Charles v. Pusey
| Decision Date | 23 November 1904 |
| Citation | 101 N.W. 484,127 Iowa 347 |
| Parties | CHARLES T. OFFICER, Administrator of the Estate of Thomas Officer, deceased, v. OFFICER & PUSEY, ET AL., Defendants; AMERICAN EXPRESS COMPANY, Intervener, v. M. B. and MARY K. MUSSER, Appellants |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
Appeal from Pottawattamie District Court.--HON. A. B. THORNELL Judge.
THE appellants M. B. and Mary K. Musser are husband and wife. In 1900, being about to go abroad, they applied to Officer & Pusey for foreign exchange, who advised them to purchase checks of the American Express Company, and procured for them such checks to the amount of $ 1,800. The express company agreed to accept for such checks in lieu of cash their usual form of guaranty which was executed by the appellants as purchasers and by Officer & Pusey as guarantors. The provisions of the written contract, so far as material to this case, are as follows: "Received of the American Express Company its Travelers' cheques as follows [giving the denomination and numbers of the cheques] amounting to eighteen hundred dollars ($ 1,800) in consideration whereof we hereby agree to reimburse the American Express Company on demand for any and all of such cheques paid by the company or its agents, with interest thereon at the rate of five per cent. from the date same are paid, together with a commission of one-half of one per cent." The agreement also provided that in case of the loss or theft of any of the checks the company might take the usual steps to prevent payment thereof, the expense to be borne by the purchasers. At the foot of the contract there was a notation in the handwriting of Mr. Pusey as follows: "Please draw direct on Officer & Pusey in payment of any check above." At the time the contract was executed and the checks delivered the appellants paid to Officer & Pusey $ 800 in cash, and gave them their note for $ 1,000, with collateral security therefor, the securities being assigned by an instrument drawn by Mr. Pusey, which recited that the assignment was made "to secure the payment of advances made and interest thereon by Officer and Pusey." In September 1900, Mr. Officer died, and the plaintiff, as the administrator of his estate, soon thereafter brought an action against the firm of Officer & Pusey, asking that receivers be appointed to take charge of the estate. Receivers were appointed, who afterwards collected the note given by the appellants. The American Express Company intervened in the receivership proceedings, made the appellants parties, and asked judgment against them for $ 1,800, and for the establishment of a preferential claim against the receivers for said amount. The Mussers asked that the amount paid by them to the receivers and to Officer & Pusey be treated as a trust fund for the payment of the express company's claim. There was a judgment for the company...
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