Cross v. Eureka Lake & Yuba Canal Co.

Beloher, C. C. The plaintiff, as administrator of the estate of T. W. Sigourney, deceased, brought this action against the Eureka Lake and Yuba Canal Company, a [303]corporation, to recover the sum of fifteen thousand dollars for dividends alleged to have been declared by the company after December 1, 1878, upon 750 shares of its capital stock, owned by the estate of Sigourney.

The complaint was filed on the 14th of June, 1884, and thereafter, under the provisions of section 386 of the Code of Civil Procedure, the company paid the money into court, and James Reid and M. Zellerbach were substituted as defendants. Reid and Zellerbach filed an answer to the complaint, in which they denied that on the first day of January, 1867, or at any other time, Sigourney was, or until his death continued to be, the owner of the stock; and they averred that in pursuance of a certain written agreement, made by and between Sigourney and Zellerbach, on the twenty-third day of August, 1865, the stock was deposited in the hands of John Parrott, who delivered it to Sigourney, and that Zellerbach became entitled to receive back the stock before Sigourney’s death, and was thereafter entitled to receive the same from his estate and from the plaintiff as the administrator of the estate; that subsequently, on or about the seventh day of January, 1881, Zellerbach sold, assigned, and transferred all his interest in the stock, and the proceeds thereof, and all dividends accrued or to accrue thereon, to Reid, and that Reid then became and ever since has been the owner of the stock, and entitled to receive all dividends declared thereon. The plaintiff filed an answer to “that part and those allegations of the pleading filed herein by the said Reid and Zellerbach, the interpleaders, upon which they base their claim to affirmative relief, and to the funds and moneys sought to be recovered by plaintiff in this action,” in which he denied each and all of the facts set up by the interpleaders.

The case was afterwards tried by the court without a jury, and findings of fact were filed as follows:—

“3. In 1866 Zellerbach deposited with one John Par[304]rott 1,250 shares of the stock of said corporation as security for the payment of two promissory notes made by him, Zellerbach, to said T. W. Sigourney, one note for forty thousand dollars, and one for ten thousand dollars. Afterwards Zellerbach deposited with said Parrott the 750 shares above mentioned, as additional security for said notes.