Forrest v. Price

• Citation: Forrest v. Price, 29 A. 215, 52 N.J.E. 16 (N.J. Ch. 1894)
• Decision Date: 01 October 1893
• Court: New Jersey Court of Chancery
• Parties: ANNA M. FORREST, administratrix of the estate of Samuel Forrest, deceased, v. RODMAN M. PRICE et al

29 A. 215

52 N.J.E. 16

FORREST

v. PRICE.

Court of Chancery of New Jersey.

May 18, 1894.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

Bill by Anna M. Forrest, administratrix of Samuel Forrest, deceased, against Rodman M. Price. On motion to punish said Price for contempt in disobeying an order of the court. Motion granted.

The bill in this cause was filed in June, 1874, in aid of an unsatisfied judgment, recovered June 2, 1857, by Samuel Forrest, deceased, against Rodman M. Price, of the county of Bergen, in the supreme court of this state, for $17,000, debt, and $78.04, costs of suit. No property, out of which the judgment could be satisfied, was then discovered, and the suit was suffered to lie dormant until the 8th of August, 1892, when the complainant, by her petition, represented that an alias writ of fieri facias upon the judgment had been returned unsatisfied on the 4th of August, 1892; that the judgment remained wholly unpaid; that $45,000 was about to be paid the defendant from the United States treasury, in virtue of an act of congress in his behalf passed; and that he did not intend to apply such moneys towards the satisfaction of her judgment. The petition prayed that an injunction might issue to restrain the defendant from collecting those moneys for his own use, and that a receiver might be appointed, to whom the moneys might be transferred by the defendant. Upon the presentation of the petition, an order was made on the 8th of August, 1892, which required the defendant to show cause before the chancellor on the 12th of September, then next, why an injunction should not issue, and a receiver be appointed, according to the prayer of the petition, in which was incorporated this restraining clause: "And that in the mean while the said Rodman M. Price be, and he hereby is, enjoined and restrained from making any indorsement of any draft or other negotiable or other paper or security which shall be made or delivered to him by the United States of America, or any officer of the treasury department thereof, or which shall in any wise come to his possession or control from it or such officer, mediately or immediately, and which shall be expressed to be paid to his order; and from transferring, assigning, delivering, or in any way passing the said draft or paper or security, or the right thereto, or to any money to be derived therefrom or thereby, to any person whatever, except under the order of this court." Upon the return of the order to show cause the defendant appeared by counsel, and, at his instance, adjournment of the hearing was had, with leave to take depositions, the restraining clause of the order being continued in force. After service upon him of the order to show cause, and while its restraint remained in force, the defendant received four drafts from the United States treasury department, respectively, for $20,000, $13,500, $9,000, and $2,704.08, aggregating in amount $45,204.08, and on the 5th day of September, in the same year, in the city of Washington, indorsed the drafts for $13,500, and $2,704.08, and handed the former of them to his attorneys there, and drew the money upon the latter of them for his own use. On the 3d of October in the same year, during an adjournment of the hearing of the order to show cause, which he had obtained after appearing and filing an answer to the petition of the complainant, in the city of New York, he indorsed the two remaining drafts, and drew the moneys ordered by them to be paid. By order made on the 10th of October, 1892, the chancellor, not having yet been apprised of the indorsement and collection of the drafts, appointed a receiver of the property and things in action belonging or due to the defendant, Price, and directed the defendant to indorse and transfer to the receiver the drafts in question. The drafts having been previously disposed of, the direction of this order was, of course, not complied with.

Upon the defendant's action being duly represented to the chancellor, on the 18th of October, an attachment was issued against him as for contempt of court. He left the state of New Jersey, and was not served with the writ until July, 1893. Later, he was examined upon interrogatories in the matter of contempt, and in that examination admitted, among other things, that the order to show cause had been served upon him; that he had read it, and handed it to his counsel; that afterwards, on the 5th of September, 1892, in the city of Washington, he received from the assistant treasurer of the United States the four drafts already referred to, his claim having been allowed, and a warrant having been duly drawn for them, each of which drafts was payable "to the order of Rodman M. Price, late purser U. S. N.," and receipted for them; that on the same day he indorsed the draft for $2,704.08, "Rodman M. Price, late purser U. S. N.," and received the money therefor; that on the same day he indorsed the draft for $13,500, and delivered it to his attorneys in Washington in payment for services which they had rendered him in and about procuring the money from the government; and that on the 3d of October, following, he indorsed the two remaining drafts in the city of New York, and received the moneys for them. He admits that his disregard of the restraining order was deliberate, and essays to excuse it in his answer to the thirteenth interrogatory. To that interrogatory, he, among other things, replies: "And this defendant, in further answering in regard to his claim against the United States government herein referred to, saith that congress passed an act for the relief of Rodman M. Price, which was approved by the president February 23, 1891, and of which the following is a copy: 'An act for the relief of Rodman M. Price. Be it enacted by the senate and house of representatives of the United States of America in congress assembled; that the secretary of the treasury of the United States be and he is hereby, authorized and directed to adjust upon principles of equity and justice, the accounts of Rodman M. Price, late purser of the United States navy and acting navy agent at San Francisco, California, crediting him with the sum paid over to and receipted for by his successor, A. M. Van Nostrand, acting purser, January fourteen, eighteen hundred and fifty, and pay to said Rodman M. Price, or his heirs, out of any money in the treasury, not otherwise appropriated any sum that may be found due to him upon such adjustment Approved February 23, 1891,'—and under which the secretary of the treasury did cause to be adjusted, upon principles of equity and justice, the accounts of defendant, as late officer, to wit, a purser, in the navy of the United States." Then, after stating at length the account as adjusted, by which it appears that the balance due to him was §76,204.08, he continues: "That about the 6th of December, 1848, this defendant was assigned to duty as purser and fiscal agent of the government for the navy department of the United States. On the 1st of January, 1850, he was relieved from duty, and ordered to report to the secretary of the navy, in Washington, D. C.J that, in pursuance of said order of recall, he turned over the public moneys and property to his successor on or about December 31, 1849, and on January 14, 1850, advanced to his successor, from his private funds, the sum of $75,000, to be disbursed by his successor for the benefit of the United States. Thus a controversy arose as to whether the government of the United States was responsible for private funds which had been turned over to its officer." He then referred to an opinion of the Hon. Caleb Cushing, attorney general of the United States, dated March 12, 1854, 6 Op. Atty. Gen. U. S. 357, in which is quoted a letter from the secretary of the navy to the defendant, instructing him concerning special duties then required of him, among which was the procurement of funds for use at the station to which he was sent, by bills drawn upon the navy department in Washington, and in which the attorney general states that Van Nostrand, who succeeded the defendant as purser, had been the defendant's clerk, and was lawfully appointed his successor by the commodore commanding at the California station, and also that the defendant, with another, became security to the government, in a bond in the penal sum of $30,000, conditioned for Van Nostrand's faithful performance of his duties as such purser. It appears in the case, further, that Van Nostrand afterwards converted to his own use, not only government moneys, but also the $75,000 which the defendant had placed in his hands. The opinion of the attorney general concludes with the determination that, as the defendant's advance of his private funds to his successor was unauthorized by the government, it could not be charged against the United States. After the rendition of the opinion the accounts of the defendant remained unadjusted until after the approval of the act of 1891, when, in obedience to that act, the advance of $75,000 to Van Nostrand for the use of the government was credited him, and in August, 1892, the balance in his favor was ascertained to be, and allowed at, $76,204.08, or $1,204.08 more than the $75,000 advanced. This excess appears to have been made up by allowances for mileage. Of the balance thus found, $30,000, or thereabouts, has been withheld, to answer the defendant's liability on Van Nostrand's bond, and the remainder, $45,204.08, has been paid, as aforesaid, by the four drafts.

To properly understand the position now taken by the defendant, it is necessary to call attention to the 3477th section of the Revised Statutes of the United States, which is in this language: "Ail transfers and assignments made of any claim upon the United States, or of any part or share thereof, or interest therein, whether absolute or conditional, and whatever may be the consideration therefor, and all powers of attorney, orders, or other authorities...