Boynton v. Payrow

• Citation: 67 Me. 587
• Parties: ORRAN E. BOYNTON, in equity, v. ROXANNA P. PAYROW, et als.
• Decision Date: 08 December 1877
• Court: Supreme Judicial Court of Maine (US)

67 Me. 587

ORRAN E. BOYNTON, in equity, v. ROXANNA P. PAYROW, et als.

Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.

December 8, 1877

BILL IN EQUITY, to procure the direction of the court in the disposition of a pledge of a savings-bank book, praying that the savings institution be directed to pay to the petitioner or his order all the moneys so deposited, and for further relief and costs.

R K. Sewall, for the plaintiff.

J Baker, for Roxanna Payrow.

BARROWS J.

Where there is a general pledge of personal property, neither the time of redemption nor the manner and time of sale being specified in the contract, it has long been held that the appropriate remedy of the pledgee, when his rights or powers are in any manner questioned or denied, is by process in equity, in which the court can make the trust available with due regard for the rights of all concerned. 2 Kent's Com 4th ed. 581, 582, 583. 4 id. 138, 140. 2 Story's Eq. Jur 9th ed. §§ 1030, 1033.

Chancellor Kent says that " where no time was limited for the redemption the pawner had his own lifetime to redeem, unless the creditor in the meantime called upon him to redeem, and if he died without such call the right to redeem descended to his personal representatives; " that the pledgee has the election of two remedies upon the pledge itself, one of which is to file a bill in chancery and have a judicial sale; and that " the law especially in the equity courts is vigilant and jealous in its circumspection of the conduct of trustees."

The pledgee, holding the property in trust for the benefit of himself and whomever else it may concern, may rightfully resort to the court sitting in equity to make the proper orders respecting its disposition and thereby relieve himself from ulterior questions as to the propriety of his course, to which he might subject himself if he proceeded to sell without judicial process, upon reasonable notice to the debtor to redeem.

In the present case the plaintiff claims that the savings-bank book which is the subject of controversy was pledged to him by his sister, Clara Boynton, to secure certain promissory notes which she gave him for money lent and which he still holds; that a few months before her death, upon her return from Massachusetts to her old home in Lincoln county, in ill health, he redelivered it to her to enable her to draw such sums from the deposit as she might need; that during her last sickness she recognized his claim upon it to secure the payment of her notes, and gave it to her mother to be delivered to him with directions to take what was due him, and use some of the money in fitting up a family burial lot with suitable monuments, and distribute the remainder to her heirs. The case shows that it was accordingly delivered to him by their mother shortly after Clara's decease, and is now in the custody of his counsel in Lincoln county. All the heirs of Clara subsequently united in a request to the savings institution to pay the money to the plaintiff in trust for them, but he did not draw it and it still remains in the savings institution. And the plaintiff claims a further lien to secure certain advances of money which he made to several of the heirs (notably to the respondent Payrow) on the strength of his possession of their order on the savings bank for the money.

The respondent, Payrow, a niece of Clara, in January, 1875, took out administration upon Clara's estate, in Lincoln county. This process was commenced returnable at the next term of this court in that county against her as administratrix, and the savings institution is made a party defendant.

The respondent, Payrow, denies the jurisdiction of the court in Lincoln county, and the right of the plaintiff to maintain this process on the ground that he has an adequate remedy at law; and finally she denies the lien claimed by the plaintiff, or his right in any manner to withhold the possession of the bank-book and deposit from herself as the administratrix of Clara. She questions the jurisdiction of the court in Lincoln...