Dean v. Nelson

• Decision Date: 01 December 1869
• Parties: DEAN v. NELSON
• Court: U.S. Supreme Court

77 U.S. 158

19 L.Ed. 926

10 Wall. 158

DEAN v. NELSON.

December Term, 1869

APPEAL from the Circuit Court of the United States for West Tennessee; the case having been thus:

Thompson Dean, of Cincinnati, prior to the breaking out of the late rebellion, was the owner of a large amount of capital stock in the Memphis Gaslight Company, a corporation of Tennessee, situated and doing business at Memphis, in that State. In May, 1861, he transferred his entire stock to one Pepper, secretary of the company, to enable him (Pepper) to make some disposition of it in view of approaching hostilities.

On the 11th day of June, 1861, Pepper sold and transferred fifty shares, of $100 each, to a certain Nelson, then of Memphis, at par, receiving for the consideration Nelson's note, under seal, dated June 11th, 1861, whereby he promised to pay to the order of Pepper $5000, with interest at six per cent. per annum out of the net receipts of earnings on the sum of $5000 of the capital stock of the company, payable in quarterly instalments, the interest being first paid and balance of said net receipts then to be applied upon the principal, which instalments should amount to such sum of money as should be equal to the quarterly net receipts of earnings on $5000 of the capital stock of the company; it was further expressed in the note that it was given for the purchase-money of $5000 of the capital stock of the company, sold and transferred to Nelson by Pepper; and that if Nelson failed to pay any of the instalments quarterly, as aforesaid, after the receipt by the company of said net earnings, then the full sum of $5000, with interest, less interest and instalments paid, should become due and payable.

To secure the payment of this note Nelson, on the same day, executed to Pepper a paper, in the ordinary form of a mortgage, conveying to Pepper, his heirs and assigns, the following real and personal property, viz., 'so much of Nelson's individual interest, right, title, and estate in the property and premises of and belonging to the Memphis Gaslight Company as should be represented by and equal to the $5000 of capital stock of said company at par,' then describing the real and personal property which the company owned, being gas works and other property in Memphis, and concluding with the usual condition, to be void on the payment of the note according to the tenor and effect thereof. This instrument was duly acknowledged and recorded in the registry of mortgages for Shelby County. On the 20th day of July, 1861, Pepper sold and transferred to Nelson one hundred and fifty-four additional shares of said company, at the par value of $15,400, and received a similar note and instrument for the consideration thereof. It appeared from the evidence in the case that Pepper sold this stock to Nelson and the remainder of Dean's stock to other persons, when he did, under apprehension that it would be confiscated by the Confederate authorities, as was threatened to be done, and from a desire to leave Memphis (which he soon afterwards did do, going north) for his own personal safety. But Nelson swore that he made the purchase of the stock in good faith, and that he received it without any trust or pledge for its return.

The war soon began to rage with severity, and all intercourse between the States in rebellion (including Tennessee) and the other States of the Union was not only interrupted, but was prohibited by President Lincoln's proclamation of August 16th, 1861, made in pursuance of the act of Congress of the 13th of July previous.

Nelson continued to reside at Memphis, within the Confederate lines, and received the regular quarterly dividends on the two hundred and four shares of stock, but did not and could not make any payment to Pepper or to Dean, to whom Pepper assigned the notes and mortgages, they both being within the Union lines. The amount of dividends thus received by Nelson was $3672.

On the 1st of June, 1862, Nelson transferred one hundred and ninety-four shares of the stock to Miriam Nelson, his wife, having previously transferred ten shares to a certain Benjamin May. Both transfers were without consideration, except that the object of the transfer to May was to make him a director, and the professed object of the transfer to Nelson's wife was to make her a separate provision for maintenance.

On the 6th of June, 1862, the Federal forces entered the city of Memphis, and held military possession of that part of Tennessee until the close of the war. Dean visited Memphis during the summer and autumn of 1862, and saw Nelson there, who failed to make any payment on the notes. Nelson swore in the proceeding below, that Dean refused to receive any payment, alleging that the stock was absolutely for feited by the failure to pay. Dean swore that he asked Nelson what he proposed to do about the payment of the net earnings which he had received, and that Nelson answered that he was not disposed to pay it, because he might have to pay it again to the Confederate government. From the evidence in the case this court expressed itself as inclined to believe that this ground was assumed by Nelson, and that he did not make an unequivocal tender of the money due, and whilst it admitted that it was probably true that Dean insisted that the stock was forfeited, it was not satisfied that his conduct was such as to obviate the necessity of a tender by Nelson if the latter wished to prevent the principal from becoming due. At this time Nelson was allowed to remain peaceably within the Union lines, and there was no reason why he should not have paid the money to Dean.

On the 5th of April, 1863, Nelson, with his family, was ordered to remove south of the lines of the United States forces, and not to return. This order was made in retaliation for some outrages committed by guerillas in the vicinity. In pursuance of it Nelson and his family removed within the Confederate lines, and remained therein during the remainder of the war; and were not permitted to re-enter Memphis, although Nelson, at one time, requested permission to do so. The other complainant, May, was within the Confederate lines during the entire contest.

On the 25th of April, 1863, General Veatch, then commanding the military district of Memphis, by a special order, established and organized a court or civil commission for the hearing and determination of all complaints and suits instituted by loyal citizens for the collection of debts, enforcement of contracts, prevention of frauds, recovery of the possession of property, and generally to do whatever can be done by a court deriving its powers from military authority. Before this court or civil commission, on the 1st day of September, 1863, Dean filed a petition setting forth the fact of the sale of the stock to Nelson, that Nelson had given a note, and to secure the payment of said note had executed and delivered mortgages on all the interest of said Nelson in said company, represented by said stock, which mortgages were recorded, &c. and praying for the foreclosure of the 'said mortgages,' and sale of the two hundred and four shares of stock, in order to raise the amount due on the notes. Nelson and wife, and May, were made defendants, but were returned 'Not found;' and publication of notice to them to appear was made in accordance with the laws of Tennessee existing prior to the rebellion. No appearance being effected, a decree was made, execution issued, and the stock was sold by the marshal on the 23d day of October, 1863, to one Hanlin, and was subsequently transferred to him on the books of the company by the secretary, pursuant to an order of the civil commission. Hanlin immediately transferred the stock to Dean. From that time till June, 1865, Dean drew the dividends on the stock.

In the month just named, Nelson, his wife, and May, filed a bill in the court below, praying, in substance, that the stock might be decreed to belong to them, and that Dean might account for all the dividends received by him, to be applied to the payment of the notes, &c., and for general relief.

Dean, in his answer, set up and insisted upon two grounds of defence:

First, the forfeiture of the condition of the mortgage, which, under the circumstances of the case, and from the unconscionable nature of the transaction, he insisted should be held to be an absolute forfeiture, without benefit of redemption; in other words, that the instrument should be regarded as a conditional assignment or transfer, and not as a mortgage.

Secondly, he set up the proceedings before the civil commission, by which, as he contended, even if the instrument were a mortgage, all equity of redemption in the stock was foreclosed. The defendants, Nelson, his wife, and May, on the contrary, insisted that the paper was a mere mortgage; that the condition in the notes making the principal due if the instalments were not regularly paid, was in the nature of a penalty, and should not have been enforced in an equitable proceeding; that the court or civil commission was illegal and without authority; that it never had any jurisdiction of the person of the appellants, nor of the property attempted to be foreclosed; that the existence of the war, and the residence of the appellees within the Confederate lines, forbade any legal proceedings against them or their property; that, therefore, they had been illegally dispossessed of the latter, and were entitled to have it restored to them without conditions; and, finally, that Dean was accountable to them for the dividends received by him, to be credited on the notes.

The court below decreed that Dean should transfer to Mrs. Nelson, for her sole and separate use, one hundred and ninety-four shares of the stock, and to May ten shares, so as to restore the stock to them respectively, as they had it prior to the decree of the civil commission divesting it out of them. And that a master should take and state——

An account of what...