State v. Wells, Fargo & Co.

Baldwin, J. delivered the opinion of the Court Field, C. J. and Cope, J. concurring.

This case involves principles somewhat novel in this Court. The defendants demurred to the complaint; the demurrer was sustained, and judgment rendered for the defendants.

The complaint avers that the defendants are a company incorporated under the laws of New York, and doing business in this State; that in 1855, certain warrants were drawn by the Controller of State—a schedule descriptive of which warrants is appended ; that the warrants were drawn in payment of certain indebtedness of the State to the persons named in the warrants, were made payable to the payees or order, were delivered to the respective payees thereof, and by them indorsed in blank, and afterwards, and prior to the twenty-eighth of March, 1856, were all presented by the several holders thereof to the State Treasurer, and by him paid and discharged, and on the payment, were delivered up by the holders to the Treasurer; that afterwards and before the first of January, 1858, the warrants were stolen from the office of the Treasurer; that on the twenty-seventh of January, 1858, defendants, Wells, Fargo & Co., presented the warrants to Thomas Findley, then Treasurer, as claims against the State outstanding and unpaid, and entitled to be funded under the act of the Legislature of April 18th, 1857, entitled: “An Act to provide for paying certain equitable claims against the State, and to contract a funded debt for that purpose,” and requested the Treasurer to issue to them, in exchange therefor, the bonds of the State of California provided for that purpose. That the warrants appearing to be of the class of bonds specified in the second subdivision of the eleventh section of that Act, and not appearing to be within any of the exceptions therein mentioned, and having upon them no receipt or indorsement showing them to have been paid or canceled, the Treasurer, believing them to be just and valid claims against the State, and entitled to be funded under the Act, in ignorance of the fact that they had been paid and satisfied, and of the fact that they had been stolen, and that the defendants had no title to the warrants, did, on the eighteenth of March, 1858, at the instance [341]of the defendants, exchange the warrants for bonds of the State, the defendants giving receipts for the bonds and surrendering the warrants. These bonds were payable to the bearer, and issued as and in the form required by the Funding Act.

That in October, 1858, the Treasurer ascertained the true facts of the case, and demanded of Wells, Fargo & Co. the bonds, which they refused to surrender.