In re Ramsay's Estate
| Decision Date | 11 January 1949 |
| Docket Number | 47288. |
| Citation | 35 N.W.2d 651,240 Iowa 50 |
| Parties | In re RAMSAY'S ESTATE. |
| Court | Iowa Supreme Court |
H. M. Havner, of Des Moines, for Des Moines Bank & Trust Co. and G. B. Jensen, appellants.
Chester J. Eller, of Des Moines, for Stella Miser and for Stella Miser, administratrix of the estate of Margaret Beal intervenors, appellees.
This action was brought about by the plaintiffs, Des Moines Bank & Trust Company and G. B. Jensen, appellants herein, filing in the probate court of Polk county, Iowa, notice of the assignment to them of certain collateral security consisting among other collaterals, of three assignments of Robert C Ramsay, Stella Miser, and Margaret Beal of their 1/10th interest each, being three shares of stock each to be delivered by the Economy Coal Company, Inc., and 1/10th interest each of their interest in the estate of George H. Ramsay, of which they were heirs. The note to be secured was for $21,450 of the Ramsay-Dooms Coal Company, Inc., and R. C. Ramsay, executed in 1939 and payable to the order of the Des Moines Bank & Trust Company, and later a note of $900 of the same parties.
The estate of George H. Ramsay was then and at the time of trial still pending in the probate court of Polk county. The notice of assignment was afterwards amended and corrected. There was also transferred as security, by chattel mortgage, a large amount of other securities which it is unnecessary to set out. A part of the estate of George H. Ramsay was his interest in the Economy Coal Company, Inc., and his estate was then being held by trustees.
In the notice to the trustees aforesaid, there was a request that the amounts be ordered paid to the Des Moines Bank & Trust Company and G. B. Jensen; that pending hearing the trustees be directed to hold any funds in their hands for distribution until the final order of the court, and for general relief. Following this application and notice Stella Miser, individually and as administratrix of the estate of Margaret Beal, deceased, filed a petition of intervention denying any right of any kind in the Bank and Jensen in and to the respective interests in a certain salary allowance of George H. Ramsay, deceased; an amount which became the property of his estate, and such intervenors alleged that such assignments and alleged conveyance of interests of intervenors had been fully adjudicated in the federal court in the case of Fay B. Ramsay v. Des Moines Bank & Trust Company, Inc., G. B. Jensen, Ramsay-Dooms Coal Company, Inc., B. J. Powers, as trustee for the Ramsay-Dooms Coal Company, Inc., Fay B. Ramsay, Executrix of the Estate of Robert C. Ramsay, deceased, or R. C. Ramsay, deceased, Ray Collins, Stella Miser and Margaret Beal, defendants in civil action No. 239, [1] District Court of the United States for the southern district of Iowa, central division, as per certified copy of such decree filed with the petition of intervention.
In their petition of intervention they alleged further that the subject matter of said assignment was disposed of and adjudicated in the decree in the federal court; that Jensen and the Des Moines Bank & Trust Company had stated in their answer and pleadings in the federal court case that the 1/10th interest consisted of stock in the Economy Coal Company. Petitioners further claim in their petition of intervention that said Stella Miser personally and as administratrix of the Beal estate are the owners of said 2/10ths interest in the judgment fund designated as salary of George H. Ramsay and are entitled to receive the same; said 2/10ths interest of said alleged claimants Des Moines Bank & Trust Company and G. B. Jensen having been adjudicated in civil action No. 239 in the federal court to be the common stock of Miser and Beal in the Economy Coal Company, Inc. Petitioners in their petition of intervention ask that the alleged claim of the Bank and Jensen to the 2/10ths interest of Miser and the Beal estate be denied and dismissed, and further ask for themselves as such intervenors that they have an order on said trustees in the above trust to pay the balance of said interests as fast as the same is converted into cash to said Miser, individually, and as administratrix. This claim of the Bank and Jensen, and the conflicting claim of Miser for herself and as administratrix, constituted the action tried in the district court of Polk county.
The petition of intervention was followed by the answer of the Des Moines Bank & Trust Company and G. B. Jensen, denying that the matter was adjudicated in the federal court in case No. 239. They allege that in the dealings with Margaret Beal, Stella Miser and R. C. Ramsay in the matters of the loan of $900 they represented to the Bank and Jensen that the stock to be issued in the Economy Coal Company was to include the entire 1/10th interest possessed by each of them in the estate of George H. Ramsay, and they allege in their answer that the loan of $900 was made on said representation; that other loans were made upon the representations of Margaret Beal, Stella Miser and R. C. Ramsay, relying upon the representations made by them, and there was never any intention to waive any rights as to the 1/10th interests, and that under and by virtue of said representations, in equity the Bank and Jensen still hold the 1/10th interests aforesaid.
The Bank and Jensen further allege that in the federal action No. 239 the United States District Court found that the 1/10th interests of Stella Miser and Margaret Beal, and the 1/10th interest of Robert C. Ramsay in the estate of George H. Ramsay, deceased, by consent of the owners and the Bank & Trust Company were converted into the stock of the Economy Coal Company, Inc., and that the said Margaret Beal, Stella Miser and Robert C. Ramsay consented to such findings of fact in said judgment and decree. They further say that in equity the 1/10th interest of each of said parties in the estate of George H. Ramsay, deceased, became attached to and was made a part of the shares of stock of the said Margaret Beal, Stella Miser and Robert C. Ramsay in the Economy Coal Company, Inc. In another paragraph much the same allegations of fact are made, that the 1/10th interests in the estate are still pledged, and they further claim that the representations referred to as having been made by Margaret Beal, Stella Miser, and R. C. Ramsay were made either maliciously and with the intent of misleading or defrauding the said Bank or as a matter of mutual mistake on their part, and the representations referred to caused the Bank and Jensen to believe that the 1/10th interests of the parties in the George H. Ramsay estate were converted into and formed a part of their stock interest. They ask that the shares in the estate of George H. Ramsay be turned over to them.
A motion to strike the answers was overruled and a reply filed by the intervenors reasserting their claim that all questions were settled in the federal action, and in bar of action they plead that the Bank and Jensen estopped themselves from asserting their conclusion of the federal decree by making application to amend such decree or reopen the case in the federal court, and they further set up in their reply that the Bank and Jensen do not allege that fraud or misrepresentations had anything to do with the entering of the federal decree, and they plead the records in the trusteeship that was pending long prior to the entering of the federal decree and that the Bank and Jensen had constructive notice of the rights of Margaret Beal and Stella Miser, and further state in their reply that the assignment of the respective shares of the intervenors were pleaded as a part of the claim of the Bank and Jensen in the federal court action.
After the filing of the intervenors' reply to the answer of the Des Moines Bank & Trust Company and G. B. Jensen, intervenors filed their motion to hear and determine the points of law, plea in bar or abatement presented in the petition and reply of intervenors in accordance with Rule 105 of the Rules of Civil Procedure providing for the separate adjudication of law points, and hearing was had in the district court under such rule. On such hearing the court entered its judgment and decree awarding the 2/10ths interest in the estate of George H. Ramsay to the intervenors, and from this judgment of the district court this appeal of the Bank and Jensen is brought.
On the hearing there was introduced in evidence the files and decree of the federal court in cause No. 239, and it is necessary that such proceedings, in substance, be set out so far as may be necessary to the consideration of the question of prior adjudication as claimed in the petition of intervention and as determined by the district court of Polk county.
The federal court proceedings consisted of an action by plaintiff Fay R Ramsay, wife of Robert C. Ramsay who was one of the signers of the $21,450 note, reciting the indebtedness of the Ramsay-Dooms Coal Company to one J. Rosenbaum and Son, and the additional indebtedness of $900 and mortgage and other security for the obligation of plaintiff's husband; a deposit of the interests of the three heirs in the Economy Coal Company stock; and various other matters not necessary to be considered here. The action was for an injunction against making any application of stock owned by the plaintiff in the Economy Coal Company to the payment of the obligations owed by the Ramsay-Dooms Coal Company and her deceased husband to the Des Moines Bank & Trust Company and G. B. Jensen, and that they be further enjoined from attempting and proceeding to secure the transfer of said stock from the name of this plaintiff to their name or to the names of any persons other than the plaintiffs, and asking...
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