Court Opinion

ID: 9639299
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-22 16:11:30.248311+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T18:10:15.389739
License: Public Domain

On Petition for Rehearing and Motion to Modify the Order for Mandate.
PER CURIAM.
The appellee has filed a petition for rehearing andi a motion to modify the mandate by granting a new trial. As ground for rehearing appellee’s contention is that the only executive officer of the association to whom an inquiry could have been addressed other than Wilson himself was Chrisman, the secretary, and that had such inquiry been made she would have informed the bank that Wilson did have authority to draw the checks and that she believed that he was entitled to the money. There are two defects in this contention: First, inquiry as to Wilson’s authority and his right to the money represented by the checks could have been made to the board of directors of the association. Second, Chrisman testified that as secretary she posted the books, signed checks and did whatever Wilson told her to do without questioning whether it was right or not. When Wilson told her to charge a check to a particular loan she did so without looking “to see whether or not it was proper to charge that check to that loan.” Her answer to any inquiry must have been, therefore, that she did not know anything about Wilson’s right to appropriate the funds of the association to his own use. To establish an estoppel the burden was upon the defendant to prove that it relied and acted upon the conduct of the association. Pomeroy, Equity Jurisprudence, 4th Ed., Vol. 2, § 805. As shown in the opinion, defendant relied solely upon Wilson’s representations at its peril, because. although Wilson was president of the association he was acting outside the ostensible scope of his agency in directing that checks made payable to the defendant should be credited to his personal account.
The motion to modify the mandate by granting a new trial is predicated upon the statements (1) that the defendant has a valid defense to the complaint and (2) that evidence of such defense was not produced at the trial because counsel for the defendant, in good faith, believed that plaintiff had failed to establish a prima facie case; that defendant had a right to rely upon the representations of Wilson; and that the plaintiff was estopped to deny that the money represented by the checks belonged to Wilson. We have considered the motion and the arguments in support thereof and find they are without merit. In this case there was a motion for a directed verdict and for judgment non obstante veredicto both of which were overruled. In such a case upon reversal that judgment should be entered which the trial court would have entered had it sustained either motion.
The petition for rehearing and the motion to modify the mandate are accordingly denied.