Court Opinion

ID: 7947886
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2022-09-08 23:22:48.459815+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T16:33:50.723264
License: Public Domain

McAlvay, C. J.
In an action in trover brought by plaintiff against defendant for the unlawful conversion of certain money belonging to her, she recovered a judgment upon an instructed verdict. Defendant has removed the case to this court for review and asks a reversal, assigning errors upon the rulings of the court during the trial and in instructing a verdict against him.
The following are the facts in the case: Defendant was at the time of the transaction in dispute, and had been for a period of years prior thereto, assistant cashier of the Benton Harbor State Bank. On September 16, 1909, he sold and assigned to plaintiff for a valuable consideration the following promissory note, together with a certain certificate of stock held by him as collateral security therefor:
“$2,400. Benton Harbor, Mich., Sept. 1, 1908.
“On the first day of each month after date for value received, I promise to pay to the order of B. F. Wells, forty dollars ($40.00) until the whole principal sum of two thousand four hundred dollars with interest on the same at the rate of six per cent, per annum payable annually shall have been paid on all principal sums at any time unpaid, and if the interest is not paid when due it shall become as principal and draw interest- at the rate of six per cent, per annum, payable annually. It is also agreed that A. S. Miles shall *21deposit with and assign to B. F. Wells all his stock in the Miles Shoe Company as collateral security for the repayment of the said two thousand four hundred dollars and the interest thereon.
[Signed] “A. S. Miles.”
At the same time he indorsed on the back of said note and signed the following written guaranty:
“Benton Harbor, Mich., Sept. 16, 1909.
“For a valuable consideration, I do hereby sell, assign and transfer to Mary R. Hogue, all my right, title and interest in and to the within instrument, and further for a valuable consideration, I do hereby guarantee the payment of the sums of money in the within instrument at the times and in the manner therein specified, I also assign to said Mary R. Hogue the certificate of stock referred to in said note and the same is hereby attached.
[Signed] “B. F. Wells.”
At the time of such transfer there was a balance of $2,200 remaining unpaid on said note. Plaintiff at this time had a credit account in and did business with said bank. She left this note in the possession of defendant with instructions to collect for her and, as from time to time the installments of principal and interest became due, to receive and place the same to her credit in the bank. Defendant received the note from her for that purpose and made collections for her from the maker of said note each and every month thereafter during the years 1909 and 1910 and certain payments amounting to five monthly payments in 1911, and indorsed all of said payments received by him upon said note and placed the amounts so collected for her to her credit in the bank. On June 17, 1911, the maker of plaintiff’s note, who was secretary and treasurer of the Miles Shoe Company, of which defendant had been president for several years, drew the check of said company on the Benton Harbor State Bank, of which defendant was assistant cashier, for the sum of $8,724, payable to the order of defendant; *22such sum being made up of the amount of a certain $2,000 indebtedness of A. S. Miles to defendant and $1,724.46, the amount of the balance of plaintiffs note. Miles delivered this check to defendant, who‘indorsed it, presented it to the bank, which honored it and stamped it paid, and returned it in due course of business to the maker. The following is a copy of this check, and the indorsement and bank stamp upon it:
“No. 3528.
“Benton Harbor, Mich., June 17,1911.
“Benton Harbor State Bank pay to the order of B. F. Wells three thousand seven hundred and twenty-four and 46-100ths ($3,724.46). A. S. Miles notes.
“The Miles Shoe Co.,
“per A. S. Miles.”
Indorsed on the back: “B. F. Wells.” Stamped on the face of it: “Paid June 17, 1911, Benton Harbor State Bank, Benton Harbor, Michigan.”
Defendant admits that this check represented the amount' of the two items named. This check represented Miles’ personal indebtedness to defendant, and was charged to his personal account at the time in the books of the Miles Shoe Company.
Of this check of $3,724.46, which was received and indorsed by Wells, and paid to him by the bank, he retained the whole amount and did not account for and deliver to her by depositing to the credit of plaintiff the amount of her specific interest therein. At the time of this transaction, when defendant received this check from Miles in payment of the indebtedness to him and the balance of plaintiff’s note, she was in the West visiting. Upon her return, and before the fact that the entire balance on her note had been paid to her agent and collector by the maker came to her knowledge, she began a suit in assumpsit on this note, commenced by summons, and afterwards filed declaration. In this suit there was afterwards a substitution of attorneys, and, when her present *23attorneys learned through. Mr. Miles of the payment of the note in question, a motion was made by them for leave to withdraw the declaration filed and for permission to file a declaration in trover. This motion was granted and a declaration in trover filed, on payment of costs. Defendant pleaded the general issue to this declaration, with notice that plaintiff had elected to bring suit in assumpsit instead of trover and had therefore waived her right of action against defendant in trover. The trial now under discussion and consideration before this court was the trial had upon this issue. At the close of plaintiff’s case defendant moved for a directed verdict upon the ground stated in the motion attached to the plea.
The contentions of defendant upon the trial of the case were:
(1) That plaintiff had waived her right of action in trover by bringing an action in assumpsit.
(2) That an action of trover for the conversion of this money will not lie against defendant in this case, even if it should be held that he had received it.
1. The information that the balance unpaid on plaintiff’s note had been fully paid to defendant did not come to the knowledge of plaintiff until after the declaration in assumpsit had been filed in this suit and the substitution of attorneys had been made. The contention that plaintiff had waived a right of action in trover, therefore, cannot be sustained, for the reason that at the time plaintiff had no knowledge that such right of action existed. It is well settled that a party cannot waive a right of which he has no knowledge.
“There can be no waiver unless the person against whom the waiver is claimed had full knowledge of his rights and of facts which would enable him to take effectual action for the enforcement of such rights.” Clare County Sav. Bank v. Featherly, 173 Mich. 292 (139 N. W. 61), citing 29 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law (2d Ed.), p. 1093.
*242. Under this contention defendant urges that this money, for the wrongful conversion of which this suit is instituted, if in his hands, was a general indebtedness on his part to the plaintiff, and that this suit is brought in trover to recover money generally and not a specific fund of money delivered to him to be returned to her in specie. There is no dispute in this case but that the relation between plaintiff and defendant was that of principal and agent. He was a collector for her of the amount of this note and was recognized and had acted as such for nearly two years, about which there is no dispute. A specific portion of the proceeds of the check which Miles gave defendant and which the bank paid him was the property of plaintiff received by defendant to be delivered in a prescribed manner to her. And this is not disputed by defendant, and in fact his contention on this proposition now under consideration admits it. This fund never came to his hands as his money. He never had any right to its possession except for a certain purpose. His relations in this matter to plaintiff were fiduciary. His retention of this fund was therefore an unlawful conversion, and like conduct is defined and punished in this State as statutory larceny. To hold that such wrongful conversion cannot be made the basis of an action in trover would seem to be a stultification of judicial conscience. Under the circumstances of this case, trover was a proper remedy. The trial court therefore was not in error in denying the motion of defendant to instruct a verdict against plaintiff.
Upon the trial defendant made an offer to prove that no payment was ever made by Miles to him of the balance of plaintiff’s note; that he, being a creditor of the Miles Shoe Company to the amount of $2,000, on his individual claim and the bank a creditor of about $2,700, and he having guaranteed the payment of plaintiff’s note when he sold it to her and transferred the collateral, knowing of the uncertain finan*25cial condition of the Miles Shoe Company, undertook to get security for the entire amount, $6,800, on these claims; that in furtherance of such undertaking one W. G. Newland took notes of the Miles Shoe Company for $6,300 secured by chattel mortgage upon its entire stock and property, and Newland drew and delivered his check on the Benton Harbor State Bank for that amount to said company; that this check was indorsed by the Miles Shoe Company, presented to the bank, and stamped paid by said bank June 17, 1911; that the check of $3,724.46, which has already been referred to, was drawn against this credit; that in truth and fact no money was ever paid on this transaction, but that it was done in order to accomplish defendant’s plan to get bona fide security for these items of indebtedness above stated.
The court refused to pass upon this offer made by defendant as a whole, for reasons given by him, which will appear in excerpts which we will quote from the record. This offer of proof was made at the close of the cross-examination of Mr. Miles, plaintiff’s last witness, when Mr. Sterling, counsel for defendant, said:
“Mr. Sterling: Before you rest I want to make an offer of proof, and I have a motion to make also. (The jury retired from the courtroom.)
“Mr. Sterling: Since last night I wrote out more in detail what I wanted to put in the record, of what I wanted to show, and I will read it and have it in the record.”
This statement was then read into the record. As given in this opinion it is very much condensed. When the reading was finished, the following colloquy between court and counsel occurred:
“The Court: What do you say?
“Mr. Andrews: I haven’t anything to say. Questions have been asked about everything that has been presented. About half the testimony has been admitted and the other—
*26“The Court: Do you object to it?
“Mr. Andrews: There is nothing before the court.
“Mr. Sterling: I will make this offer.
“The Court: Plaintiff has rested his case.
“Mr. Sterling: But not until I get the offer in.
“The Court: It is impossible to rule on that offer, Mr. Sterling, in consideration of the condition of the proofs. One part of your offer has been given and received in evidence, so it would be impossible to rule on that offer in general. Some parts have been introduced and some parts the court has sustained the objection to.
“Mr. Sterling: I offer to show all that proof by Mr. Miles, the last witness on the stand for plaintiff.
“The Court: I shall decline to rule on the offer as a whole at this time, irrespective of any technicalities, as it would be impossible, it seems to me, under the condition of the evidence as it now appears. Part of that that you put in there has been admitted.
“Mr. Sterling: Just enough admitted to leave the jury in doubt as to certain points I want to clear up.
“The Court: Under the theory of the court, a large part that you have offered is inadmissible entirely. I shall decline to rule upon the offer as a whole, but if counsel desires to recall Mr. Miles he may recall him arid ask such questions as he desires if you have omitted any question.
“Mr. Sterling: I want to show I offer this testimony, and what the court has said appears on the record, and I take exception to the ruling of the court, and to the attitude of the court to rule either favorably or unfavorably on the testimony.”
Counsel for defendant then made a motion that the court direct a verdict in his favor. This motion included the propositions relative to the declaration in trover, and also that trover was not the proper remedy, which have already been discussed. It was denied, and one of the errors assigned is upon such denial. In this opinion we have already considered and disposed of these questions against the contention of defendant.
A verdict was directed by the court in favor of plaintiff, and upon this direction error is assigned. It is *27apparent that, if the court was in error in excluding the above offer of proofs made by defendant, such verdict should not have been directed.
Defendant insisted that the court should consider the offer made as a whole, and the exception taken to the refusal of the court “to rule either favorably or unfavorably on the testimony offered” is that relied on. It will be noted that the court did not deny counsel the right to offer testimony in the ordinary way; in fact, the court, in declining to rule upon the offer as a whole, suggested to counsel to recall the witness and further examine him. Counsel was in error in insisting as he did upon a ruling upon the offer as made. He should have followed the suggestion of the court.
This leaves to be determined the question whether the record discloses any evidence in the case on the part of defendant to be submitted to the jury. An examination of the entire record satisfies us that there was no such evidence, and that the court was not in error in instructing a verdict for plaintiff.
The judgment of the circuit court is affirmed.
Brooke, Kuhn, and Steere, JJ., concurred with Mc-Alvay, C. J.