Case ID: nc_198/html/0622-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Adams, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

ATLANTIC CHRISTIAN COLLEGE v. J. W. HINES, J. C. BRASWELL, and NORTH CAROLINA BANK AND TRUST COMPANY, Executors of J. W. HINES.
    (Filed 23 April, 1930.)
    1. Charities A a — In this case held: condition of gift that certain sum in cash or equivalent he raised was complied with.
    The conditions of a gift to an eleemosynary corporation that other subscriptions be raised in a certain amount in cash or securities equivalent to cash by a stated time, is complied with if by the stipulated time other subscriptions in the amount stated have been secured for the’ purpose in bonds, securities, and promissory notes which could be realized upon and converted into cash in an amount exceeding the amount stipulated as a condition for the gift, and when this is established as a fact upon supporting evidence in the Superior Court, the judgment that the plaintiff recover the amount of the gift will be sustained on appeal.
    2. Same. — Burden of proving that conditions of gift had been complied with is upon eleemosynary corporation.
    The burden of proof is on the plaintiff to- show that the. conditions precedent to a gift to an eleemosynary institution of learning have been performed in its action thereon.
    Appeal by defendants from Gowper, Special Judge, at March Term, 1930, of Nash.
    Affirmed.
    
      Tbe plaintiff is a corporation maintaining and conducting* as a religious denomination a college in tbe city of Wilson under tbe auspices of tbe Association of Cburcbes in North Carolina, known as Tbe North Carolina Christian Missionary Convention. With a view to obtaining a substantial endowment for tbe college tbe Convention appointed a campaign committee and instructed them to take such steps as their judgment approved for obtaining a substantial permanent endowment. J. W. Hines was a member of tbe committee. On 3 February, 1927, be made tbe conditional pledge of a gift to tbe endowment fund “if and when” tbe plaintiff complied with tbe condition which be imposed. Tbe appeal presents for decision tbe single question whether tbe plaintiff complied with tbe condition.
    At tbe bearing Judge Cowper found tbe facts to be as follows:
    1. Tbe plaintiff herein is an eleemosynary corporation, conducting a Grade “A” College at Wilson, N. C., under tbe auspices of tbe North Carolina Christian Missionary Convention, a religious denomination of which J. W. Hines, late of Nash County, North Carolina, was a member.
    2. J. W. Hines died on or about 13 March, 1928, and tbe defendants herein, J. W. Hines, J. C. Braswell, and North Carolina Bank and Trust Company, are tbe executors of bis last will and testament.
    3. Tbe North Carolina Christian Missionary Convention, at a special meeting held in tbe town of Greenville, North Carolina, in 1926 appointed a committee known as tbe campaign committee, to have charge of, on tbe part of said Convention, tbe raising for tbe Atlantic Christian College of a substantial permanent endowment fund.
    J. W. Hines was a member of tbe committee. On 25 October, 1926, tbe committee entered into a contract with tbe board of education of tbe Disciples of Christ (department of endowments) to obtain tbe services of tbe board of education of tbe Disciples of Christ (department of endowments) to assist tbe committee in obtaining for Atlantic Christian College a substantial permanent endowment fund. This contract contemplated tbe appointment of a campaign committee by tbe executive committee of Atlantic Christian College.
    Mr. Hines, who was a member of tbe board of trustees of tbe college, and a member of its executive committee, was by tbe said executive committee appointed a member of this campaign- committee-, which was thereafter known as tbe crusade committee. Monthly reports of tbe progress of tbe effort to raise tbe endowment were made to the crusade committee thus appointed and this committee passed upon, received and accepted for tbe college tbe funds and securities as contemplated by tbe contract obtained in tbe campaign, and paid from tbe funds of tbe college tbe expenses incident to tbe campaign, including tbe commission thereon.
    
      4. Subscriptions to the endowment fund of Atlantic Christian College reported by the board of education of the Disciples of Christ to the crusade committee at meetings of the said committee, held between 3 February, 1927, and 11 July, 1927, and accepted by the committee, aggregated $211,219.75, exclusive of the subscription of Mr. Hines. He was present at and participated in the deliberations and acts, and personally approved with said committee the progress of the campaign, the payment of the expenses and the payment of the service charges or commissions on gifts and donations, including the payment of one-half of one per cent service charge on the subscription of $100,000 made by the said J. W. Hines.
    5. On 3 February, 1927, at the time of the beginning of the campaign under the contract with the board of education of the Disciples of Christ, J. W. Hines made a conditional pledge to the endowment fund of the college, which was in the following words, to wit:
    “Wilson, North Carolina, 3 February, 1927.
    I will give to Atlantic Christian College five-eighths (%) of the capital stock of the Greenville Ice and Coal Company, or if I sell the property, I will give securities arising from the sale of said property up to the amount of one hundred thousand dollars ($100,000) upon the following conditions, to wit:
    (1) If and when Atlantic Christian College secured other endowment of two hundred thousand dollars ($200,000) net, cash or securities equivalent to cash, said endowment to be in addition to all endowment the college has as of 1 January, 1927.
    (2) Said additional endowment shall have been secured by 1 January, 1930.
    (3) If the above conditions are not complied with by 1 January, 1930, then my proposition is void.
    (Signed) J. W. HiNes.”
    6. Subsequent to 3 February, 1927, and prior to 31 December, 1929, donations and gifts to its permanent endowment fund were received by the Atlantic Christian College as contemplated in its contract with the board of education of the Disciples of Christ, consisting of cash, stock, bonds, promissory notes, estate notes, pledges for the payment of cash, and other securities, exclusive of the $100,000 conditionally pledged by J. W. Hines, in the aggregate amount of $239,952.34; and the true value and worth of the securities aggregating the said sum of $239,952.34 was, on 1 January, 1930, in excess of $200,000. The value of the securities is found, as a fact, to be in excess of $200,000 by the court, from the evidence before the court as well as from the complaint and answer.
    
      7. On 16 July, 1928, tbe executors of tbe last will and testament of J. W. Hines found it desirable and advantageous that tbe five-eighths interest of tbe Greenville Ice and Coal Company conditionally given to tbe Atlantic Christian College, should be administered by some person as trustee for both tbe college and tbe executors of Mr. Hines’ will, with full power of sale and disposition on tbe part of tbe said trustee, and tbe parties hereto agreed that tbe same should be transferred to F. P. Spruill, trustee, for tbe plaintiff herein and tbe defendants herein, to bold tbe same or make a sale thereof, and in tbe event that a sale should be made, that tbe proceeds thereof should be delivered to Atlantic Christian College under tbe terms of tbe contract between J. W. Hines, deceased, and tbe college, or if tbe said contract bad not been complied with, to deliver tbe same to tbe executors of tbe last will and testament of J. W. Hinés.
    Tbe trustee sold tbe five-eigbtbs interest of tbe Greenville Ice and Coal Company, and received therefor tbe sum of $100,000, which was by him invested in bonds of tbe United States of America, and tbe said bonds are now in tbe possession of tbe said F. P. Spruill, trustee, who bolds tbe same as stakeholder. He has filed an appearance herein as appears from tbe record, stating that be will deliver tbe bonds in accordance with tbe judgment of this court.
    Upon these facts tbe following judgment was rendered:
    “Upon tbe foregoing facts, found from tbe pleadings and tbe evidence before tbe court, tbe court is of tbe opinion that tbe Atlantic Christian College, plaintiff herein, is entitled to receive from F. P. Spruill, trustee, discharged from any right, or rightful claim of tbe executors of tbe last will and testament of J. W. Hines thereto, the bonds of the United States of America aggregating $100,000, now in the possession of the said F. P. Spruill, trustee, arising from the sale of the five-eighths interest of J. W. Hines in the Greenville Ice and Coal Company; the plaintiff having complied with the terms of the subscription made by J. W. Hines to the Atlantic Christian College under date of 3 February, 1927.
    Thereupon, by tbe court, it is ordered, considered, adjudged and decreed that F. P. Spruill, trustee, deliver to Atlantic Christian College tbe securities in his possession, to wit:
    Bonds of the United States of America of the face value of $100,000, with the dividends accrued since 1 January, 1930, arising from the sale of the five-eighths interest of the late J. W. Hines in the Greenville Ice and Coal Company, freed and discharged of any claim thereto on the part of the executors of the last will and testament of J. W. Hines, the defendants herein, less the premium of $1,468.75 paid in the purchase of said bonds by tbe executors of tbe last will and testament of J. W. 
      Hines, and as to that amount, said Spruill, trustee, shall reserve from interest coupons a sufficient amount to pay, and he is directed to pay, to the executors of the Hines’ will the amount of said premium.
    This judgment shall be and constitute a voucher on the part of the executors in their administration of the estate of J. W. Hines for the disposition of the interest of J. W. Hines in the Greenville Ice and Coal Company, and the proceeds arising therefrom by his executors subsequent to his death, and a perpetual bar to any other recovery from E. P. Spruill, trustee, on account of the same.”
    The defendants excepted and appealed.
    
      W. A. Lucas for plaintiff.
    
    
      W. S. Wilkinson, Jr., for defendants.
    
   Adams, J.

It may be seen by reference to the paper signed by J. W. Hines on 3 February, 1927, that his gift to the plaintiff of five-eighths of the capital stock of the Greenville lee and Coal Company, or of securities in the sum of $100,000, was made dependent upon the precedent condition that the plaintiff should secure by 1 January, 1930, additional endowment funds in the sum of $200,000 net, in cash, or in securities equivalent to cash. It was incumbent upon the plaintiff to show that it had complied with the condition. The record does not contain a list of the securities and they are not open to our inspection; but the material facts appear in the judgment. Prior to 31 December, 1929, gifts in cash, stocks, bonds, promissory notes, estate notes, pledges for the payment of cash, and other securities, exclusive of the $100,000 conditionally pledged by J. W. Hines, aggregating $239,952.31- were received for the permanent endowment fund; and upon an examination of these securities the defendants valued them “at $200,000 or above.” It is admitted that friends of the plaintiff executed promissory notes in the net amount of $26,310.71, all of which were solvent, as a guaranty that the plaintiff would receive from the securities mentioned the net sum of $200,000.

Are these securities “equivalent to cash” within the meaning of the testator’s conditional gift to the plaintiff? One thing is equivalent to another when it is equal in value, force, meaning, or the like; when it is equal so far as concerns the matter under consideration (New Standard Dictionary), or equal in worth or value, power, defect, import, and the like. "Webster's International Dictionary. Under the terms of the contract in Hassard-Short v. Hardison, 117 N. C., 61—the plaintiff was to pay the defendant “in cash or its equivalent,” and this Court held that these words, without further explanation, meant “anything besides money that defendants might agree to take.” The phrase has been construed to signify “something commercially as good as cash, or something that could readily be converted into cash at a fixed price.” Kellogg v. Muller, 68 Tex., 182, 4 S. W., 361. In Robinson v. Noble, 8 Pet. (U. S.), 181, 196, 8 Law Ed., 910, it was held that an agreement to make payment in bank paper “or its equivalent” imposed the duty of making payment in any other notes of equal value.

In the case before us the plaintiff alleged in its complaint and the defendants admitted in their answer that a reputable bank in North Carolina with a strong financial connection and ample ability to perform its contracts has offered to lend the plaintiff $200,000 upon a pledge of the securities; and the trial judge found as a fact from the evidence before him and from the admission of the parties that the value of the securities is in excess of two hundred thousand dollars. The admissions of the parties and the facts set out in the judgment, which we do not review, lead to the conclusion that the securities in question are not only equal in value to $200,000, but are presently available to the plaintiff through the proposed loan. If of equal value and presently available, they are “equivalent to cash” within the terms of the testator’s gift. The judgment is

Affirmed.