Langston v. The South Carolina R. Co.
| Decision Date | 20 January 1871 |
| Citation | 2 S.C. 248 |
| Parties | THOMAS R. LANGSTON v. THE SOUTH CAROLINA RAILROAD COMPANY. |
| Court | South Carolina Supreme Court |
Coupon bonds issued by an incorporated railroad company, payable to bearer, are negotiable.
A coupon bond issued by an incorporated railroad company redeemable on a day certain, and at a bank named, on the surrender of the bond, bears interest from its maturity although no demand of payment, or offer to surrender the bond, be made at the bank or elsewhere.
An action may be maintained on a bond payable on a day certain at a place named, without allegation or proof of demand of payment at the time and place mentioned.
Coupons payable at a certain time and place, bear interest from the time they fall due without demand of payment.
Where a bond is payable at a future fixed time, with interest in the meantime, at six per cent. per annum, and the contract is silent as to the rate of interest to be paid, if default of payment shall be made, the debt will bear interest, from the time it falls due, at 7 per cent. per annum, the legal rate of interest.
BEFORE CARPENTER, J., AT CHARLESTON, MAY TERM, 1870.
This was an action on three coupon bonds. The first was in words and figures, as follows:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
$500.
THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
The South Carolina Railroad Company promises to pay to bearer five hundred dollars, redeemable on the first day of April, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-three, and not before without the consent of the holder of this certificate, with interest thereon, at the rate of six per cent. per annum, from the date hereof. The said interest to be paid quarterly, on the first days of January, April, July and October of each year, on presenting the proper coupons, at the South-western Railroad Bank, in Charleston, where the principal also will be redeemed, on the surrender of this certificate.
In witness whereof the said company has caused its corporate seal to be hereunto affixed, at Charleston, this first day of April, 1853.
[L. S.]
H. W. CONNER, President.
J. R. EMERY, Secretary.
The second bond was identical with the first, except as to its number, and the third was as follows:
UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.
$500.
THE STATE OF SOUTH CAROLINA.
Liquidated Debt of South Carolina Railroad Company to the State.
The South Carolina Railroad Company promise to pay to bearer five hundred dollars, redeemable on the first day of October, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-eight, and not before without the consent of the holder of this certificate, with interest thereon, at the rate of six per cent. per annum, from the first day of October, one thousand eight hundred and forty-eight. The said interest to be paid annually on presenting proper coupons at the South-western Railroad Bank, in Charleston, where the principal also will be redeemed on the surrender of this certificate, (the said interest being divided, by agreement of the said company, in four quarterly payments, by coupons, payable in January, April, July and October, which are attached to this bond, and numbered so as to correspond with the same.)
In witness whereof the said company has caused its corporate seal to be hereunto affixed, at Charleston, this tenth day of March, 1849.
[L. S.]
JAMES GADSDEN, President.
WM. H. BARTLESS, Secretary.
The case was submitted for decision to His Honor the presiding Judge, who made a statement of the case as follows:
" This case was referred to me by consent, in writing, of the attorneys representing the plaintiff and defendants.
The action is in debt on three (3) coupon bonds, copies of which are attached to the paper hereto annexed and marked ‘ A.’ To two of the bonds there was a coupon attached, for the sum of seven 50-100 dollars, payable 1st April, 1863. The execution of the bonds was admitted by the attorneys, in writing, and it was also admitted, in writing, that at the maturity of the bonds, respectively, and from the dates of their maturity to the commencement of the suit, on the ninth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, the South-western Railroad Bank had neither gold coin or United States Treasury notes to pay the bonds, but that the defendants, the South Carolina Railroad Company, were, from the close of the war to the present time, in possession of a large amount of United States Treasury notes.
The plaintiff claimed to recover the principal of the said bonds and the coupons thereto attached, with interest at the rate of seven per cent. per annum, from the first day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-three, and the first day of April, eighteen hundred and sixty-eight, when they respectively matured, and were redeemable in gold coin of the United States.
The defendants claimed that interest could only be recovered from the date of the commencement of the suit, as there was no proof that the certificates were ever surrendered, as required by the bonds, or any offer to surrender the said certificates was ever made, or that any demand was ever made prior to suit brought.
The said defendants also claimed that under the decision of the Supreme Court of this State, in the case of O'Neill vs. McKewn, et al. , (1 S. C., N. S., 147,) the said bonds could be paid and satisfied in United States Treasury notes.
The plaintiff, in reply, claimed that interest was recoverable on the bonds from the dates on which they were respectively redeemable as the claims were liquidated, and, according to law, the said bonds being negotiable instruments, interest was recoverable on them, unless the defendants could prove that they had at the Southwestern Railroad Bank, where they were redeemable, an amount of gold coin or Treasury notes to satisfy the same, if they had been presented.
The plaintiff also claimed that under the decision of the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of Hepburn vs. Griswold , he was entitled to payment in gold coin, inasmuch as the bonds sued on were executed before the twenty-fifth day of February, eighteen hundred and sixty-two.
I held that the said plaintiff was not entitled to recover interest except from the date of the commencement of the suit, inasmuch as, by the terms of the bonds sued on, the interest was payable on coupons attached to the bond, and the principal payable on the surrender of the certificate. The bond was therefore payable only on demand and offer of surrender, and, until demand made, interest did not commence to run, but that he was entitled to recover the amount due him in gold coin of the United States.
I accordingly gave judgment for the plaintiff against the defendants for one thousand five hundred and fifteen ($1,515) dollars, with interest thereon from the ninth day of March, eighteen hundred and sixty-nine, in gold coin of the United States.
Before the said...
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