Cooper and the Shreve
It may be remarked that, in the suit brought by the defendant in injunction against Cameron and the guarantors of the note, Cameron was represented by the same counsel who represented him in the suit, to which he was party defendant, brought by Curl against Cooper and the Shreveport Bank, and who is also one . of the counsel representing Curl, as plaintiff in the present action. On behalf of Cameron, in the suit in which the present defendant was plaintiff, he made quite a vigorous defence, and the judgment rendered reserved to his client certain rights. In the suit in which Cameron’s father-in-law was plaintiff, he accepted service, waived citation, and co-operated with the plaintiff in the obtention of his judgment. These facts are noted as indicating that Cameron, as the principal actor in the matter, speaking
Rehearing refused.