148 N.Y.S. 643 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1914
This is an action to recover for services on a quantum meruit basis. The plaintiff was engaged in the real estate business and in building construction, and the defendant was president of the New York County National Bank. In the month of October, 1908, the Buckley Realty Construction Company was erecting an apartment house known as the “Verona ” at Sixty-fourth street and Madison avenue in the borough of Manhattan, and was engaged in the performance of other contracts for building the Long Island approach to the Queensborough bridge, for certain building or construction work at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in Central Park, and at West Point, N. Y., and was indebted to said bank in the sum of $50,000 on notes for moneys loaned. The notes for this indebtedness originally ran to the bank, but notes running to one Crawford, a clerk in the'bank, were substituted therefor, and he held the notes together with collateral security consisting, among other • things, of a chattel mortgage on the plant of the Buckley Company at its office and distributed at the various points where it was doing contract work and at a lot on Seventy-first street, New York. The Buckley Company had been desirous of obtaining a further loan of $20,000 from the bank, and the defendant employed the plaintiff to investigate the affairs of the Buckley Company generally, and particularly with respect to its contract work in the erection of the “ Verona,” and to report with respect to the advisability of granting the additional loan, with the result that the additional loan was granted. The Buckley Company was financially embarrassed, and evidently it was feared that it might go into bankruptcy. The defendant determined to have the note or notes representing this indebtedness run to a third party not connected with the bank evidently for the purpose of having it appear, in the event of bankruptcy of the debtor, that they were given and the collateral security was held for a new indebtedness and not for the renewal of antecedent indebtedness. The defendant deter
The plaintiff claims, and gave evidence tending to show, that he rendered certain services to the defendant in originally obtaining the securities held by Crawford, and in assisting in the purchase of a second mortgage for $210,000 on the “ Verona;” but with respect to the second mortgage it appears that the lowest figure at which the plaintiff was able to procure it was $200,000, whereas the defendant subsequently nego. tiated the purchase himself at $190,000. The defendant thereafter foreclosed this mortgage and purchased the “Verona” on the foreclosure sale. The uncontroverted evidence shows that the plaintiff rendered substantial services to the defendant in selling the property covered by the chattel mortgage, and under a contract of' employment to supervise the completion of the “Verona” and to supervise work performed by the defendant in the execution of the Buckley Company’s contracts, which apparently were taken over by the defendant. In the completion of the “ Verona ” the plaintiff performed the services both of superintendent and architect, and under his supervision the sum of $128,106.55 was expended in completing it and in the performance of the other contract work to which reference has been made; and on the sale of the mortgaged property he collected the sum of $21,703.24. After the rendition of these services and on the 17th day of November, 1909, the plaintiff prepared and rendered to the defendant a formal account, by which he claimed that the defendant was indebted to him for services rendered in completing the “Verona” and all services incident thereto and for services
It follows, therefore, that the order setting aside the verdict and granting a new trial should be modified, without costs, by setting aside the verdict and granting a new trial only in the event that plaintiff shall refuse to stipulate to reduce the recovery to the sum of $14,980.98, and if he shall so stipulate the recovery is reduced accordingly and the motion to set aside the verdict denied, without costs; and the orders denying the motions to add interest to the verdict and for an additional allowance are affirmed, with costs.
Ingraham, P. J., Clarke, Dowling and Hotchkiss, JJ., concurred.
Order setting aside verdict modified as directed in opinion; orders denying motions to add interest and for additional allowance affirmed, with costs. Order to be settled on notice.