113 P. 1038 | Utah | 1911
This is an action in equity to recover judgment on thirty promissory notes and to foreclose a trust deed or mortgage,, which was given to secure said notes. The notes were made- and delivered in the name of the United States Ozocerite Company, hereafter styled “company,” to a large number-
The company filed an answer, in which, after admitting its corporate capacity, it, in substance, denied that the aforesaid notes were for a valuable consideration, or at all executed and delivered to said payees, and further denied that said company executed or authorized the execution and delivery of the trust deed to said trustees. This answer was verified by one John A. Yoorhees, a stockholder of said company. Said Yoorhees also intervened in said action, and in his pleadings practically set up the same defense to said notes and trust deed that the company had set up in its answer. There were also some averments contained in the pleadings of said Yoorhees, whereby he charged that a conspiracy existed on the part of the payees of said notes to defraud said company in obtaining the same, and that some of said payees were officers of said company when said notes and trust deed were executed. There were also other parties who interevened in the action, who sought and were given the relief prayed for; but what was done in that regard is not assailed on this appeal, and hence requires no further consideration.
Upon substantially the foregoing issues a trial was had to the court, resulting in findings which, so far as material to this appeal, in substance are: That all of the promissory notes and the trust deed before mentioned “were executed by persons acting as officers of the defendant United States
Upon these findings tbe court made conclusions of law that tbe company and said Yoorbees “are entitled to a decree of this court canceling and declaring void tbe promissory notes sued on,” and also a “decree . . . canceling and declaring void tbe trust deed made to secure said promissory notes.” A decree in accordance with tbe findings and conclusions as aforesaid was duly entered. Tbe court in said decree not only canceled said notes and trust deed, but, without finding that said notes were without consideration and not based upon valid claims, refused tbe relief, with tbe proviso, however, that tbe payees of said notes may commence action against said company for any claims they might have against it. Tbe trustees appeal from tbe judgment and decree to tbe extent only that said decree declared said notes and trust, deed invalid.
There are practically two questions presented for review: (1) Are tbe findings sustained by sufficient evidence ? and (2) do tbe findings support tbe conclusions of law and judg
The notes sued on were all negotiable in form, and thus were presumed to be based upon a good and
Neither the company nor the intervener, Yoorhees, made the slightest attempt to impeach the consideration for the notes, but they insisted, and now insist, that, in view of certain suspicious circumstances to which they point, and because some of the payees were officers of the company when the notes were made, therefore the court should not recognize the notes and trust deed as valid. While, in the absence of an explanation, there are some circumstances disclosed by the evidence which might lead one to suspect that the officers of the company were not as careful of its interests as they should have been under all the circumstances, yet practically all of the circumstances point as much to the want of good judgment on the part of the officers as they do to a desire on their part to injure the company. Such being the case, and especially where a reason-
Moreover, in view of what has been said, the courts findings, expressed as they are in the form of conclusions, are entirely too meager to sustain a judgment or decree canceling the notes and trust deed. Nor can we see, as against the company and Yoorhees, at least, why the payees of the notes
From a careful examination of the entire evidence, we have been unable to discover anything