State Bank of Iowa Falls v. Hawkeye Gold Dredging Co.

• Decision Date: 01 March 1910
• Docket Number: 2,848.
• Citation: 177 F. 164
• Parties: STATE BANK OF IOWA FALLS v. HAWKEYE GOLD DREDGING CO., Limited.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Eighth Circuit

177 F. 164

STATE BANK OF IOWA FALLS v. HAWKEYE GOLD DREDGING CO., Limited.

No. 2,848.

United States Court of Appeals, Eighth Circuit.

March 1, 1910

Robert Healy (Thos. D. Healy, Healy & Healy, F. M. Williams, and Parker, Hewitt & Wright, on the brief), for appellant.

Frank F. Dawley (W. L. Crissman, Albrook & Lundy, and Dawley &amp Wheeler, on the brief), for appellee.

Before HOOK and ADAMS, Circuit Judges, and CARLAND, District Judge.

CARLAND District Judge.

This action was brought by the dredging company, an alien corporation, against the bank, an Iowa corporation, for the purpose of having an accounting between the dredging company and the bank in regard to money deposited in the bank to the credit of H. C. Miller, Tr. H.G.D. Co., Ltd., during the year 1904, and for a decree against the bank for such sum as should on such accounting be found due the dredging company. The trial court on final hearing disallowed all the claims of the dredging company except an item of $16,077.65 for which it rendered judgment against the bank. The bank alone appeals. Hence our inquiry is limited to the question as to whether the court erred in its conclusion in respect to this item. The bank is located at Iowa Falls, Iowa. The dredging company, although a corporation of British Columbia, had its business office at the same place. In regard to the jurisdiction of the trial court over the matters in controversy, as a court of equity, we are satisfied with the views of the trial judge as expressed in his opinion, 157 F 253. We now come to the consideration of the evidence upon which the trial court based its judgment.

The following facts in relation thereto are either undisputed or are clearly shown by the evidence: Byron B. Bliss was secretary, and H. C. Miller was treasurer, of the dredging company from its organization to September 24, 1904. The mode of handling the funds of the dredging company, so far as the bank was concerned, was as follows: If it was necessary to pay a debt of the dredging company, Bliss paid it by his own personal check on his account at the bank. In order to reimburse himself, he would make out a warrant as secretary of the dredging company on Miller, the treasurer, and Miller would give Bliss his check as treasurer on his account at the bank which was kept in the name of H. C. Miller, Tr. H.G.D Co., Ltd. Four or five days prior to August 29, 1904, Miller made up the books of the dredging company and found Bliss indebted to it in the sum of $16,077.65. Miller insisted that Bliss pay this indebtedness. Bliss at this time also had overdrawn his account at the bank in the sum of $10,013.57. There was to be held and was held a meeting of the stockholders of the dredging company at Iowa Falls on August 30, 1904. On August 29, 1904, Bliss and his wife executed and delivered two deeds of conveyance to the bank, whereby for the total expressed consideration of $19,000 they conveyed to it 480 acres of land subject to incumbrances amounting to $8,500. These deeds, although absolute in form, were in fact mortgages. Just what they secured the payment of is one of the questions for consideration. On August 29, 1904, Bliss executed and delivered his promissory note payable on demand to the bank for $16,077.65, which was entered on the cashbook of the bank and also on the bills receivable register as a bill receivable. On the same day, and as part of the same transaction, Bliss and Miller signed and delivered to the bank the following check:

'No. 11,905.

Iowa Falls, Iowa, Aug. 29, 1904.

'Pay to the order of State Bank of Ia. Falls, $16,077.65 sixteen thousand and seventy-seven 65/100 dollars.

Hawkeye Gold Dredging Co., 'By B. B. Bliss, Sec., 'H. C. Miller, Treas.

'To State Bank of Iowa Falls, Iowa Falls, Iowa.' After the deliverance of the check, the note, and the deeds to the bank, and on the same day, a deposit slip was made out by the bank, whereby the account of Miller as treasurer of the dredging company was credited with the sum of $16,077.65. On the same day a passbook showing the account of Miller as treasurer of the dredging company was written up by the bank, and this credit to Miller's account appeared thereon. The account was shown to the stockholders of the dredging company as thus written up. On September 14, 1904, the bank, by the authority of the check above mentioned, charged the amount of the check against the account of Miller as treasurer of the dredging company. The check, from the time it was signed and delivered, nowhere appeared upon the books of the bank, nor did any one connected with the dredging company know of its existence except Bliss and Miller. The bank would not have...