56 Ga. App. 27 | Ga. Ct. App. | 1937
It becomes necessary first to construe the petition. T|he suit being in one count, it must be deemed to be predicated on the theory that the stock was loaned to the husband to be used by him, as his own, for the purpose of borrowing money
Under the allegations of the petition the delivery of the stock certificate, transferred in blank to the husband, amounted to a transfer to the husband of" the title to the certificate. It was not a sale; and whether it be called a loan, or a gift for a speci
The transfer of such a stock certificate in blank carries with it the presumption that the one in possession thereof has the right to dispose of it, and he may fill in the blanks. 14 C. J. 675, 676; Roth V. Donnelly Grocery Co., 8 Ga. App. 851 (70 S. E. 140); Wilkes v. Pope, 4 Ga. App. 36 (60 S. E. 823); Code, § 22-706; Georgia Casualty Co. v. McRitchie, 45 Ga. App. 697, 699 (166 S. E. 49); Bank of Culloden v. Bank of Forsyth, 120 Ga. 575 (5) (48 S. E. 226, 102 Am. St. R. 115); Murray v. Lardner, 2 Wall. 110 (17 L. ed. 857); Brown v. Spofford, 95 U. S. 474 (24 L. ed. 508); Vaughn v. Johnson, 20 Idaho, 669 (119 Pac. 879, 37 L. R. A. (N. S.) 816); Fulton National Bank v. Moody, 51 Ga. App. 179 (179 S. E. 831). Where a married woman transfers stock in blank and gives it to her husband, the same presumption exists. Mack v. Pardee, 39 Ga. App. 310 (147 S. E. 147).
Married women are as bound by estoppel as other persons. Wootten v. Braswell, 48 Ga. App. 312 (172 S. E. 679); Southern Mutual Building & Loan Asso. v. Perry, 103 Ga. 800 (30 S. E. 658); Ford v. Blackshear Mfg. Co., 140 Ga. 670 (3) (79 S. E. 576); Stuckey v. Watson, 166 Ga. 69 (142 S. E. 536); Pitts v. Temple Banking Co., 169 Ga. 226 (150 S. E. 89); Roland v. Wilkinson-Bolton Co., 165 Ga. 194 (140 S. E. 368); Dunson v. Harris, 45 Ga. App. 450 (164 S. E. 910); Aronoff v. Woodard, 47 Ga. App. 725 (171 S. E. 404); DeLoach v. Sykes, 169 Ga. 465 (150 S. E. 591).
A transferee in blank has the right to have new scrip issued in his own name. Hardman v. Barrow, 147 Ga. 617 (95 S. E. 209); McNeil v. Tenth National Bank, 46 N. Y. (1 Sick.) 325 (7 Am. R. 341).
From what has been said it follows that the title to the stock certificate passed to the defendant bank to secure the $30,000 loan. As the stock is treated as having been transferred to Mr. Groover under the allegations of the petition, the stock is treated as transferred to the bank by delivery. Mr. Groover could have had his name inserted in the blank transfer either before the bank made the loan or afterwards, and could have had a new certificate issued to him as owner. The bank could have
Under our construction of the petition, the contention of counsel for Mrs. Groover that the husband acquired no title to the stock has already been answered. As between him and his wife he may not have acquired such title, but as between her and the bank he did acquire it. Their contention that the defendant bank had no title to the stock, because Mrs. Groover did not borrow the money, has also been answered above. As we see the case, the only theory on which she had a right of action was that her husband pledged her stock to secure a note to which her name was forged. In the face of a general demurrer this court has to construe such a theory out of the petition, as heretofore shown. The contention that even if there were a valid pledge of the stock to the bank, the plaintiff had a sufficient legal title to maintain an action of trover for its conversion, is not well taken as against the pledge, where it is not shown that the legal title did not go into the pledgee under the terms of the original pledge, and where it is not shown that the pledgee did anything it did not have a perfect legal right to do. We have shown that Mr. Groover had the right to transfer the stock- to himself without the aid of the forged letter; and consequently the bank could have had it done for him as his agent. The contention that the bank as agent of the husband was liable for the conversion of the wife’s property,
Judgment reversed.