Opinion ID: 1506485
Heading Depth: 1
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Claim against Wisconsin Holding Company

Text: This item was a write-up for the year 1934 of a surplus of $8,238.78 entered in the first financial statement. This surplus was a claim due from the Wisconsin Holding Company to the Bankers Company upon its guaranty of the Bankers Company against loss on the sale of a parcel of real estate, which the Bankers Company had taken over at $29,238.78. The guaranty was that if the land should sell for less than $21,000, the Wisconsin Company would make up the difference, $8,238.78; the land was in fact sold for $18,000 and the guaranty therefore should have become due. In a letter dated June 1st in reply to a letter of White of April 12th, a girl named Stapleton who acted as an officer of the Wisconsin Company answered that there was no such contract between the companies. However, another letter of the same date was also put in evidence which mentioned the guaranty and the security which the Bankers Company held against it; but it was possible for the jury to find that the date of this letter had been changed. Finally, a letter of June 28th was also put in which corrected the statement of the security as it had appeared in the letter of June 1st. Considering the extremely shadowy nature of the Wisconsin Company's assets (as will appear later), the absence of any earlier evidence of the bargain, the necessity of showing a surplus in the financial statement, the incorrect description of the security in one letter of June 1st and the entire absence of any mention of the agreement in the other letter of that date, the entry rested upon a strangely insecure basis, and even if he had reason for believing that there was such an agreement, it is hard to suppose that White thought the account really collectible.