43 How. Pr. 193 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1872
—This is an action ¡of interpleader, brought to determine who, among numerous claimants, are entitled to the reward of $5,000 offered by the American M. U. Express Company, after the robbery of Thomas A. Halpine, one of their messengers. The plaintiffs are the company, and they have brought into court the amount aforesaid. The defendants are the persons who severally claim to be entitled to the amount, or to a part of it. At about 8 P. M. on the 6th of January, 1871, Halpine was robbed and nearly murdered while on an express car on the Boston and Albany Railroad. The deed was done while the train was crossing the railroad bridge at Albany. On the 7th, the company published an offer in these words: u $5,000 reward will be paid for the arrest and conviction, or information leading thereto, of the person or persons who attempted to murder, and did rob, the messenger of the Am. Merchant’s Union Express Company, while crossing the railroad bridge at Albany, on Friday evening, Jany. 6th, 1871. For the company, J. C. Fargo, Gen. Superintendent.”
Ho person was then suspected by the company, or the public authorities.
On the morning of January 8th, Thomas Braidwood informed Mr. Dwight, the superintendent of the company, that on the afternoon of Jany. 6th, he had seen John I. Filkins in a pawnbroker’s shop looking for a pistol, but that he did not buy one. In consequence of that information, Dwight saw Filkins that afternoon and became satisfied that he had some guilty knowledge of the crime.
On the morning of Jany. 7th, Robert A. Scott sent word to the police headquarters that he had sold a pistol on the day before and gave a description of the purchaser, and on the evening of the 8th, he had another interview with the police.
On the afternoon qf Jany. 8th, William pL Whalen found, near the spot where the crime had been committed, the pistol with which it was done; and this pistol. he gave, on the same day, through his mother, to one of the employees
On the evening of January 8th,' Jeremiah Flood informed the superintendent of the railroad that he saw a person, known to him by sight but not by name, jump on the express car and ride to the depot on the evening of the robbery; and he gave the same information to Mr. Kyle, the special policeman of the railroad, on Monday. This person was proved to be Filkins.
During all this time Filkins was at his house, not arrested and not suspected by the public. On the 11th of January, in the early morning, he fled and was at once suspected by the public of this crime.
On the evening of January 12th, William H. Foos, of Ballston, left a telegraphic dispatch at the office in Ballston, to the police at Albany, that Filkins had breakfasted at his house and was on his way to Canada, or (according to other witnesses) to Galway. The dispatch was forwarded on the morning of the 13th.
George F. White, of Saratoga, late on the morning of the 13th, telegraphed to the police that a suspicious-looking man ' (who proved to be Filkins) stayed at, his house and went away in the morning, saying that he was' going to Canada. Mr. White’s dispatch did not reach Albany until after the dispatch from Foos had been received.
On the 15th of January, Altentor Hall, of Whitehall, received a telegraphic dispatch from the Express Company, saying that Filkins was going towards Canada, and requesting that pursuit should be made. On the same day, Hall showed the dispatch to Herman Ingraham and Oliver Thomas of the same place. Ingraham ordered a team, and he and Thomas went in pursuit of Filkins. By Ingraham’s .advice, they went by Fort Ticonderoga. They were lost on the lake, and reached Fort Ticonderoga the next morning, the 16th. There Ingraham showed William A. G. Arthur the dispatch and proposed that he should go. Ingraham was ill and
All of the persons whose name's have been mentioned as giving information, or as participating in the arrest, claim the reward or some part of it. Their views are very conflicting. Some claim that the person who first furnished any information which ultimately led to the conviction, is entitled to the whole amount. Some claim that the persons who made the arrest are entitled to the whole, exclusive of all others. Some claim that there should be an equitable distribution of the award among all, including those who furnished information and those who made the arrest. And still another claim is, that those who made the arrest are entitled to $5,000 and those who furnished information to another $5,000. Burwell, Thomas, Leland, Arthur and Potter, however agree to share among themselves whatever they or any of them shall be entitled to.
1. A case like this is peculiarly proper for an interpleader. The plaintiffs are ready to pay to the persons lawfully entitled. Some of the defendants claim the whole; some claim an equitable distribution. It is evidently a .case in which the matter should be adjusted in one suit, and to which the plaintiffs do not know to whom they ought to pay the money (2 Story Eq., §§ 806 and 29: City Bk. agt. Bangs, 2 Paige, 570).
3. The case of Fitch agt. Snedaker, (38 N. Y., 248), holds that under such an offer, a person is not entitled to recover for anything done before the offer was made. In the present case, all the defendants base their claims on acts done after the offer. Their motives are immaterial (Williams agt. Carwardine, 4 Barn. & Ald., 274).
4. Is there any reason to construe this offer as entitling either of the two classes, viz., he or they who informed and those who arrested, to the whole reward, exclusive of the other class 1 I-think not; for these reasons, as above noticed, an informant or informants, could not be entitled to recover until conviction; and arrest must precede conviction. The offer for information then, would be a nulity, if any parties who should arrest would take the whole reward unless, perhaps, in the case that the arrest should be made by the Express Company, or in the case that it should be made by a public officer (Hatch agt. Mann, 15 Wend., 45). I cannot, therefore, suppose that the offer was for the benefit of those who made the arrest, exclusive of those who gave information. So too, he or they who gave information ought not to exclude those who made the arrest, as the offer is for both. Unless, however, the next point to be considered shall establish a different rule.
5. It is claimed, that the person who first gave any infor
In the case of Lancaster agt. Walsh, (4 Mess. and Welsby, 16), a reward was offered for information whereby bank notes, which had been taken by robbery, might be traced. Lord Abingee, says, that sucli information means the first that is sufficient for the purpose. After such has been given it cannot be said that the party is informed by another telling him the same thing.
Those two cases differ from the present in this respect. The “first information” to which reference is had in the opinions, was such, as if true, fixed the crime on the party finally convicted. In the present case, all the information
6. Practically it seems to be true, that it was the information furnished by many parties which led to the result in this case. Not a repetition of the same information, but information of independent facts. Justice Manee in Thacher agt. England, states the condition of the present case. u It often happens that there is no one individual who gives information that is of itself useful; but that several persons give different pieces of information, the whole of which combined, leads to the apprehension and conviction of the offender.”
This view was taken in City Bank agt. Bangs, (2 Paige, 570), and although upon-the hearing before the V. C. (in 2 Ed. Ch., 95), he held, that Bangs was entitled to the whole, yet it was on the ground that he only was the active party in causing the arrest. The Y. C. in excluding Yan Riper from a share, does so on the ground that his remarks were casual, and not intended to give information.
In the case of Jones agt. Phoenix Bank, (8 N. Y., 228), a reward of §5,000 was offered. There were several claimants, and the matter was submitted to Chancellor Kent. He awarded $1,000 to Jones, and the rest to others. The correctness of this adjudication is not involved in the decision above referred to. But it has the sanction of that learned jurist’s name. A remark of the court, however, on page 233 suggests the possibility of an action by several plaintiffs, each having performed some part of the conditions, and all together having performed ail the conditions of the offer.
It is said, that any division of the reward must be arbitrary. This is true, just to the extent that the reward itself is one
7. I do not think that Hall furnished any information, or arrested Filkins.
However, praiseworthy Ingraham’s acts may have been, he did not effect the arrest. Whatever the agreement was between him and Arthur, that does not come into this case. He did not furnish any information to the company.
White’s telegraphic dispatch was substantially the same information which Foos had previously given ; and therefore, he cannot be entitled to share.
There was but one arrest, and the five persons who made it, are to share jointly. Of course, the number of persons engaged in the arrest, does not increase the aggregate which they should receive.
. The plaintiff’s costs with an extra allowance of 5 per cent, will be paid first out of the funds. The remainder is to be distributed among the defendants, exclusive of Hall, Ingraham and White, .as follows:
To Burwell, Arthur, Leland, Thomas and Potter jointly, fifteen-fortieths.
To Flood, three-fortieths.
To Foos, Scott and Whalen, each five-fortieths.
To Braidwood, seven-fortieths.
Judgment accordingly.