Case ID: ad_60/html/0092-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "McLaughlin, J. :", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Robert Flaherty, Appellant, v. John W. Murray and the Title Guarantee and Trust Company, Respondents.
    
      Agreement to.give employment to a party pj'oposing that a corporation enter into a new branch of business, if it should do so—- it is not enforcible against a corporation created for that purpose by some of the stockholders of the-corporation towhich the proposal was made.
    
    In an action to recover on a quantum meruit for services alleged to have been rendered by the plaintiff for the defendants, the Title. Guarantee and Trust, Company and one- Murray, the president, thereof, in the organization and development of a corporation known as the Bond and. Mortgage (J.uarah.tee Company, the plaintiff' testified that he had a conversation with ..the .defendant Murray, in which he endeavored to interest the defendant trust' company or its directors and stockholders in the business of mortgage insurance, and that Murray agreed with him that if the trust company embarked in such business he would be given a position as general agent. ..
    It further appeared that some time after the interview with Murray some of the stockholders of the defendant trust company organized the Bond and Mortgage Guarantee Company for the purpose of transacting mortgage insurance business; that the plaintiff, however, had nothing to do with the organization of that company, and that it was not organized until after he had made arrangements with other parties-to form a corporation to do substantially, the same business.
    
      Held, that the trial court properly dismissed the complaint,, as to both the defend'-' ants, at the close of the plaintiff’s Case.
    Appeal by the plaintiff, Robert Flaherty, from a judgment of the Supreme Court in favor -of the defendants, entered in the office of the clerk of the county of Hew York on the 21st day of April,-' 1900, upon the dismissal of the complaint by direction of the court after a trial at the Hew York Trial Term.
    
      A. S. Gilbert, for the appellant.
    
      William H. Stockwell, for the respondents.
   McLaughlin, J. :

This action is brought to recover on a quantum meruit for services alleged to have been rendered by the plaintiff for the defendants in the organization and development of a domestic corporation — Bond and Mortgage Guarantee Company.

The basis of plaintiff’s alleged claim, according to his own testimony, is a conversation had in the month of May, 1890, with John W. Murray, then president of the defendant Title Guarantee and Trust Company and vice-president of the German-American Fire Insurance Company, in which he, in substance, informed Mr. Murray that he was looking for a position, and that in order to obtain one he desired to interest the trust company, or its directors and stockholders, in the business of mortgage insurance and that he expected, in case of success, to be rewarded with a position in the defendant trust company, as general agent to work up, create and bring mortgage insurance to the company, at a salary of no less than $5,000 a year.” He testified that Mr. Murray agreed with him that if the Title Guarantee and Trust Company took up the business of mortgage insurance he should have such a position. He did not claim that any other person connected with the' trust company ever made any agreement with him or that its board of directors took any corporate action upon the subject. The trust company did not take up the business of mortgage insurance; on the contrary, refused to do so, although it had a right under its charter to enter into that business. It appeared, however, that some time after the interview with Mr. Murray, some of the stockholders of the Title Guarantee and Trust Company participated in the organization of, and became interested in, the Bond and Mortgage Guarantee Company, a corporation organized for the purpose of transacting mortgage insurance business, but the plaintiff had nothing to do with the organization of that company and it was not, in fact, organized until after he had made arrangements with Cary & Whit-ridge to form another company, the Mortgage Insurance Company of Hew York, to do substantially the same kind of business.

There was, therefore, at the close of plaintiff’s case, a complete failure of proof to support the cause of action set out in the complaint. There was not the slightest evidence that the Title Guarantee and Trust Company (and appellant’s counsel conceded upon the argument that the complaint was properly dismissed as to the defendant Murray) ever employed or authorized the employment of the plaintiff for any purpose whatever, or that he ever performed any services for it, or that that company had any -connection with or interest in the Bond and Mortgage Guarantee. Company. The fact that some of the directors and stockholders of the Title Guarantee and Trust Company had an interest in the mortgage company, could in no way render the trust company liable for the ineffectual efforts of the plaintiff to induce it to enter into the business referred to. This being the situation at the close of plaintiff’s case, the trial court could do nothing but grant the defendants’ motion to dismiss the complaint.

The judgment appealed from is right and must be affirmed, with costs.

Van Brunt, P. J., Rumsey and Patterson, JJ., concurred..

Judgment affirmed, with costs.