Sioux Nat. Bank v. Norfolk State Bank, 189.

• Decision Date: 15 May 1893
• Docket Number: 189.
• Citation: 56 F. 139
• Parties: SIOUX NAT. BANK v. NORFOLK STATE BANK et al.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

56 F. 139

SIOUX NAT. BANK v. NORFOLK STATE BANK et al.

No. 189.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

May 15, 1893

W. L Joy, A. L. Hudson, A. F. Call, and C. L. Joy, for plaintiff in error.

W. M Robertson, F. P. Wigton, and George L. Whitham, for defendants in error.

Before CALDWELL and SANBORN, Circuit Judges, and THAYER, District Judge.

THAYER District Judge.

This was a suit which was filed in the circuit court by the Sioux National Bank, doing business in the state of Iowa, against the Norfolk State Bank, a corporation of Nebraska, and R. A Stewart and C. B. Burrows, wherein the plaintiff charged, in substance, that it had been induced, by false and fraudulent representations made by the defendants as to the means commercial standing, and credit of one W. W. Marple, to loan to said Marple a large sum of money, to wit, $15,000, which had eventually been lost in consequence of the loan.

The complaint alleged, in substance and in legal effect, that the representations complained of were contained in a letter that had been written by the president of the Norfolk State Bank to the Sioux National Bank on June 11, 1890, and that other representations of a similar nature had been made orally by the officers of the Norfolk State Bank, and that such representations, both oral and written, were false, and were made for the fraudulent purpose of giving to Marple a sufficient credit with the Sioux National Bank to enable him to borrow of that bank enough money to pay his indebtedness to the Norfolk State Bank, of which he was at the time a customer and debtor. The answer that was filed by the defendants denied all of the allegations of fraud. There was a trial before a jury, and a verdict in favor of the defendants.

In the course of the trial the plaintiff offered in evidence the letter above referred to, of date June 11, 1890, and also offered testimony tending to show that before any money was loaned to Marple some oral representations had been made to the plaintiff by the defendant bank's cashier, touching the solvency of Marple, his responsibility, and commercial standing. In the course of the trial it also transpired that Marple had resided for some years at Norfolk, Neb., where the defendant bank is located, before the alleged false representations were made, and that he had done business there as a dealer in cloths and gentlemen's furnishing goods, and had been a customer of the Norfolk State Bank, and owed it a considerable sum of money; that at the time the alleged false representations were made Marple was about to transfer his business to Sioux City, Iowa, where the plaintiff bank is located; and that the loans made by the plaintiff on the strength of the alleged representations, were made immediately after Marple had transferred his business to Sioux City.

There was also evidence which tended to show that the plaintiff's assistant cashier had on...