101 F. 490 | 7th Cir. | 1900
(after stating the facts as above). There is practically no dispute about the facts in this case. The findings of the master are fully sustained by the testimony in the case, and were properly confirmed by the court. The full statement of the facts as above in the language of the master’s report is equivalent to a decision of the case in favor of the appellees.. We fully concur with the conclusions of the master in regard to the superior negligence of the appellants in being the occasion of the loss, and in Adams being the agent of the appellants in making the loan, and in receiving the money which should have been paid to Watson, or applied in payment of the prior incumbrance upon the homestead, but 'which was embezzled by Adams. There can be no question, from the testimony or from the findings of fact, that Isaac E. Adams, who pocketed the money sent by complainants, and intended for Watson, or to pay off the prior incumbrance, was, all the way through, acting as complainants’ trusted agent, not merely for the purpose of submitting applications for loans, but for all purposes connected with the making of the loan, the examination of title, the making of abstracts, the transmission of papers and securities, and the receipt of the consideration. The fact that the note ran to Adams, and was indorsed by him to complainants without recourse, cuts no figure in the case. It is a very common way of doing such business. And the evidence all the way through shows that the loans made by Adams, amotinting to some 26 in number, and $110,000 in amount, of which this loan to Watson was but a small part, running through 6-£ years of time, from the fall of 1886 to the spring of 1893, were conducted in the same manner in which such loans have been usually made in the West by capitalists residing in the East. They have their trusted agents, through whom applications are made and transmitted; who examine titles, and submit abstracts, to be passed upon by the principals; who draw up the papers and securities for the perfection