28 Mich. 111 | Mich. | 1873
It is hardly necessary to say, that as the defendant could not in any event be entitled to recover beyond the value of the property, and there was no evidence of its value except that furnished by the appraisal made under and returned with the writ of replevin, which was only $107 10, the allowance of the amount of $208 (because that was the amount of defendant’s lien) was clearly erroneous. Upon the hypothesis that the defendant was entitled to recover at all, his recovery should have been limited to the value as shown by the appraisal.
But, there being no other evidence upon the point, we think this appraisal was prima facie evidence of the value, and if the defendant was entitled to recover at all, he was entitled to recover to the amount of the appraisal; upon this point the case comes within the principle of our decision in Worthington v. Hanna, 28 Mich., 580.
Should this be the only error, this being a case made, we might correct this error by merely reducing the judgment to its proper amount.
But there are several other questions raised which we proceed to consider.
We see no error in. the admission of parol evidence to prove the official character of the persons mentioned as trustees at the time the mortgage was executed. It was sufficient prima facie proof to show that the persons named were acting trustees or such officers de facto of the society, which would furnish the presumption that they were so de jure; and for this purpose parol evidence was clearly admissible. — Cahill v. Kalamazoo Mutual Ins. Co., 2 Doug. (Mich.), 124; Druse v. Wheeler, 22 Mich., 439. The testimony was, that they were such trustees at the time, and the evidence further shows that they acted as such, and this evidence was uncontroverted. And if the defendant was allowed to go further, and to show by parol their actual election and qualification as such (which, when necessary
The next objection is to the parol proof of the contents of the written notice of a meeting of the society for the first of August, which the defendant testified he read to his congregation on three successive Sabbaths in the month of July, and showing the object for which such meeting was called. And in' connection with this, may also be considered the question arising upon the objection to the proof by parol evidence of “what directions the meeting gave to the trustees, as to giving mortgages upon the property of the society.”
The object of introducing the evidence upon both these points, so far as we can judge from the case, seems to have been to show the power of the trustees to execute the mortgage under which the defendant claimed, for which purpose it seems' to have been thought necessary to show that the trustees gave the mortgage in pursuance, and with the vote or directions, of a meeting of the society, duly notified for the purpose.
To authorize the trustees to execute a mortgage of real estate (and there were such mortgages executed by them 'on the same occasion), it would have been necessary under section 3062, Compiled Laws, as amended in 1869 (Sess. L. 1869, p. 67), that they should have “ the assent of two-thirds of the voters present at a meeting of the society, duly and specially called for the purpose;” and in such case, and so far as such meeting and such vote, or the consent of the society was necessary to the giving of the present mortgage, the notice of such meeting, as well as its action, or any vote or direction it may have given, must have been proved by the best evidence, the written notice itself, and the record of the meeting, or the loss or inability
But the provision of the statute requiring a vote of the society at a special meeting called for the purpose, does not apply to a mortgage or sale of personal property. The statute, it is true, grants express power to sell or mortgage real estate, in pursuance of a vote at a meeting thus called, and is silent as to the power to sell or mortgage personal property; and for this reason, and because the amendment of the same section in 1861 (Sess. L. 1861, p. 228), which first gave to religious societies express power to execute mortgages, authorized the trustees to execute mortgages upon any of their property, extended the power only to the securing of liabilities incurred in the erection or repair of their churches, meeting houses and other buildings, and the act of 1867 (Sess. L. 1867, p. 100) amending the same section, only added to this the right to execute such mortgages upon the property of the society to secure the payment of liabilities for the purchase of sites for such buildings, and the section, as amended in 1869 (first above cited), only extends the power to real estate, — the plaintiff’s counsel therefore infers and insists that the trustees, under this statute, had no power to execute a mortgage upon the personal property of the society.
But we think there is no sufficient ground for such an inference. The power to mortgage or sell real estate of
It was usual in England to restrain both the power of acquisition, and the power of sale of ecclesiastical corporations, and a similar policy has been adopted in some of the American states in reference to the real estate of such corporations; and certain restrictions of this kind will be found in our own statutes.
But these restrictions are confined to real estate; and our statute furnishes no clear intimation of any intention to limit the power of such corporations to sell or mortgage their personal property. As a common-law incident, therefore, of their corporate existence, we must hold that they have the power.
No meeting or directions of the society, therefore, being necessary to give the trustees power to execute this mortgage, if in other respects valid, the error upon this particular point, in admitting the evidence, could not in any way prejudice the plaintiff; though, if admitted for the purpose of having the further effect to show an employment or hiring, or a ratification of the hiring of the defendant, as pastor, by the congregation, it would have been erroneous, and the action of the meeting cannot therefore be considered as in proof for this purpose.
As to plaintiff’s objection that it was not proved that
It is not necessary to say what might have been the result upon this point, had there been no ’proof of identity. No great exactness, it is true, was observed by the trustees in describing the corporation by the exact corporate name given in the certificate. In the body of the instrument they describe themselves as “The trustees of the Orthodox Congregational Church of Middleville,” but, in signing, they leave out the word “ Orthodox.” But all understand these religious societies authorized by the statute are what are usually and properly enough known as churches.
The plaintiff’s counsel himself makes quite as great a mistake, and quite as essential a misnomer, when he assumes, as he'does in his brief, that it is the “society” which constitutes the corporation; whereas, the statute makes the trustees constitute the corporation — Comp. L. 1871, §§ 3059, 3060, 3061. The fact that the name, as given by the certificate, would, when applied to the statute, make the true corporate name “ The trustees of the First Orthodox Congregational Society,” etc., might, under evidence that there were two Congregational churches at Middle-ville, render the name given in the mortgage (which omits the term “"First”) doubtful, and perhaps, without evidence
Here such evidence was given, wholly uncontradicted, as placed the identity beyond question. It was proved by the parol evidence, to which, as we have seen, there was no good legal objection, that the three persons who, as trustees, executed the mortgage, with two others named, “ were ” (I quote from the record) “the trustees of said First Orthodox Congregational Society of Middleville,” etc. It was that corporation against which the plaintiff had obtained his judgment; and it is for the attempt which his counsel claims the evidence shows, to evade the payment of this judgment, that the chattel mortgage was void. In short, the whole case shows, beyond all reasonable question, the identity of the corporation. The court must so have found, to give the judgment he did. He was asked for no special finding, and no exception was consequently taken to that conclusion, except what was taken on other grounds, to some of the evidence tending to prove it, and this, as we have seen, was not well taken.
The mortgage was therefore properly admitted in evidence.
It was talked over (as the defendant testifies) among the trustees, in his presence, that the plaintiff “had just recovered a judgment against the society for nearly a thousand dollars” (evidently alluding to the judgment upon which plaintiff’s execution issued), “and that an execution would probably soon be taken out upon such judgment;” [the
But we may, nevertheless, upon this case made, be compelled to arrive at the same result as if the mortgage had been expressly found by the circuit judge to be fraudulent; for, if we can see from the case as made, that there was no evidence tending to support any particular point essential to sustain a judgment for the defendant, it is our duty to reverse the judgment..
The point was taken against the admission of the mortgage, that it was not proven that there was any indebtedness of said society to the defendant; because it was not shown that the society had ever employed him as its pastor, or agreed to pay him any salary.
This objection was not good against the introduction of the mortgage, because that might have been followed. up by the proof of the employment, and agreement of the society to pay the salary. But the question arises here, whether there was any such proof, either before or after the introduction of the mortgage. If not, there was no proof of the consideration for the mortgage, and the question then arises, whether the mortgage, or (which is the same thing) any judgment for the defendant, could be sustained. The defendant’s evidence tended to show that the
Nor is there any evidence tending to show that the society ever ratified this agreement of Badcock and Charles McQueen to pay this or any salary or compensation. And it may be doubted whether there would be any such evk dence, if the notice of the meeting, and the transactions of the meeting alluded to on the first of August, had been properly in evidence; but, as already stated, this notice, and the proceedings of the meeting, were not properly in evi