Case Name: Gertrude Greenwald, Appellant, v. William G. Bullock, Cliff H. Morris and Cliff H. Morris & Co., Inc., Respondents
Court: New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division
Jurisdiction: New York
Decision Date: 1937-10-18
Citations: 252 A.D. 765
Docket Number: 
Parties: Gertrude Greenwald, Appellant, v. William G. Bullock, Cliff H. Morris and Cliff H. Morris & Co., Inc., Respondents.
Judges: 
Reporter: Appellate Division Reports
Volume: 252
Pages: 765–765

Head Matter:
Gertrude Greenwald, Appellant, v. William G. Bullock, Cliff H. Morris and Cliff H. Morris & Co., Inc., Respondents.

Opinion:
Action to impress a trust upon a fifty-share building and loan certificate. Judgment dismissing the complaint upon the merits unanimously affirmed, with costs. In an equity action where the defect in the plaintiff's proof is due to quality rather than quantum, the court may make a decision dismissing the complaint on the merits. (Civ. Prac. Act, § 482; McNully Brothers v. Offerman, 141 App. Div. 730, 732.) Ordinarily this may occur only where a defendant has rested, but parties may so conduct themselves that their acts are equivalent to resting without giving any evidence. Here the defendants' conduct was equivalent to resting without the giving of any evidence, the court having indicated that it did not believe plaintiff's evidence in view of the documentary proof which it accredited. The trial court, under the circumstances, properly refused to believe the plaintiff's version of the transaction upon which her claim was founded. Present — Hagarty, Carswell, Davis, Adel and Taylor, JJ.