Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/26/46/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 15:01:28+00:00

Document:
"'may' is to be construed 'must' in all cases where the legislature meant to impose a positive and absolute duty and not merely to give a discretionary power."
And in all cases, the construction should be such as carries into effect the true intent and meaning of the legislature in the enactment.
The provision in the act of Congress incorporating "The Mechanics Bank of Alexandria" which requires that the capital stock of the bank shall consist of 50,000 shares, of ten dollars each is not a condition precedent, and the bank went legally into operation with an actual capital less than that number of shares.
Even if fraud had existed in the original subscription of this stock of the bank, it would he extremely difficult to maintain that such a fraud, which was private, between the original subscribers to the stock and the commissioners, could be set up to the injury of subsequent purchasers of the stock, who became bona fide holders of the same without participation in, or notice thereof.
The law requires every issue to be founded upon some certain point, that the parties may come prepared with their evidence, and, not be taken by surprise, and the jury may not be misled by the introduction of various matters.
What defects in pleading are and are not cured by verdict.
The condition of an official bond that the officer who gives it shall "well and truly" execute the duties of his office includes not only honesty, but reasonable skill and diligence. If the duties are performed negligently and unskillfully, if they are violated from want of capacity or want of care, they can never be said to have been "well and truly executed."
The officers of a bank are held out to the public as having authority to act according to the general usage, practice, and course of their business, and their acts within the scope of such usage, practice, and course of business would in general bind the bank in favor of third persons possessing no other knowledge.
No act or vote of the board of directors of a bank in violation of their own duties and in fraud of the rights and interests of the stockholders of the bank will justify the cashier of the bank in acts which are in violation of the stipulation in his official bond "well and truly" to execute the duties of his office. Acts done by a cashier under the authority of such a vote or of a usage permitted by the directors in violation of the trusts assumed by them are on the responsibility of the cashier and of his sureties.
The official bond of the cashier must be construed to, cover all defaults in duty which are annexed to the office from time to time by those who are authorized to control the affairs of the bank, and the sureties in the bond are presumed to enter into a contract with reference to the rights and authorities of the president and directors under the charter and bylaws.
but in strictness of law he cannot sue an intermediate number. He must sue all or one. But if such error is not taken advantage of by plea in abatement, it is waived by pleading to the merits.
According to modern decisions, a nolle prosequi does not amount to a retraxit, but simply to an agreement not to proceed further in that suit as to the particular person or cause of action to which it was applied.
after judgment, as applicable to this case. The decisions of the courts of the United, States, upon this proceeding, have been. on the ground that the question is matter. of practice and convenience.
When the defendants sever in their pleadings, a nolle prosequi ought to be allowed against one defendant. It is a practice which violates no rules of pleading, and will generally subserve the public convenience. In the administration of justice, matters of form not absolutely subjected to authority may well yield to the substantial purposes of justice.
An act of Congress was passed on 16 May, 1812, entitled "An act to incorporate a bank in the town of Alexandria, by the name and style of the Mechanics Bank of Alexandria," which institution soon afterwards went into operation, subscriptions for filling up the capital stock of the corporation and bank having been opened in the Town of Alexandria on the first Monday in June, 1812, under the direction of fifteen commissioners appointed for that purpose. On 3 September, 1817, Philip H. Minor was elected cashier of the bank, and on the same day, by a resolution of the Board of Directors, it was ordered "that the present officers of the bank do the whole duties of the bank."
of teller was made, and he usually performed the duties of cashier and teller.
"Whereas the above bound Philip H. Minor hath been duly elected to the office of cashier of the Mechanics Bank of Alexandria, the conditions of the above obligation are such that if the above bound Philip H. Minor shall well and truly execute the duties of cashier of the Mechanics Bank of Alexandria, then this obligation to be void, but otherwise, shall remain in full force and virtue in law."
In the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia for the County of Alexandria, the defendants in error instituted an action of debt upon this bond against all the obligors, and the declaration filed in the same was for the penalty, without taking notice of the condition.
to the public, without this that the plaintiffs, the obligees in the bond, or any other person whatsoever, at the time and times of making the said bond and of commencing the suit thereon or at any time whatsoever used, claimed, or exercised, or yet use, claim, or exercise the name and style, privileges, and capacities of the said supposed corporation or ever claimed to compose the same, otherwise or by any other ways or means or in any other manner or form whatsoever than in virtue of the said subscription, conducted and concluded as aforesaid, and so the said defendants say the said supposed writing, obligatory in manner and form aforesaid made is utterly inoperative and void in law, and this, they are ready to verify, &c.
The second plea states, that the defendants ought not to be charged, &c., because the plaintiffs demand the said debt, and bring this action, as pretending and claiming to be a corporation aggregate in and by virtue of the act of Congress mentioned in the first plea, by the name of the Mechanics Bank of Alexandria, to be composed of the subscribers to the said Mechanics Bank of Alexandria, which subscribers were not in being at the time of the passing of the said act, but were to be composed of such persons only as thereafter might subscribe thereto according to the provisions of the act, whereas the subscriptions were not taken according to the said provisions, so as to entitle the persons pretending to be subscribers to the said Bank, and their successors and assigns, to compose the said corporation, wherefore there was not any person authorized, or lawfully competent to take the bond which is the subject of this suit, nor was there any such person at the commencement of this suit capable of instituting and prosecuting the same, but that the said persons did unjustly and illegally arrogate to themselves to compose the said corporation without the capital stock having been filled by subscription or the supposed corporation having been composed of actual subscribers to the Bank pursuant to the directions of the said act of Congress or other lawful warrant whatsoever, contrary to the purview and effect of the said act of Congress, and so the defendants say that the said writing obligatory, was at the time of making the same and is utterly void in law, &c.
The third plea alleged that the cashier had well and truly performed the condition of the bond according to the tenor and effect and the true intent and meaning of it.
The fourth plea alleged that the cashier had performed the condition of the bond "to the best of his ability, skill and judgment," without any fraud, deceit, or willful default or breach of duties whatever.
in obedience to and in pursuance of the rules, orders, usages, and customs of trade and business ordained, established, and practiced in the Bank by authority of the president and directors thereof.
The sixth plea asserts that although the duties of the cashier had not been performed by him, yet the nonperformance was by the wrong, connivance, and permission of the president and directors of the institution.
The seventh plea states that the bank had not been damnified by the acts of the cashier.
The eighth plea was that although the bank was damnified by the acts of the cashier, yet it was by the wrong and connivance of the president and directors, &c.
The ninth plea states that the business and affairs of the company and the conduct and duties of the cashier were performed under the regulation and management of the president and directors, who had been chosen according to the provisions of the act of incorporation, and if at any time the corporation has sustained damage since the making of the writing obligatory by reason of any matter contained therein, it has been by the wrong, connivance. or permission of the said president and directors.
"And the said Mechanics Bank of Alexandria, by Thomas Swann, their attorney, say they ought not to be precluded, &c., because they say that the said cause of action, in the declaration mentioned, did accrue as in the said declaration and breaches are set forth; without that, that the matters set forth in the said plea, are true, and this they pray may be inquired of by the country, and the defendants likewise."
that the board of directors of the said Mechanics Bank of Alexandria, in pursuance of the authority granted to them by the act of Congress incorporating the said bank, did duly make and declare sundry bylaws for the government of the said bank, its officers and affairs, and, among other laws so made and declared as aforesaid, they did enact and declare, in substance, as follows, to-wit: "
"Section 2d, article 5th. It shall be the duty of the cashier to countersign, at the bank, all the bills or notes to be signed by the president, by order of the directors; carefully to observe the conduct of the persons employed under him; duly to examine into the settlement of the cash account at the bank; count the money deposited in the vaults every evening; compare the amount thereof with the balance of the cash account of that day, and in case of disagreement report the same to the next meeting of the directors; to see that all deeds appertaining are duly recorded, and to do and perform all other duties that may from time to time be required of him by the president or board of directors relative to the affairs of the institution."
"Article 6th. It shall be the duty of every other officer, clerk, and servant of the bank to do and perform all other duties that may from time to time be required of them respectively by the president and cashier, and in no case to divulge the transactions of the bank."
"Article 8th. That no officer of the bank, the president excepted, shall leave the bank after it closes until the cashier's account shall be found to agree, or if it does not agree, until a strict examination be made to discover the error."
"Section 3d, Article 3d. That no discount shall be made without the consent of a majority of the directors present, nor shall any reason be required by the directors to each other, nor assigned to the public, for refusing discounts."
of the condition of the said writing obligatory, but violated his duty as cashier aforesaid and broke the condition of the said writing obligatory in the following instances, that is to say,"
"1. That during the period that the said Philip H. Minor acted as cashier of the said Mechanics Bank under the writing obligatory as aforesaid, he, the said Philip, as cashier aforesaid, received into his custody, and keeping the moneys of the said bank, amounting to very large sums, that is to say amounting altogether to $500,000 and upward, which said moneys, so received as aforesaid, the said Philip, although often required, hath failed to account for or to pay over to the said bank or to make a correct report of the same from time to time to the board of directors of the said bank."
"2d. And further that he, the said Philip, during the period aforesaid, and in his capacity of cashier aforesaid, wrongfully and contrary to the duty of his office of cashier aforesaid did waste and suffer to be wasted of the moneys of the said bank in his care and custody as cashier aforesaid, the sum of $30,000 and upwards, whereby the same became entirely lost to the said bank."
"3d. And the said plaintiffs further say that the said Philip, during the period aforesaid and in his capacity of cashier aforesaid, wrongfully and contrary to the duty of his office of cashier aforesaid and without the authority of the said bank, did apply and appropriate, of the proper money of the said bank in his care and custody as cashier aforesaid, to his own proper use, the sum of $5,728, and to the use of Thomas J. Minor and himself, "
"so that the said sums were entirely lost to the said bank."
Hipkins the sum of $2,375, and to Robert Young divers other sums of money amounting altogether to the sum of $9,294.44, so that the said several sums of money were entirely lost to the said bank."
"5th. And the said plaintiffs further say that the said Philip H. Minor, during the period aforesaid and in his capacity of cashier aforesaid and without the authority of the said bank, did endorse upon a certain check, drawn by Lewis Hipkins upon the said Mechanics Bank, in favor of 'note in city or bearer' for $3,000, that the same was 'good' when in fact and in truth the said Lewis Hipkins had no money or funds in the said Mechanics Bank at the time of the said endorsement to pay the said check, nor has he at any time since had in the said bank any money or funds to pay the said check so endorsed as aforesaid, and the said bank has actually paid and taken upon itself the payment of the same."
"7th. And the said plaintiffs further say that Benjamin G. Thornton, on 18 December, 1818, drew a certain bill or draft upon a certain bank in the State of Ohio called the Bank of New Lancaster, which bill or draft was in substance as follows: "
" ALEXANDRIA, December 18, 1818. Cashier bank of New Lancaster, Ohio. Pay to the order of W. F. Thornton, ten days after sight, $4750 and charge the same as per advice to yours, &c."
"And the said plaintiffs say that the said Philip H. Minor, while he acted as cashier aforesaid, under the writing obligatory aforesaid, wrongfully and contrary to the duty of his office of cashier aforesaid, and without the authority of the said bank, did advance and pay, upon the credit of the said draft or bill, to William F. Thornton and Lewis Hipkins, the amount of the said draft -- that is to say the sum of $4,750 by means of which said advancement, so made as aforesaid, the said sum has been entirely lost to the said bank."
of 31 August, 1818, for the sum of $2,581.25, and another against the Bank of Washington of the date of 2 March, 1818, for $1,000 dollars when in fact and in truth at the periods aforesaid there was nothing due from the said last mentioned banks to the said Mechanics Bank, by means of which said false entries and charges, the said Mechanics Bank has lost the said several sums of money. All which said several matters and thing the said plaintiffs are ready to verify. Wherefore, &c."
"And the said defendants, George Minor, Daniel Minor, William Minor, and Smith Minor say that the said Mechanics Bank of Alexandria ought not to have or maintain its aforesaid action against the said defendants by reason of anything by the said Mechanics Bank of Alexandria, in its said replication to the said third plea of the defendants above in replying alleged, because they say that the said Philip H. Minor, in the said plea and replication named, did not violate his duty as cashier aforesaid and break the said condition of the said writing obligatory in the instances by the said Mechanics Bank of Alexandria, in their said replication above pleaded and alleged, nor in any of them, with or by means of any fraud, or deceit, or willful default whatsoever. And this they pray may be inquired of by the country, and the said Mechanics Bank of Alexandria in like manner."
At the same term, the demurrer to the first and second pleas and the issues on the remaining seven between the plaintiffs and the four sureties were respectively argued and tried, the first and second pleas were adjudged insufficient on general demurrer; the issues were found for the plaintiffs, and damages, in gross, upon all the issues and breaches, assessed against the four sureties, at $8,607.30, and, upon the motion of the plaintiffs, a rule was then laid on the principal obligor and co-defendant, Philip H. Minor, to plead to issue on the morrow. In compliance with which rule, he did, within the time prescribed, plead five several matters in bar, the same, mutatis mutandis as the third, fourth, fifth, seventh and ninth, of the aforesaid pleas, put in by the co-defendants, his sureties. A day was given at the next ensuing term to the plaintiffs to reply, at which term the plaintiffs took a judgment on the judgment against the four defendants, with whom the several issues had been tried as aforesaid, and then entered a nolle prosequi as against the co-defendant, Philip H. Minor, who thereupon recovered judgment for costs against the plaintiffs.
instructions which the court was requested to give to the jury. The court instructed the jury according to the expressed desire of the plaintiffs below except as hereafter stated, but refused to charge the jury as requested by the counsel of the defendants.
"1st. If the jury, from the evidence aforesaid, should be of opinion that the said Philip H. Minor, upon his leaving the Mechanics Bank of Alexandria, that is to say, on 9 March, 1819, failed to pay over or to account to the said bank for any portion of the moneys of the said bank received by him as cashier of the said bank while he acted as cashier of the said bank under the writing obligatory in the declaration mentioned, then the jury may and ought to infer that the said moneys so unaccounted for were willfully wasted by the said Philip H. Minor or applied to his own use, and that under such circumstances the defendants are liable to the bank for the moneys which he so failed to pay over, or account for to the said bank."
"2d. And the said plaintiffs requested the court further to instruct the jury that if from the evidence aforesaid it should be of opinion that the said Philip H. Minor, while he acted as cashier aforesaid under the writing obligatory aforesaid, did willfully pay or apply or did knowingly and willfully, suffer or permit to be paid away or applied to the use of Thomas I. Minor and himself jointly, or to himself individually, any portion of the funds or moneys of the said bank, without the authority of the board of directors of the said bank, so that the said sums or any part thereof were lost to the said bank, that the said defendants are liable for the said moneys or funds so paid away or applied and lost."
"3d. And the said plaintiffs prayed the court further to instruct the jury that if from the evidence aforesaid it should be of opinion that the said Philip H. Minor, while he acted as cashier aforesaid under the writing obligatory aforesaid, willfully paid away or appropriated or knowingly suffered or permitted to be paid away, or appropriated to the use of Jabez B. Rooker, Wm. F. Thornton, Benjamin G. Thornton, Lewis Hipkins, and Francis Adams, or to either of them, the moneys and funds of the said bank, without the authority of the board of directors of the said bank, so that the said moneys or funds or any part thereof were entirely lost to the said bank, then the said defendants are liable for the said moneys so paid away or appropriated and lost."
"unless such failure to pay over or account for the money so received by the said Philip H. Minor was in obedience to and in pursuance of the directions, rules, orders, usages, and customs of trade and business ordained, established, and practiced in the said bank, by the authority of the said president and directors."
Upon the fourth issue, being the issue joined under the sixth plea, the court gave the instructions prayed for, adding in each instruction after the words "directors of the said bank" the words "and without the wrong, connivance, or permission, of the said president and directors."
"if the jury should be also satisfied by the evidence that moneys which the said Philip H. Minor so failed to pay over or account for were thereby lost to the bank,"
and upon this issue also the court gave the second and third instructions.
Upon the sixth and seventh issues, the court gave the second and third instructions, adding the words to make them applicable to the fourth issue, and upon the sixth issue the court also gave the second and third instructions, adding in each instruction, after the words "directors of the said bank," the words, "and without the wrong, connivance, or permission, of the said president and directors."
the jury may infer the approbation, assent, and acquiescence of the said president and directors as to such usage and course of business."
"2. That if the said balances appearing against the several persons above charged on the books of said bank arose in the course of the ordinary transactions of said bank pursuant to the established usage and course of business there adopted and known to the president and directors and expressly or tacitly acquiesced in and approved by them, or if the said president and a majority of the directors were personally acquainted with such usage and course of business, purposely connived at the same, and declined investigation, then the jury may infer that the same were approved and permitted by the said president and directors, though no formal communications of the same were made, by the said cashier to the board of directors at their official meeting, and upon finding such to be the fact, the jury, as to such balances, should find for the defendants under the issues joined on the replications to the sixth, eighth, and ninth pleas."
Which instructions the court altogether overruled, and refused to give to the jury.
the duties of teller, which duties, as well as those of cashier, were occasionally, and frequently, during the continuance of said Minor in the office of cashier, performed by the other officers of the said bank whilst the said Minor was absent and otherwise occupied with the business and affairs of said bank; that the separate office of teller was established at the first institution of said bank by the written laws and ordinances of the president and directors as above given in evidence; that after the said president and directors ceased to appoint a distinct person as teller as aforesaid, all the distinct functions and duties of teller and the forms of keeping the accounts and transacting the business by the cashier, or some other officer of said bank in the name and capacity of teller were pursued the same as when the office of teller was filled by a distinct person, the practice being still continued of placing the money of the bank, intended to answer the current demands of each day, in the hands of the officer as teller, of keeping separate accounts of such moneys and of all deposits and of all payments upon checks or otherwise in the name and capacity of teller, such accounts being distinct and separate, and in distinct and separate books from those kept in the name and capacity of cashier, and that the said board of directors, and the proper committees of the same, in their quarterly and other examinations and reports of the state and condition of said bank and of the accounts of its officers, still kept up the distinction between the teller's and the cashier's accounts, and the teller's and cashier's money, then that the defendants are not chargeable in this action for the conduct of said Philip H. Minor in the execution of the duties distinctly appertaining to the office of teller whilst he was cashier, as aforesaid."
"Article fifth, in section second of the bylaws, above given in evidence, and having also offered in evidence to prove that, after the appointment of the said Philip H. Minor to the office of cashier on 9 March, 1818, he did in fact generally perform the duties of teller with the knowledge of the president of the said bank, from which it was competent for the jury to infer that he, the said Philip H. Minor, as cashier, as aforesaid, was required by the president of the said bank or by the board of directors of the said bank to perform the duties appertaining to the office of teller. "
This is a writ of error to the Circuit Court of the District of Columbia sitting at Alexandria. The plaintiffs in error were original defendants in the cause, and the suit is now before this Court upon the judgment of the court below upon certain pleas of the defendants to which there was a demurrer, and also upon the instructions given and refused by the court upon the trial of certain issues of fact joined by the parties.
The action is debt upon an official bond given by Philip H. Minor, cashier of the bank, and by four other persons as his sureties, with condition that Minor "shall well and truly execute the duties of cashier" of the bank, and was originally brought against all the parties to the bond. The declaration proceeds for the penalty of the bond without any notice of the condition, and avers by way of breach the nonpayment of the penalty. The sureties, after oyer of the bond and condition (which thereby became part of the declaration), severed themselves from the principal and pleaded nine several pleas. To the two first of these pleas demurrers were put in, and the court below, upon consideration, gave judgment upon the demurrers in favor of the bank, and the correctness of this decision, constitutes the first subject of inquiry.
colorably filling up the subscription of the whole capital stock and electing a board of directors, and that in this manner and by these means, and by no other, the bank was put into operation.
This plea is meant to rest upon two grounds to sustain its legal propriety. First that the subscription of the whole capital stock of $$500,000 was a condition precedent to the putting of the bank into operation as a corporation. Secondly, that the collusion between the commissioners and the subscribers for the 18,000 shares, being fraudulent, made their subscriptions a mere nullity.
"That the subscribers to the Mechanics Bank of Alexandria, their successors and assigns, shall be and hereby are created and made a body politic by the name and style of the Mechanics Bank of Alexandria, and by such name and style shall be and are hereby made able and capable in law to have, purchase, &c., lands, &c., and the same to sell &c, to sue and be sued &c., subject to the rules, regulations, restrictions, limitations, and provisions hereinafter prescribed and declared."
In this section there is no limitation as to the number of the subscribers necessary to constitute the corporation. The subscribers, whether many or few, are declared to be incorporated, and unless there be some restriction or limitation elsewhere in the act, it is most manifest that the court cannot intend that any particular amount of subscriptions is indispensable.
that is to say, one dollar on each share, at the time of subscribing, one dollar on each share at sixty days, and one dollar on each share, ninety days after the time of subscribing, the remainder to be called for as the president and directors may deem proper, provided they do not call for any payment in less than thirty days nor for more than one dollar on each share at any one time."
significant that the legislature did not deem such a restriction subservient to any manifest public policy.
The legislature might well presume, after prescribing the maximum to which the capital stock should extend, that the actual capital to be employed might safely be left to the discretion of the stockholders or its agents. The 13th section of the charter contains provisions for the security of the public against overissues by the bank, and if any such restriction had been intended, as the argument supposes, it would naturally have found a place. It declares that no stockholder shall be answerable for any losses, deficiencies, or failure of the capital stock for any larger sum than the amount of the stock belonging to him, excepting that if the total amount of the debt of the bank shall exceed twice the amount of its capital stock over and above deposits, then the directors shall in their private capacities be liable for the excess, and if the directors shall not have property to pay the amount of the excess, then every stockholder shall be liable for their deficiencies in proportion to their shares in the bank. Whether, therefore, the capital stock be great or small, if there be debts due from the bank exceeding twice the amount of the capital stock, which may fairly be construed to mean the capital stock actually paid in, the stockholders become ultimately liable for the excess, and this liability furnishes if not an ample, at least a reasonable security against the public evils which the argument supposes might result from not requiring the whole capital to be subscribed for. At all events, we cannot perceive any clear legislative intention to make the subscription of the whole capital stock a condition precedent to the corporate existence of the bank, and unless it is so made by the charter, the matter of the plea falls and cannot sustain the defense.
deemed and held to be for the sole and exclusive use and benefit of the persons subscribing or in whose behalf the subscriptions respectively shall be declared to be made at the time of making the same, and all bargains, contracts, promises, agreements, and engagements in any wise contravening this provision shall be void, and the person, &c., subscribing, &c., shall have, enjoy, and receive the share or shares respectively, &c., and all the interest and emoluments thence arising, as freely, fully, and absolutely as if they had severally and respectively paid the consideration therefor; any such bargain, &c., to the contrary notwithstanding."
This section seems to us conclusive upon the point. It avoids all bargains contravening the provisions in respect to subscriptions, and gives to the subscriptions the same effect as if they were bona fide made for the real use and benefit of the subscribers, and independently of this provision it would be extremely difficult to maintain upon general principles of law that a private fraud between the original subscribers and commissioners could be permitted to be set up to the injury of subsequent purchasers of the stock who became bona fide holders without any participation or notice of the fraud.
For these reasons, we are of opinion that the matter of the first plea, even if it had been well pleaded, would constitute no bar to the action.
The second plea is disposed of by the construction of the charter already intimated, and is further open to fatal objections from its deficiency of proper averments and want of legal certainty. It makes no averment of the amount of the capital stock or of the necessity of the whole being subscribed for before the bank is to be put in operation.
It asserts no fraudulent combination or subscription, but in the most general terms, without any certainty as to facts or circumstances, alleges that the capital stock was not filled up by any subscription opened and conducted in pursuance of the act so as to entitle the subscribers to bring the action, and that the subscribers did unjustly and unlawfully arrogate of themselves the corporate name, style, and privileges without the capital stock's having been filled up by subscription or the corporation having been constituted and composed of actual subscribers pursuant to the directions of the act. In point of substance as well as form it is bad upon the established rules of pleading.
This view of the case renders it wholly unnecessary to consider the point made as to the estoppel, and the necessity of a quo warranto, on which, therefore, we give no opinion.
condition of the bond. The fourth is argumentative, and assumes a particular legal interpretation of the condition -- that is to say that the condition covers only willful defaults and breaches of duty, and is no security for competent skill and reasonable diligence in the discharge of duty, but only for honesty. To these pleas special replications were filed, assigning special breaches of duty upon which the parties were at issue, and upon this and all the other issues in the cause the jury returned a verdict for the plaintiffs. No exception has been taken to the sufficiency of these replications.
"directions, rules, orders, usages and customs of trade and business, ordained, established and practiced in the said bank by the authority of the said president and directors."
"that the said cause of action, in the declaration mentioned, did accrue, as in the said declaration and breaches are set forth, without this that the matters set forth in the said plea are true,"
a declaration upon a covenant for general performance of duty, if no breach be assigned or a breach which is bad as not being in point of law within the scope of the covenant, the defect is fatal even after verdict. Com.Dig. Plead. 14. But that is not the present case. Here, the declaration does assign a good breach by the nonpayment of the penal sum stated in the bond. The defendants disclose the condition of the bond upon oyer and set up a general performance of it, and the replication, though inartificially drawn, puts in issue the whole matter of the defense and denies the performance of it. The verdict has found that the condition was not performed, and consequently, upon the whole record, the nonpayment of the penal sum is admitted and the excuse for it is negatived. The replication, then, does assert a breach, though in too general a form. It ought to have assigned a special breach, but the general breach includes it, and the verdict having found the general breach, there is, upon principles, no reason shown against the plaintiff's right of recovery.
It is exactly like the case of a declaration upon a general covenant of the like nature, where a particular breach ought to be assigned, and yet if a general breach be assigned, the defect is cured by a verdict for the plaintiff. Com.Dig. Plead. 48. The objection, then, to the replication to the fifth plea cannot now be sustained.
It is not necessary to notice the remaining pleas upon which issues were joined, because a verdict has been found in all of them in favor of the plaintiffs, however liable to objection some of them may be, and particularly the seventh plea of non damnificatus, as an answer to the declaration. They set up special defenses, and the plaintiffs were not bound to do more than traverse them.
The instructions of the court given and refused at the trial constitutes the next subject of inquiry. It is conceded that if the instructions given on the prayer of the plaintiffs were correct as to the issues on the third and fourth pleas, the qualifications annexed to them by the court in their applications to the other issues were perfectly proper.
or account for the same. It was not put to the jury as a presumption capable of being rebutted by evidence showing a loss by negligence or accident. If such a loss actually occurred, it was incumbent on the cashier to prove it, and his total omission to offer any such proof, which, from the nature of the case, must be more within his own power than that of the bank, ought to lead the jury to the presumption of the nonexistence of any such negligence or accidental loss.
It has been argued that this instruction is the more material and injurious to the defendants because it proceeds in the latter part upon a misconstruction of the true import of the condition of the bond. The condition that Minor shall "well and truly execute the duties of cashier" of the bank is said to be merely a stipulation for honesty in the discharge of the duties, and not for skill, capacity, or diligence. We are of a different opinion. "Well and truly to execute the duties of the office" includes not only honesty but reasonable skill and diligence. If the duties are performed negligently and unskillfully -- if they are violated from want of capacity or want of care, they can never be said to be "well and truly executed." The operations of a bank require diligence, with fitness and capacity as well as honesty in its cashier, and the security for the faithful discharge of his duties would be utterly illusory if we were to narrow down its import to a guarantee against personal fraud only.
The remarks already made dispose of the second and third instructions prayed for by the plaintiffs. These instructions, in substance, declare that the sureties are liable upon the bond, for any willful or permissive misapplication of the moneys of the bank which the cashier knowingly made or suffered without authority whereby the same moneys have been lost to the bank. There seems no ground upon which to rest any reasonable objection to such a direction to the jury.
of Minor's cashiership, though the existence of such balances or the particular circumstances attending them were not formally communicated to the board of directors, the jury may infer the approbation, assent, and acquiescence of the president and directors as to such usage and course of business.
The refusal of this instruction, is matter of no small embarrassment and difficulty to this Court from the terms in which it is couched and the issues on the sixth, eighth, and ninth pleas, to which alone it can be properly applied. Those issues put to the jury the question whether the acts of the cashier, whatever might be their character or kind, were or were not done by the wrong, connivance and permission of the president and directors of the bank. The point of the instruction is that the established usage and practice of the bank for a long period, known to the president and directors, does afford a presumption of the approbation, assent, and acquiescence of the president and directors as to such usage and practice, though the balances resulting therefrom were not formally communicated to the directors. From the shape of the prayer, it is undoubtedly meant that such usage and practice was known to the president and directors as a board and in their official character, and received their approbation as such. In a general view, with reference to the principles of the law of evidence, we are not prepared to admit that such a presumption could not ordinarily arise. The ordinary usage and practice of a bank, in the absence of counter proof, must be supposed to result from the regulations prescribed by the board of directors, to whom the charter and bylaws submit the general management of the bank and the control and direction of its officers. It would be not only inconvenient but perilous for the customers, or any other persons dealing with the bank, to transact their business with the officers upon any other presumption. The officers of the bank are held out to the public as having authority to act according to the general usage, practice, and course of their business, and their acts within the scope of such usage, practice, and course of business would in general bind the bank in favor of third persons possessing no other knowledge. In the case of Bank of the United States v. Dandridge, 12 Wheat. 64, the subject was under the consideration of this Court; and circumstances far less cogent than the present to found a presumption of the official acts of the board were yet deemed sufficient to justify their being laid before the jury to raise such a presumption. If, therefore, the usage and practice alluded to in the instruction were within the legitimate authority of the board, and such as its written vote might justify, there would be no question in this Court that it ought to have been given.
The pertinency of such a presumption to these issues cannot admit of dispute. But the real difficulty remains to be stated. Assuming that the court, upon these issues, ought to have given the instruction prayed for, the question is whether upon the whole record, that is such an error as now justifies this Court in a reversal of the judgment. If the instruction had been given and thereupon a verdict upon these issues had been found for the defendants, could any judgment have been given upon these issues in favor of the defendants, or ought the judgment non obstante veredicto to have been for the plaintiffs? If it ought, then the error becomes wholly immaterial, since in no event could the instruction in point of law have benefited the defendants. Upon deliberate consideration, we are of opinion that the pleas on which these issues are founded are substantially bad. They set up a defense for the cashier that his omission "well and truly to perform" the duties of cashier was, by the wrong, connivance, and permission of the board of directors. The question then comes to this -- whether any act or vote of the board of directors, in violation of their own duties and in fraud of the rights and interest of the stockholders of the bank, could amount to a justification of the cashier, who was a particeps criminis.
We are of opinion that it could not. However broad and general the powers of the direction may be for the government and management of the concerns of the bank by the general language of the charter and bylaws, those powers are not unlimited, but must receive a rational exposition. It cannot be pretended that the board could by a vote authorize the cashier to plunder the funds of the bank or to cheat the stockholders of their interest therein. No vote could authorize the directors to divide among themselves the capital stock or justify the officers of the bank in an avowed embezzlement of its funds. The cases put are strong, but they demonstrate the principle only in a more forcible manner. Every act of fraud -- every known departure from duty by the board in connivance with the cashier for the plain purpose of sacrificing the interest of the stockholders, though less reprehensible in morals, or less pernicious in its effects than the cases supposed, would still be an excess of power, from its illegality -- and as such void as an authority to protect the cashier in his wrongful compliance. Now the very form of these pleas sets up the wrong and connivance of the board as a justification, and such wrong and connivance cannot for a moment be admitted as an excuse for the misapplication of the funds of the bank by the cashier.
the cashier under the sanction of the board would justify a known misapplication of the funds of the bank. What is that usage and practice as put in the case? It is a usage to allow customers to overdraw -- and to have their checks and notes charged up without present funds in the bank, stripped of all technical disguise -- the usage and practice thus attempted to be sanctioned is a usage and practice to misapply the funds of the bank and to connive at the withdrawal of the same without any security in favor of certain privileged persons. Such a usage and practice is surely a manifest departure from the duty both of the directors and the cashier as cannot receive any countenance in a court of justice. It could not be supported by any vote of the directors, however formal, and therefore whenever done by the cashier is at his own peril, and upon the responsibility of himself and his sureties. It is anything but "well and truly executing his duties, as cashier." This view of the matter disposes of this embarrassing point, and also of the second instruction prayed for by the defendants which substantially turns upon the like considerations.
not vary the legal result. It was a matter of mere convenience and regularity for the government of the bank in its own business, and probably had no higher or other origin than to preserve the same forms and series of accounts which the bank had adopted at its first institution. The office of teller had a nominal but not a real existence, and from the time of the union of the duties in the cashier as such, there was a legal extinguishment of the separate official character. If the cashier had originally had the duties of bookkeeper and accountant assigned to him, and in consequence thereof had kept distinct account books in the bank, no one would have imagined, because he kept separate account books as cashier for his own convenience or according to the ordinary usage of banks, that he would not, under his bond, have been responsible for malconduct in keeping the general account books of the bank to its loss or injury. The bond of the cashier must be construed to cover all defaults in duty which are annexed to the office from time to time by those who are authorized to control the affairs of the bank, and sureties are presumed to enter into the contract with reference to the rights and authorities of the president and directors under the charter and bylaws.
The remaining inquiry is as to the effect of the nolle prosequi which the plaintiffs entered against Minor after he had pleaded and after judgment was given against the sureties in favor of the plaintiffs upon all the pleadings interposed by the sureties. The pleas of Minor were, mutatis mutandis, the same as the third, fourth, fifth, seventh, and ninth pleas, put in by the sureties, and the question arises whether under such circumstances (no objection to the judgment appearing to have been made by the sureties) this proceeding is an error for which that judgment ought to be reversed. It is material to state that the bond on which the suit is brought is a joint and several bond. Under such circumstances, the plaintiff might have commenced suit against each of the obligors severally or a joint suit against them all. But in strictness of law, he has no right to commence a suit against any intermediate number. He must sue all or one. The objection, however, is not fatal to the merits, but is pleadable in abatement only, and if not so pleaded, it is waived by pleading to the merits. The reason is that the obligation is still the deed of all the obligors who are sued, though not solely their deed, and therefore there is no variance in point of law between the deed declared on and that proved. It is still the joint deed of the parties sued, although others have joined in it. This doctrine is laid down and very clearly illustrated in Mr. Serjeant Williams' note to the case of Cabell v. Vaughan, 1 Saund.
291, Note 2, where all the leading authorities are collected. If, therefore, the present suit had been brought against the four sureties only, and they had omitted to take the exception by a plea in abatement, the judgment in this case would have been unimpeachable. Is the legal predicament of the plaintiffs changed by having sued all the parties and subsequently entered a nolle prosequi against one of the obligors? If not in general, then is there any legal difference where the party in whose favor the nolle prosequi is entered is not a surety, but a principal in the bond?, not indeed so named in the bond, but the suretyship resulting as a necessary inference from the nature and terms of the condition.
These questions must be decided by authority, if any such exist; if none can be found, then they must be decided by analogy and principle. It may be proper in this view again to notice the fact that this suit is on a joint and several bond; that the defendants severed in their pleas from the principal; that the trial of the issues (which undoubtedly ought to have been, by the regular course of practice, deferred until the cause was at issue, as to all the parties, or the steps of the law taken to bring them into default) does not appear upon the record to have been opposed, and that no motion was made in arrest of judgment or for a postponement until a trial of the issues upon the pleas of the principal might have been had. What would have been the proper proceedings under such circumstances, whether to try all the issues by the same jury and have damages assessed at the same time against all the defendants, or whether there might have been several trials and several assessments of damages, and whether if such several assessments had been made and differed in amount, any and what judgment ought to have been entered, are points upon which the Court does not think it necessary to give any opinion.
"If an action is brought upon any contract against several defendants who join in their pleas, any contract is found against them, it is apprehended the plaintiff cannot enter a nolle prosequi against any of them, because the contract being joint, the plaintiff is compellable to bring his action against all the parties thereto, and he shall not, by entering a nolle prosequi, prevent the defendants against whom the recovery has been had from calling upon the other defendants for a ratable contribution."
other defendant, who is not a bankrupt, liable for the whole debt, and therefore in that particular instance the case is exactly the same as where an action is joint and several. So the plea of ne unques executor does not deny the cause of action, but only that he is one of the representatives of the testator. When the defendants sever in their pleas, with this limitation as to the extent of the pleas in action upon contracts, it is immaterial what is the form of the action, for the plaintiff may enter a nolle prosequi against any of them before verdict and proceed against the rest."
"It is agreed on all hands that in trespass against several, the plaintiff may enter a nolle prosequi, as to one, and that will not discharge the other; and therefore I cannot see why it may not be done in this case, and I do not see how so proper an advantage can be taken upon the statute of Ann as to the bankrupt as is now taken by the entry of this nolle prosequi."
"The plea of the bankrupt is not a plea to the action, but only a personal discharge, but that if one defendant was to plead a plea that was to go to the action of the writ, he thought it might then have a different consideration, but that this is not the case here. This case is exactly the same as when an action is joint and several, for the statute 10th Ann, ch. 15, has made the partner not a bankrupt, liable for the whole debt. This case is the very same, as to this matter of entering a nolle prosequi, as if it had been trespass against several defendants."
in the analogy, to trespass, where the cause of action was several as well as joint. What was stated by Dennison, Justice, was not the exclusive ground of his particular opinion, but only a suggestion that the case might be (not would be) different upon a plea to the merits. Now the general reasoning comes very close to the case at bar, for here the bond is several as well as joint, and an action might have been maintained severally against the defendants, and what is not immaterial to be considered, all the parties were retained who had joined in their pleas and between whom there existed a right of mutual contribution. Even in the case of bankruptcy, the practice is in England to require all the joint contractors to be sued, as is proved by the case of Bevil v. Wood, 2 Maul & Selw. 23, which makes it really less strong than a joint and several contract.
any further, as to some of the defendants, or to part of the suit, but still he is at liberty to go on as to the rest."
These are the only cases in England which the researches of counsel have brought to our notice bearing directly on the point before the Court, and upon looking into the elementary treatises and books of practice, we have not been able to find any more general doctrine. Indeed, the latter confine themselves exclusively to the enunciation of the principles above stated, with the qualifications annexed to them in these authorities, as see 1 Chitty's Plead. 32, 33, 546. Com.Dig. Pleader, X 2. 3. 5; 2 Tidd's Practice 630; 2 Arch. Practice 219-220; 2 Lilly's Practical Register 280. In America, the cases have gone a step further. In Hartness v. Thompson, 5 John. 160, where an action was brought against three upon a joint and several promissory note and there was a joint plea of nonassumpsit, and the infancy of the defendants, that was set up at the trial, it was held no ground for a nonsuit, but the plaintiff upon a verdict found in his favor against the other two defendants, might enter a nolle prosequi as to the infant and take judgment upon the verdict against the others. In Woodward v. Marshall, 1 Pickering 500, in the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, upon a joint contract and suit against two persons, one of whom pleaded infancy, it was held that a nolle prosequi might be entered as to the infant and the suit prosecuted against the other defendant. These decisions were admitted to be against the cases of Chandler v. Parker, 3 Esp. 76, and Jaffray v. Frebain, 5 Esp. 47, but the court thought the practice adopted by themselves was most convenient, and therefore gave it a judicial sanction. These cases were distinguishable from that in 1 Wilson 89 in the fact that the plea went not only in personal discharge, but proceeded upon a matter which established an original defect in the joint contract, whereas the plea of bankruptcy was for matter arising afterwards. The distinction was not thought to be sound. Indeed the court seem to have considered the question rather as a matter of practice, to be decided upon convenience and policy than as matter of principle.
prosecuted against the other. It is sufficient that in the event the judgment is consistent with the general principles of the action. If a nolle prosequi may be entered after verdict and before judgment without discharging the other party, there is no good reason why it may not be done after judgment, when there has been no proceeding which binds the plaintiff to consummate a judgment against the party whom he wishes to dismiss. In each case, the judgment upon the whole record is consistent with the writ.
The result of this examination into authorities is that there is no decision exactly in point to the present case; that there is no distinction between entry of a nolle prosequi before and the entry after judgment applicable to the present facts. That the authorities, and particularly the American, proceed upon the ground that the question is matter of practice, to be decided upon considerations of policy and convenience, rather than matter of absolute principle; and that therefore this Court is left at full liberty to entertain such a decision as its own notions of general convenience, and legal analogies would lead it to adopt. We are of opinion that where the defendants sever in their pleadings, a nolle prosequi ought to be allowed. It is a practice which violates no rules of pleading, and will generally subserve the public convenience. In the administration of justice, matter of form, not absolutely subjected to authority, may well yield to the substantial purposes of justice.
The facts appearing upon the records, from the count, pleas, and replications, are these. This action was on a bond given for the faithful discharge of the office of the cashier by Philip H. Minor. It was joint and several. The defendants craved over jointly and pleaded performance, to which plaintiff replied.
They afterwards had leave to withdraw the joint pleas, and the four securities jointly filed various pleas, to which plaintiff replied, and issue being taken, proceeded to trial and obtained this verdict.
After the verdict, the principal to the bond was ruled to plead, and he then files a variety of pleas similar in effect to those pleaded by the securities. The court then gave judgment upon the verdict, and the plaintiff's attorney enters this nolle prosequi, and judgment is given for the principal on the bond. That the plaintiffs take nothing by their bill, but for their false clamor, be in mercy, and that the defendant go thereof without day and receive his costs.
judgment below -- that there is error and the judgment should be reversed. What further order this Court would be bound to render upon a reversal it is not material to inquire. I readily assent to the doctrine that in adjudicating upon questions of practice, a court should have regard to public convenience, but it would be extending this principle to the violation of its own spirit and intent if carried to the extent of overturning known established rules both of law and practice.
To this extent it appears to me the present decision goes, and that this judgment cannot be affirmed without shaking as well established principles as adjudged cases and opening a door to inconveniences which must soon compel this Court to retrace its steps.
The judgment, as it stands below, is against four out of five joint and several co-obligors, and the obligor omitted, or rather who has judgment in his favor is the cashier, for whose good conduct in office the other three became bound. Now this judgment is either a bar to a future suit against the principal or it is not. If a bar, then the record exhibits the inconsistent case of four being made liable for one who was not liable himself. And if it is not a bar, then by possibility it may be established by the verdict of a future jury that the co-obligor, for whose misfeasance alone these defendants have had judgment against them had in fact committed no misfeasance. A rule of practice that may lead to such consequences cannot rest upon public convenience.
Nor is it more easy to reconcile it to principle. No authority need be cited to establish that wherever judgment ought to have been arrested below, this Court is bound to reverse for error. Now this judgment is against one of the canons of the law of contracts. It was at the option of the plaintiff whether to treat the bond as a joint or several contract. He has elected to treat it as joint, and must therefore abide by the law of joint contracts as to both right and remedy, and upon these when under seal it is an invariable rule that all must be sued if all have sealed the instrument and are in life.
and replication, all the co-obligors named in the instrument sealed it and were in life at the commencement and close of the suit.
This distinction, if it be necessary to cite authority for it, clearly appears from comparing the case of Rice v. Shultz, 5 Bur. 2611, with the case of Hermer v. Moore noticed in the report of that case. In the one, it was necessary to plead in abatement, because the facts did not appear on record which were necessary to maintain the defense. In the other, the judgment was arrested because the facts of the plaintiff's own showing made out that he ought not be have judgment, which were, all had sealed the instrument -- and all were alive. It cannot be questioned that in a joint contract by five, where all remain equally bound -- all in life, and all within reach of the process; more especially where they have been all actually arrested, the plaintiff must recover against all or none. This is that case, and yet the plaintiff is allowed here to take judgment against four, and discharge the fifth, the principal, by nolle prosequi, after judgment.
It cannot be doubted that had this nolle prosequi been entered before trial, the defendants must have been permitted to plead it puis darien continuance, and that the plea must have been sustained. And what reason is there for placing them in a worse situation by suffering the nolle prosequi to be entered after judgment? It is said they severed in pleading and suffered the cause to go to trial without objection. But was it in the power of these defendants to compel their co-obligors to join them in pleading?, or if the plaintiff choose to proceed erroneously to trial, were the defendants under any obligation to arrest him and set him right? It was his own folly if he ruled them to trial or consented to go to trial or committed any other error in proceeding to judgment. I have stated it to be not indispensable, in my view of the subject, that the nolle prosequi should be a bar in this case to a new suit against the principal. The derangement of the rights and liabilities of the parties produced by it appears a sufficient objection both to the principle and practice. For certainly it goes to enable a plaintiff to recover by this device against parties who otherwise could have defeated his action by suitably pleading. By a novel practice, as it relates to joint contracts, he is here permitted to evade an important legal principle. But if this nolle prosequi can be shown to be a bar to his action against the principal co-obligor, it would seem to be incontestable that this judgment ought to be reversed. And I am yet to learn that in a joint action in contract against several, a nolle prosequi as to the whole action against one is not a bar as to him.
The cases are very few in the books in which the effects of a nolle prosequi in such a case have been tried by the only sufficient test -- a plea in bar to a suit upon the same contract. But as far as they have gone, they maintain the bar.
If a bar in cases in which the suit is against a single defendant, there can be no reason assigned why it should not be a bar as against one of the several defendants. And to this point, Beecher's Case, reported in 8 Coke 58, Croke James 211, is direct and positive.
That was a suit upon a bond, and the judgment there is nearly in the words of the judgment in this case. On a second action upon the same contract, this was held to be a bar, and it became necessary to remove the judgments by a writ of error for some technical informalities before this obligee could recover in the original contract.
"that a nolle prosequi is now held to be no bar to a future action for the same cause except in those cases where, from the nature of the action, judgment and execution against one is a satisfaction of all the damages sustained by the plaintiff."
And by reference to the next page of his note, it appears that the exception here introduced is intended to embrace actions for torts, and therefore his rule is intended to apply to actions on contracts.
But the authorities he cites are far from bearing him out in his doctrine. The case of Cooper v. Tiffin, 3 T.R. 511, upon which he relies, decides nothing but a question of costs, and the position that a nolle prosequi is no more than a discontinuance, and the party may sue again, is only an obiter dictum in case where the point was not presented.
So also of his other case in 1 Will. 89. The facts did not raise the question on the effect of the nolle prosequi as to the defendant who was discharged by it, and the judges, in considering whether the plaintiff could have judgment against some of the joint contractors where the other was discharged by bankruptcy, expressly decide upon the ground that he being discharged by law, leaving the other bound for the debt, produced an analogy between that case and the case of a suit in trespass, where one only might be sued separately. But it is said, and so Serjeant Williams asserts, "that the true nature and extent of a nolle prosequi in civil cases was not accurately defined and ascertained, until modern times."
are supposed to exist in the decisions on this subject. Thus Serjeant Williams has mixed up the cases on torts, with those on contracts, in such a manner as could only produce confusion. To sustain the doctrine that a nolle prosequi, in an action of debt, is a bar to another suit on the same bond, he quotes Green v. Charnock, (Croke Eliz., 762,) which was trespass quare clausam fregit. And for other cases which he says establishes the principle "that a nolle prosequi is not of the nature of a retraxit, or a release; but an agreement only, not to proceed as to some of the defendants, on a part of the suit." Without restricting the doctrine to any class of cases, he cites a string of authorities, in everyone of which the decisions were in actions of trespass, or tort.
Yet it cannot be contended that the use of the nolle prosequi in cases of tort, in which the defendants may be joined and disjoined at the pleasure of the plaintiff, can afford precedent or authority for the use of it in cases of joint contract in which the law, regarding the nature of the contract and the rights of the parties imposes on the plaintiff the obligation to sue them jointly.
To me it appears that there is abundant authority to prove that the nolle prosequi, though entered by attorney, with the judgment that defendant "eat sine die," has the effect of a retraxit. Lord Coke certainly places them on the same foot, both in his Institutes, 1 Inst. 139, and his comment upon Beecher's Case, 8 Rep., and in both instances he describes the nolle prosequi as one of two kinds of retraxit, appropriate to different cases but both producing a bar. And yet in one only is the term retraxit introduced into the entry of judgment. See also 2 Rolls Abridg., nolle prosequi.
"Thereupon they brought error, and the error assigned was because this nolle prosequi is against one, when judgment is taken against both, being that a retraxit against one is as strong as a release against the one, the which being to one defendant, is a good discharge to both."
"This is that the plaintiff will proceed no further in his action, and may be as well before as after verdict, and is stronger against the plaintiff than a nonsuit, for a nonsuit is a default for nonappearance, but this is a voluntary acknowledgment that he hath no cause of action."
So Serjeant Salkeld, who comes down to the time of Queen Ann, refers to Beecher's Case for the law of retraxit, and gives the definition of retraxit in the words of the entry of a nolle prosequi, Title Retraxit, 3 Salk. So in 4 Wood, 87, in the year 1691, it is distinctly asserted that an entry of a "venit hic in curia, et fatitur hic in curia," with a judgment that defendant "eat unde sine die" is equivalent to a retraxit. At what period a different idea begun to prevail I have not been able to discover certainly I can find no adjudged case to support it.
In the case of Walsh v. Bishop in Cro.Char. 239, 243, referred to by Serjeant Williams as introducing a different doctrine, is directly against him. That was an action of trespass and battery against two; they severed in pleading, and after verdict against both, a nolle prosequi was entered against one, and the other moved it in arrest of judgment. In that case it is admitted in terms by the court that as to the one, the nolle prosequi was an absolute bar. And by reference to the same case in page 239 it will be seen that the argument rested upon the right of a plaintiff to proceed against one of several defendants in trespass.
bill, but for their false clamors be in mercy,'" which can at least detract nothing from the effects of the judgment. Yet it is there laid down as the law of his day that such a judgment, when it goes to the whole cause of action, operates in effect as a retraxit. The judgment in this case goes to the whole cause of action, and as between the plaintiff and the cashier, is of the same effect as if there had been no other defendant to the action. In a subsequent part of the article, the same author (Sellon) recognizes the distinction between cases of trespass or tort and cases of contract, and lays down the rights of the parties in each in accordance with the views I entertain on the subject, to-wit, that if the nolle prosequi be entered so as to produce any derangement in the rights of the defendant to deprive them of a legal defense or subject them to increased difficulties or liabilities, it is error.
The case in Maul & Selwyn which was supposed to have overruled the previous decisions is in perfect accordance with them, for although the defendant had pleaded nonassumpsit, he had also pleaded his discharge as a bankrupt. On the contrary, if the language of the court in that case be considered as affording the true rationale of the entry of the nolle prosequi, it would be fatal to the plaintiffs in this cause. The court said it amounts to an acknowledgment that the one defendant had a defense. But what defense did this co-obligor set up that the other defendants ought to have the benefit of? His pleas were, in terms, those which had been pleaded by these co-obligors. If this confession of plaintiffs went to those pleas, then were these defendants discharged, since they could not be liable if he was not guilty.
It is a question of no importance -- one of no influence upon the law of the case -- whether a nolle prosequi may be entered before or after judgment, or when it may be entered, otherwise than as it affects the legal relations of the parties and the rules which govern suits at law.
And here I think I may very confidently maintain that in no case can a nolle prosequi be legally entered as to one of the defendants unless the suit might originally have been maintained against those who remain, or unless the remaining defendants might have availed themselves of pleading the nonjoinder of their co-obligor if their rights were affected by his exclusion from the action.
case. They may also, without prejudice to their co-defendants, be discharged by nolle prosequi, but even as to them it seems the precedents imposed a restriction, for it is not permitted if they have blended their fate with that of their co-defendants by joining in their pleas. They have then waived their privilege. If their pleas impart no waiver of their privilege, the right of the plaintiff to his nolle prosequi, as to them, is conceded, because the relations of the parties are not altered, nor their rights in any way prejudiced. But I conceive the nolle prosequi cannot be entered at any point of time when it would place the defendants in a worse situation or deprive them of any advantage of making their defense.
Surely the precedents for entering the nolle prosequi after judgment in actions of trespass against some defendants and going on to levy satisfaction from the rest can afford no precedent here, since it is in the one case what the law enjoins; in the other what it forbids.
Nor are the precedents of cases in which the one defendant never was bound or is discharged by operation of law without discharging the other any better authority. In all these cases, the relative rights and liabilities of the parties remain the same. No legal absurdities can ensue, and no more is given against them by the judgment than what could have been legally claimed of them by the action.
notwithstanding a verdict had passed for the plaintiff against the remaining four, he could not have had judgment, 1 Saund. 217. And the distinction between the actions of debt and trespass on this point has been, until now, considered as known and established, 1 Plow. 66, ; 8 Rep. 120, 133; 2 Lilly Ab. 210, 107. Upon the whole, I am very clear that this judgment ought to be reversed and judgment below entered for defendants.

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