Brainard v. Reavis

• Decision Date: 19 June 1876
• Citation: 2 Mo.App. 490
• Parties: SAMUEL S. BRAINARD et al., Appellants, v. JAMES A. REAVIS et al., Respondents.
• Court: Missouri Court of Appeals

2 Mo.App. 490

SAMUEL S. BRAINARD et al., Appellants,

v.JAMES A. REAVIS et al., Respondents.

St. Louis Court of Appeals, Missouri.

Jun. 19, 1876.

One who takes negotiable paper before maturity, as security for an antecedent debt, holds it subject to the equities between the original parties.

APPEAL from St. Louis Circuit Court.

Reversed, and final judgment rendered.

H. D. Wood, for appellants, cited: Dewitt v. Perkins, 22 Wis. 475; Hunt v. Sandford, 6 Yerg. 387; Brown v. Tabor, 5 Wend. 566; Anderson v. Nichols, 28 N. Y. 600; Hamilton v. Marks, 52 Mo. 78; Gill v. Cubit, 3 B. & C. 466; Story on Bills, sec. 194; Whitbred v. Jourdan, 1 You. & Coll. 303-328; Goodman v. Simond, 19 Mo. 106.

T. G. C. Davis, for respondents.

BAKEWELL, J., delivered the opinion of the court.

This is a proceeding in equity to obtain the cancellation of certain promissory notes. The allegation is that these notes were fraudulently obtained from plaintiffs by defendant Reavis, and transferred to defendant Davis with notice of the fraud.

The answer of Davis denies the material allegations of the petition.

Reavis was not served, and the proceeding was dismissed as to him.

The cause was tried before the court, and a decree rendered in favor of defendant. A motion for a new trial having been overruled, the cause is brought here by appeal.

It appears from the evidence that, on February 28, 1873, Reavis sold to plaintiff Brainard, as trustee for plaintiff's wife, 100 feet on Washington avenue, St. Louis.

To secure the deferred payments, Reavis took four deeds of trust, each upon twenty-five feet of the trust sold; each deed securing one principal note for $500, at thirty months, and five interest notes of $25 each.

The sale was concluded at Brainard's house, at night, and Reavis assured Brainard that the property was unincumbered.

At the time of making this assurance Reavis knew it to be false, as the property was then incumbered by two deeds of trust made by Reavis, one upon each half of the hundred feet sold, securing notes for $3,000, and interest under these deeds of trust. The property was sold on July 7, 1873, and purchased by Brainard.

On June 13, 1873, Brainard first heard of the existence of these prior incumbrances, and called upon Reavis for an explanation.

Reavis promised to return the notes, and, on July 12th, gave Brainard a written statement that he had not negotiated these notes or placed them beyond his control; that they were void for failure of consideration, and that he would return them to Brainard, canceled, in ten days from date. They were never returned to plaintiff, but were, at the date of the judgment in this case, held by defendant Davis.

Defendant Davis swears that, on June 13, 1873, Reavis owed him $500, being proceeds of a note belonging to Davis which Reavis had collected and converted to his own use, and that Reavis also owed him $250 for services, and that the notes of Brainard were at that date in the possession of parties to whom Reavis had pledged them as security for $30; that Davis advanced to Reavis $30 to redeem these notes, which were then delivered to him by Reavis to indemnify Davis for the amount thus due by Reavis to him. Plaintiff swears that he had a conversation with Reavis about July 10, 1873, in the presence of Davis, in which Reavis said that he had been holding the Brainard notes to get them all together; that they were in Davis' keeping at the time. Reavis...