Warren National Bank v. Suerken

SLOANE, J.

The defendant and her stepmother, Annetta R. Johnson, and her brothers, Everett F. Johnson and Charles B. Johnson, were the heirs at law of James P. Johnson, deceased. At the time of his death, James P. Johnson was indebted to the plaintiff bank in a sum approximating fifteen thousand dollars, for which the bank held his unsecured promissory notes. The decedent had been in the furniture business in his lifetime, and the heirs, desiring to continue the business, organized a corporation known as the Johnson Furniture Company, the sole incorporators of which were the said heirs. This corporation then took over, and thereafter operated, the furniture business. After the organization of such company the four heirs, including this defendant, executed to the Johnson Furniture Company their joint notes for a sum covering the amount of the notes of the decedent held by the bank, and the Johnson Furniture Company indorsed these notes over to the bank. This transaction was had at the request of the plaintiff bank.

The whole controversy in this case is as to whether the defendant, Lena M. Suerken, joined in the execution of these notes without consideration, as an accommodation maker, or was assuming and guaranteeing her father’s indebtedness in her own behalf and for the protection of her own interest in his estate.

The notes were executed in the state of Pennsylvania. The defendant was, at the time, a married woman. It is stipulated that under the laws of that state, as a married woman, she was disqualified from becoming an accommodation

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indorser, maker, guarantor, or surety on any note or contract. The trial court found that defendant joined in the execution of said notes, “not for any debt of the defendant, but as collateral security to secure the payment of certain notes made by James P. Johnson, deceased, father of the defendant, which notes [the notes of James P. Johnson, deceased] are held by the plaintiff.” It is upon the sufficiency of the evidence to support this finding that the appeal is taken.

No point is made as to the sufficiency of the finding to support the judgment. It will be noticed- that the court does not expressly find that the defendant was an accommodation maker, or that she executed the notes without consideration, but that the notes were executed, “not for any debt of the defendant, but as collateral security to secure the debt of her father,” It might readily be, under the relations and interests of the parties here, that the defendant, in her own interest, and to protect her own rights as an heir, executed collateral security for the debts of her father, which debts existed as a claim against his estate, including the business which was taken over by the corporation, the Johnson Furniture Company, to whom the notes here sued on were primarily made payable. Under such circumstances she could hardly be classed as an accommodation maker. However, the point is not raised, and it, perhaps, may be reasonably inferred from the findings as a whole that the court intended to reach and express the conclusion that the defendant signed these notes without consideration. If the evidence is such as to support such an interpretation, we are disposed to so construe it. If the fact that the notes were given as collateral security for the father’s indebtedness was conclusive on the point that they were without consideration, We think the evidence is ample to uphold such a finding. ■ A number of witnesses testified that such was the avowed and agreed purpose, and the circumstance that the bank continued to hold the original notes of the deceased father is corroborative of this conclusion, notwithstanding the attempted explanation by plaintiff that they were retained merely to show the nature of the transaction.