231 Pa. 422 | Pa. | 1911
Opinion by
The Vandegrift Construction Company had contracted with the West Chester, Kennett and Wilmington Electric Railway Company to build and equip the latter’s line of road. In some way, not explained in the evidence, but presumably under the terms of the contract, the construction company had acquired large holdings in the bonds and stock of the railway company. Its necessities required the borrowing of considerable sums of money in connection with the building of the road, and for this indebtedness, owing to banks and trust companies, including among others the Third National Bank, here the appellant, it had pledged these securities. Encountering financial embarrassment, the construction company applied to the plaintiff company, doing business in the city of New York, for assistance in procuring an extension of this indebtedness, and obtaining a loan of $100,000 to insure the completion of the road. The latter company devised a scheme which met with the approval of the Integrity Trust Company, holder of much of the Vandegrift company’s indebtedness. The co-operation of these two companies was essential to the success of the scheme, and the basis and terms of their joint action had been agreed upon. The scheme contemplated the employment for collateral purposes, of some $47,500 in the bonds of the Mobile, Jackson and Kansas City Railroad Company belonging to the plaintiff company, in substitution for a larger amount of the securities of the West Chester, Ken-nett and Wilmington Railway Company, held by the Integrity Trust Company as collateral for the indebted
The questions raised on the appeal are free from difficulty. The fact that the bonds pledged were payable to bearer and. therefore negotiable is without significance. The defendant bank fully understood in dealing with Ely that the latter was not acting on his own behalf, but as the agent and representative of the plaintiff, and that the bonds he offered in pledge were not his bonds but belonged to the plaintiff. So much clearly appears from the receipt given Ely by the bank for the bonds. He had promised
Upon a review of the case, and a careful study of the evidence, we find nothing that called for a submission of the case to the jury. There was no issue of fact. Ely, called by the defendant, admitted that he was without authority to make or pledge these bonds to the bank to secure the interest on the Yandegrift loan. When asked the question whether he had such authority, his reply was: “No, sir, that was on my own initiative;” and again, when the question was repeated, he replied: “No, sir, I was only authorized to put the bonds with the Integrity Company in order to get the money.” Had he observed his instructions and delivered the bonds to the Integrity Company upon failure of the scheme, the plaintiff would have received back all its bonds. As it is $2,000 of its bonds, by the unauthorized act of its agent, are held in pledge by the-defendant to answer for a debt for which the plaintiff was never liable. The only consideration passing from the defendant for the pledge was the delay for a few days at most in selling its original securities. In what we have said we have sufficiently answered the assignments of error. They are overruled, and the judgment is affirmed.