Bierman v. Marcus

• Decision Date: 03 July 1957
• Docket Number: No. 12073.,12073.
• Parties: Al BIERMAN and William Miller v. Samuel MARCUS and Milmar Estate, Inc., a Corporation Organized Under the Laws of the State of New Jersey, Samuel Marcus, Appellant.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Third Circuit

246 F.2d 200 (1957)

Al BIERMAN and William Miller v. Samuel MARCUS and Milmar Estate, Inc., a Corporation Organized Under the Laws of the State of New Jersey, Samuel Marcus, Appellant.

No. 12073.

United States Court of Appeals Third Circuit.

Argued May 7, 1957.

Decided July 3, 1957.

Maurice Schapira, Aaron Lasser, Newark, N. J., Max Leichtman, New York City (Lasser & Lasser, Samuel M. Koenigsberg, and William Rossmoore, Newark, N. J., on the brief), for appellant.

Maurice C. Brigadier, Jersey City, N. J. (Frank H. Itkin, Montclair, N. J., on the brief), for Milmar Estate, Inc.

Abraham Chazin, Jersey City, N. J. (Chazin & Chazin, Jersey City, N. J., on the brief), for Miller and Bierman.

Seymour Margulies, Jersey City, N. J. (George Kesselhaut, Newark, N. J., on the brief), for Kevelson.

Before McLAUGHLIN, KALODNER and HASTIE, Circuit Judges.

HASTIE, Circuit Judge.

As instituted in the district court this proceeding appeared to be an unexceptional strict interpleader with Miller, a citizen of New Jersey, and Bierman, a citizen of North Carolina, asking the court to decide whether Marcus, a citizen of New York, or Milmar, Inc., a New Jersey corporation, was entitled to certain money which plaintiffs admittedly owed to someone. The plaintiffs pictured their dilemma as arising out of a contract under which they purchased stock of Milmar, Inc., and agreed to pay for it in installments. The complaint asserts that Marcus is claiming and that Milmar, Inc., "may claim" the unpaid installments of purchase money. The plaintiffs cast themselves in the role of disinterested stakeholders. Accordingly, beginning when the complaint was filed and continuing periodically thereafter for about two years, the plaintiffs deposited with the court the entire balance of the purchase money, in all about $35,000.

It was not until October 1954, four years after the complaint was filed and two years after the last installment of purchase money had been paid into court, that any pleading was filed by either defendant. At that time answers were filed by the defendants together with cross claims raising a variety of other contentions among the parties. It is noteworthy that the answer of Milmar, Inc., admitted that the money was owed to Marcus while Marcus claimed, among other things, not that he should receive the impleaded fund, but rather that he had been defrauded in the original transaction. This four year delay and the failure of either defendant, even then, to claim the fund as paid into court strongly indicate that something very different from what had been alleged in the interpleader complaint was actually in controversy. Indeed, the pleadings subsequent to the complaint and the evidence introduced by the parties disclosed that the matters in controversy were the amount of stock Marcus had agreed to sell to Miller and Bierman and whether, for reasons we need not consider, Marcus was entitled to have the transaction set aside as fraudulent. In addition, the hearing disclosed a number of very involved disputes among the parties with the reference to a night club venture which had been incorporated as Milmar, Inc., but no dispute between the original defendants over the interpleaded fund.

At the conclusion of the case the court found against Marcus on almost all of his contentions and ordered that he be paid the impleaded fund and one other item which is of no significance for present purposes. Aggrieved at getting the fund, which the original complaint said he was claiming, rather than the different and antithetical relief he actually sought, Marcus has appealed, raising at the outset the question whether this is such a suit as should have been entertained under the Interpleader Act of 1936, as amended. 28 U.S.C. § 1335.

The Interpleader Act authorizes interpleader by an obligor where "two or more adverse claimants, of diverse citizenship * * * are claiming or may claim * * *" the impleaded fund or obligation. The district court viewed Marcus of New York and Milmar, Inc., of New Jersey to be actual or potential adverse claimants within the meaning of the statute. However, appellant Marcus urges that the plaintiff "did not in good faith fear claims of both defendants" and for that reason had no standing to invoke the equitable jurisdiction of interpleader.

It is well established that without real fear of the vexation and hazard of conflicting claims, an obligor cannot maintain interpleader. This remedy was developed by equity so that a stakeholder could avoid being subjected to such hazard and vexation. Thus, in the very nature of the problem it seeks to solve, the federal Interpleader Act requires "adverse claimants" who are claiming or may claim the same fund. Of course, only one claim will ultimately be sustained. Thus, jurisdiction in interpleader is not dependent upon the merits of the claims of the parties interpleaded, and a plaintiff can maintain the action even though he believes that one of the claims is valid and the other, or others, without merit. See John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Kraft, 2 Cir., 1953, 200 F. 2d 952; Hunter v. Federal Life Ins. Co., 8 Cir., 1940, 111 F.2d 551; Metropolitan Life Ins. Co. v. Segaritis, D.C.E.D.Pa. 1937, 20 F.Supp. 739.

On the other hand, that which is advanced as an adverse claim "may be so wanting in substance that interpleader under the statute may not be justified". New York Life Ins. Co. v. Lee, 9 Cir., 1956, 232 F.2d 811, 813. See also Kahn v. Garvan, D.C.S.D.N.Y.1920, 263 F. 909, 915. While the stakeholder is not obliged at his peril to...