N.H. Sav. Bank v. Nat'l Rockland Bank

• Decision Date: 06 March 1945
• Citation: 41 A.2d 760
• Parties: NEW HAMPSHIRE SAV. BANK v. NATIONAL ROCKLAND BANK et al.
• Court: New Hampshire Supreme Court

41 A.2d 760

NEW HAMPSHIRE SAV. BANK

v.NATIONAL ROCKLAND BANK et al.

Supreme Court of New Hampshire.

March 6, 1945.

Transferred from Superior Court, Merrimack County; Blandin, Judge.

Interpleader bill by the New Hampshire Savings Bank against the National Rockland Bank and Mrs. Ella J. Thompson. Mrs. Ella J. Thompson died and William A. Foster, executor of her will, appeared as codefendant. The court made findings in favor of the National Rockland Bank, the defendant executor's bill of exceptions was allowed, and certain questions of law were transferred without ruling.

Exceptions overruled.

Bill of Interpleader. July 15, 1936, the defendant National Rockland Bank loaned to Blanche E. Thompson $8,500 on her note secured by a passbook issued to Ella J. Thompson by the plaintiff New Hampshire Savings Bank. With the book was a printed withdrawal order form used by the latter bank and a printed pledge agreement form used by the former bank, each signed by Mrs. Ella J. Thompson, who was the mother-in-law of Mrs. Blanche E. Thompson. The order was blank as to the amount and the agreement in respect to the borrower and the security pledged. August 28, 1937 a second loan for $900 was made between the same parties with the same collateral. Mrs. Blanche E. Thompson was killed in an accident on January 7, 1938 and her estate was insolvent. The defendant bank inserted in the withdrawal order the amount due on the notes, $9,432.64, and requested payment of the plaintiff. The latter filed this bill May 25, 1938. Mrs. Ella J. Thompson died March 14, 1942 and William A. Foster, executor of her will, appeared as co-defendant.

The Court (Blandin, J.) heard the case and made certain findings and rulings including the following: That Ella J. Thompson was competent to transact this business, that she authorized the pledging of her bank book and that the defendant bank acted in good faith. The defendant executor excepted to the admission of certain evidence, to certain findings and rulings, to the failure to grant certain requests for findings and rulings and to the failure to find and report all material facts and all rulings of law. The defendant executor's bill of exceptions was allowed by the trial Judge and certain questions of law were transferred without ruling.

Sulloway, Piper, Jones, Hollis & Godfrey, of Concord, for plaintiff.

Robert W. Upton, of Concord, for defendant executor.

Alvin A. Lucier, of Nashua, for defendant bank.

JOHNSTON, Justice.

The trial Court correctly ruled that the defendant National Rockland Bank had the burden of proving its claim that it has a valid pledge of property of the defendant estate to secure the loans of Blanche E. Thompson. The Court found that at the time of the pledge Mrs. Ella J. Thompson ‘was competent to transact this business.’ This finding as well as others was excepted to on the ground that the Court did not find and report all material facts and all rulings of law but merely stated a conclusion. The duty of a Superior Court judge under R.L. c. 370, § 13, has been stated in Oullette v. Ledoux, 92 N.H. 302, 303, 30 A.2d 13, 14, as follows: ‘If the conclusions on the issues of fact on which the decision is based are reported, it is enough. These conclusions have been found or are necessarily [implied] by the decree. No question of requests for special findings is here presented.’ Of course, when a request is made, essential findings supporting the decision should be reported, just as essential instructions on the law applicable should be given a jury. No exception can be taken to the failure to find what has not been specifically requested in regard to the particular issue or fact on which a finding is desired. Also, findings necessary to sustain the decree will be implied unless there are express findings inconsistent therewith. In the case cited it was held that a finding that one was ‘not mentally competent’ satisfied the requirements of R.L. c. 370, § 13, since there was no specific request involved.

The evidence is conflicting on the issue of the mental competence of Mrs. Ella J. Thompson in July of 1936. At that time she was 84 years of age. Left a widow in 1913, she carried on her husband's shoe store in Concord where she lived. After a while the business was conducted jointly by herself and the second husband of Blanche E. Thompson until Mrs. Ella J. Thompson sold her interest in 1930. She lived alone except that for some years prior to the transactions under consideration the daughter-in-law spent several days each week with her. The older woman regarded the younger as her daughter, was very fond of her and trusted her with financial matters, such as paying bills and drawing money from the banks. She gave her possession at times of bank books, deeds and other papers. The older Mrs. Thompson attended to her affairs with prudence with the possible exception of certain matters in which Blanche played a part. She paid her bills and her orders were always honored at the banks. When her deposition was taken June 7, 1939, she showed appreciation of the amount of the loans made by the defendant bank, some idea of the amount of her property and a good knowledge of her relations with Blanche. By her will executed November 25, 1932, she left one-third of the residual share of her estate to Blanche. It cannot be said that no reasonable person could find from the above and other evidence that Mrs. Ella J. Thompson was mentally competent at the time of the pledge.

It is not disputed that the signatures to the withdrawal order and to the pledge agreement are those of Ella J. Thompson. In the Court's finding that she authorized the pledging of her bank book to secure the loans, it is necessarily implied that she voluntarily delivered the book, order and agreement to the daughter-in-law. There is evidence from which such delivery could be found. Mrs. Blanche Thompson at her death had possession of bank books of the older woman; she had them repeatedly when she was entrusted to draw money from the...