150 Mo. 483 | Mo. | 1899
Action for damages for breach of contract of composition between the parties hereto and their debtor.
Harper & Loretz were in business at Des Arc, Arkansas. On the 9th of December, 1892, they were unable to meet their obligations at maturity, and were indebted as follows: Hill, Eontaine & Co. (the plaintiffs), $2,150; Wertheimer-Swarts Shoe Co. (the defendant), $400; Bruce-Beine Hat Company, $60; Coodbar & Go., $461; Porter & McRae, $79.15. On that date all their creditors, except Wertheimer-Swarts Shoe Co. and Bruce-Beine Hat Company, signed an agreement extending the time of payment until January 1st, 1894, and
“I suppose by this time you have received my letter in connection with the Harper & Loretz matter. As per your instructions of recent date I herewith inclose letter to you.’’’ The defendant did not sign the composition contract of December 9th, 1892, but Mr. Wash prepared and on behalf of defendant signed another agreement, which was as follows:
“We, the undersigned, creditors of Harper & Loretz, of Des Arc, Ark., hereby stipulate and agree to grant said Harper & Loretz an extension of one year from January 1, 1893, for the payment of their respective claims against said firm.
“Further stipulating and agreeing that during the term of said extension, neither one of the contracting parties hereto will purchase the stock of said firm or permit same to be sold with their aid or assistance, each firm hereto subscribing respectively holding itself liable to all the other subscribing*489 creditors in the sums of their respective claims for breach of condition of this contract. .
“(Signed) "Wertheimer-Swarts Shoe Co.,‘
“By Benj. S. Wash, Attorney.
“Hill, Eontaine & Oo.
“Bruce-Beine Hat Co.,
“Per B. E. Beine.”
The plaintiffs and Bruce-Beine Hat Co. also signed it. The other creditors had already signed the agreement of December 9th, 1892, and were not asked by plaintiffs, and apparently not by any one else, to sign this. All of the creditors acted upon these agreements and none of them pressed the debtors for their money, but on the 2d of November, 1893, ihe defendant, without notice to the plaintiffs or any one of the creditors, instituted a suit by attachment against Harper & Loretz, alleging that they had sold, conveyed and disposed of their property with the fraudulent intent to cheat, hinder and delay their creditors, and that they were about fraudulently to dispose of their property with that intent. They levied on the goods of Harper & Loretz, and they were sold by the sheriff, under the attachment writ, for $536.60. Defendant after-wards obtained judgment for $440, which, with the costs, was satisfied out of the proceeds of the sale by the sheriff. The plaintiffs then instituted this suit on the composition agreement signed by the parties hereto and by Bruce-Beine Hat Co. and asked for judgment for $2,744.03, the amount of their claim against Harper & Loretz, with interest thereon, and also “for five hundred dollars damages in addition to the aforesaid indebtedness.”
The answer is a general denial.
On the trial the foregoing facts were proved and the following facts were agreed-to by stipulation:
“It is hereby stipulated by plaintiff and defendant that the signature of Wertheimer-Swarts Shoe Co., by Benj. S.*490 "Wash, attorney,’ to the contract sued on in this case is in the handwriting of said Benj. S. Wash; that the said Wash was at the time of signing said contract and for years prior thereto the agent and attorney of defendant’s company, whose duty it was to travel for defendant and settle and compromise debts due defendant at his discretion, or bring suit upon the debts owing to defendant company from their customers in Arkansas and Tennessee; that in his discretion he had authority to make contracts for defendant for the extension of time to said debtors with their other creditors, as in his best discretion and judgment it was proper to do; that he went to Des Arc, Ark., especially to make some agreement with Harper & Loretz at that place, who were defendant’s debtors at said time, and to make an agreement with their creditors about extension of time for the payment of the debts of said Harper & Loretz; that the plaintiffs addressed a letter to defendant dated January 4, 1893, which was received by defendant through the mail on the 5th of January, 1893, and that said letter will be produced by defendant at the present trial; that the defendant company answered said letter, by letter dated January 5, 1893, and that said answer was forwarded through the mail to the plaintiffs on January 5, 1893, and was received by plaintiffs; said answer is herewith filed and made a part of this stipulation and marked Exhibit 1; that plaintiffs replied to said answer by letter dated January 11, 1893, which was forwarded through the mail and received by the defendant on January 12, 1893, but said last mentioned letter from the plaintiffs can not now be found by defendant; that defendant company on January 12, 1893, answered said last mentioned letter by postal of' that date and forwarded same by mail to plaintiffs, which they received and said postal is herewith filed and is made a part of this stipulation and marked Exhibit 2.
“It is further agreed that plaintiffs had no knowledge of any limitations, if any existed, upon the authority of said*491 "Wash to make tbe contract set out in tbe plaintiffs’ petition February 19, 1896.
“(Signed) Harvey & Hill,
“W. D. Wilkerson,
“Attorneys for Plaintiffs.
“David Goldsmith,
“Attorney for Defendant.”
Hpon tbis showing tbe court, as it appears from tbe colloquy between tbe court and counsel, beld that Wash was the defendant’s agent with full power to enter into a composition agreement on their behalf, but that be bad no power to bind llie defendant to tbe affirmative part of tbe second clause of tbe contract, respecting damages for a breach thereof; that tbis clause was severable from tbe remainder of tbe contract, but that tbe contract did not prevent or debar any of tbe parties to it from instituting a suit by attachment or otherwise, against their debtor “in the event tbe debtors themselves were about to defraud them all;” hence tbe court instructed tbe jury that tbe plaintiffs were not entitled to recover, and they thereupon took a nonsuit, and after proper steps appealed tbe case to tbis court.
I.
It is urged by defendant that tbe composition agreement is not binding upon it because it was not signed by all the creditors of Harper & Loretz. Tbis is untenable. Unless it is expressly stipulated in a composition that all or a specified number of tbe creditors shall enter into it to make it binding, it is not essential that a majority or any particular number, more than two, must sign it, to make it binding on all who do sign it. [Good v. Cheesman, 2 B. & Ad. 320; Constantein v. Blache, 1 Cox Ch. 287; Lewis v. Jones, 4 B. & C. 566; Norman v. Thompson, 4 Exch. 755; Devon v. Ham, 17 Ind. 472; Lambert v. Shetler, 71 Ia. 465; Gardner v. Lewis, 7 Gill
This composition did not expressly require that it should be agreed to by any particular number of the creditors. On the contrary in his letter to plaintiffs of the 14th of January, Mr. Wash said: “I also enclosed him” (Harper & Loretz) “an agreement to be signed by all the creditors granting the extension,” thereby clearly limiting it to such only as might grant the extension. As soon as it was signed by the plaintiffs and defendant it became a valid composition as to them whether any other creditor signed it or not. [Bank v. McGeoch, 92 Wis. 311.]
II.
Defendant next argues that Wash had no power to bind it to so much of the contract as provides the measure of damages in case of a breach.
The stipulated facts show that Wash was the agent of the defendant, clothed with full power to settle and compromise debts due defendant, at his discretion, and with like power and discretion to make contracts for defendant for the extension of time to its debtors, and especially authorized to make some agreement with the other creditors for an extension to Harper & Loretz, and defendant’s letter to plaintiffs expressly stated that the whole matter had been referred to Wash, as their representative, and “whatever he does will be satisfactory to us.” Accordingly Wash refused to sign the composition of December 9th, which had been signed by all the other creditors except defendant and Lamon & Gale Dry Goods Co. and Bruce-Beine Hat Co. (and these two had agreed to sign if defendant did so), which granted the same extension of time, and provided that the proceeds of sales and collections should be paid to the creditors pro rata on the first of each month, and instead thereof prepared, signed and transmitted the composition sued on, which was the same
Wash is thus shown not only to have been defendant’s general agent to act for it in matters of this character, not only to have had apparent authority to enter into contracts of this character but also to have been clothed by defendant with express authority to bind it in this particular matter, it assuring plaintiffs beforehand that “whatever he does will be satisfactory to us.” More complete authority could not have been conferred upon him. The plaintiffs dealt with him as the alter ego of the defendant, and his acts relating to the subject-matter under negotiation were the acts of the defendant. He had some particular object in mind, which he must have believed would be beneficial to defendant when he refused to agree to a pro rata monthly division of the proceeds of sales and collections, and instead insisted on a provision against any of the parties to the composition buying or aiding or assisting in the sale of the debtor’s stock of goods. The only reasonable interpretation to put on his conduct in this regard is, that he knew that .if Harper & Loretz were required to divide the proceeds of all sales and collections, pro rata, among all their creditors, on the. first of each month, it would be a gradual liquidation by Harper & Loretz, but it would give them no money with which to replenish the stock as it was sold out, and they would thus be deprived of turning over their capital as often as they could and making a profit on each sale, repurchase and sale,
But whatever was the true reason, and whether the contract proposed by defendant and accepted by the plaintiffs was a wise one or not (and who shall say it was not wise ?), it was done, and "Wash had authority to bind defendant to it. [Mechem on Agency, sec. 708, p. 535; Story on Agency (9 Ed.), see. 443; Banks v. Everest, 35 Kan. 687; Cobb v. Day, 106 Mo. l. c. 298; Rice v. Groffmann, 56 Mo. 434; McNichols v. Nelson, 45 Mo. App. l. c. 45; Badger Lumber-Co. v. Ballentine Foster Co., 54 Mo. App. l. c. 180.]
ILL
Plaintiffs contend that the contract is one for stipulated or agreed or liquidated damages, that is, that if either party broke the contract he would pay the others the amount of their claims respectively; or, if they are in error in this, and if the contract is only one for a penalty, still they were entitled to nominal damages, and the circuit court erred in ordering a nonsuit.
We have at this term, in the case of May v. Crawford, post 504, had occasion to investigate and decide the principles which must obtain in determining whether a contract is to be held one for a penalty or for liquidated damages, and it is not necessary to review the law in this case. But as this case must be
IY.
The circuit court nonsuited plaintiffs on the ground that the composition did not debar any of the parties to it from attaching or otherwise proceeding, “in the event the debtors themselves were about to defraud them all.”
This ruling was not responsive to any issue joined in the ease, nor was there any competent evidence before the comt upon which to base the instruction. The plaintiffs were not parties to the attachment suit by defendant against Harper & Loretz, and hence are not bound by it in any manner. The record in that case, offered in evidence by plaintiffs, was admissible to prove the breach of the composition contract
A contract of composition, depending upon tbe mutual forbearance of tbe creditors for a consideration to support it, must be carried out in tbe strictest good faitb by all tbe parties to it, and every sucb contract must be strictly construed. [6 Am. and Eng. Ency. Law (2 Ed.), p. 386, and cases cited in note 3.] Sucb agreements must be construed in tbe light of tbe financial condition of tbe debtor at tbe time tbey are entered into. There is always present in sucb a contract an implied agreement by tbe debtor that be will, in good faitb, carry out tbe agreement, and that tbe status and rights of all parties shall not be changed to their detriment by any fraudulent or wrongful act of bis. He could not therefore set up tbe composition agreement as a shield against bis own fraud. Tbe agreement of tbe creditors inter sese, is that tbey will extend tbe time of payment to a particular date, but there is always tbe implied stipulation that tbe debtor shall not act fraudulently with respect to tbe property and assets left in bis care and management. This being tbe nature and extent of tbe agreement, if tbe debtor fraudulently disposes of bis property before the extended time for payment has expired, there is no rule of law or morals and no precedent that prevents any of tbe creditors from immediately taking steps to protect himself. ' Tbe composition agreement is broken, and tbe parties are then in tbe same attitude towards tbe debtor and each other as if no agreement bad been made. Any other rule would make it possible for tbe debtor to effectually dispose of bis property at bis leisure, while tbe hands of his creditors were tied by a contract which be himself has broken. Tbe agreement in this case does not contemplate the creation of sucb conditions or tbe imposition of such restrictions upon tbe creditors. Of course if it should appear, under proper issues tendered and joined, that the debtor had been guilty of
The judgment of the circuit court will be reversed, and the cause remanded to that court for a new trial in conformity to this opinion.
It is so ordered.