Knickerbocker v. Gould

This action was brought by the plaintiffs, stock brokers, doing business in the city of New York, against the defendant, their customer, residing in the county of Saratoga, to; recover a balance of account. The plaintiffs bought for the defendant certain shares of stock, receiving from him a portion of the purchase price as margin, and advancing for Mm the balance, and holding the stock. The defendant failed upon demand to put up more margin,, and they sold the stock, and the amount claimed in the complaint is the balance due them resulting from the transactions.

The facts alleged in the complaint are sufficient to entitle the plaintiffs to recover for moneys advanced to the defendant, and for commissions and expenses, and alsd upon an account stated.

The evidence shows that the plamtiffs bought for the defendant one hundred shares of Erie stock on the 3rd day of January 1883, and sold the same on the 6th day of January, at a profit which they remitted to him. On the 9th day of February, 1883, they again bought for him one hundred shares of Erie stock at 37-§-per cent of the par value thereof, and this stock they held until December 26, 1884, when they sold it at 13|- per cent of the par value. About the 30th day of June, 1883, they rendered to the defendant a statement' of their account with him, which debited him with all the money they had advanced for him, and with the interest thereon, and their commissions, and credited him with the money received by them from him, showing a balance due them of $2,807.06: On or about December 31st of the same year they sent him another statement of their account, which consisted of the precise balance, with interest to date, showing a balance due them of $2,893.14, and the one hundred shares of Erie stock in their hands. Upon that account was written a request of the defendant for additional margin. To that request, on the 7th day of January, 1884, the defendant replied by letter, saying that he did not have cash on hand, and wished them to accept a bond and mortgage as 'collateral, and allow Mm to buy more stock on that' security. To that letter they replied, declining to take the bond and mortgage, and requesting him to send his check for enough to make the Erie stock “ to the market price, and keep it up so> from time to time.”

On the 19th day of April, they again wrote Mm saying that unless he sent $1,000 by return mail “to margin Erie stock” they were carrying for Mm, they would sell at the market and hold him' responsible for any loss. On the 30th day of June, they sent him a statement of their account containing the previous balance with the addition of interest, and showing a new balance of $2,980,90. On the 4th day of December, they wrote Mm _ a letter in which they said they had repeatedly called upon him for margins _ to make good his account, and notified him that unless the margins.

The last account was mailed to the defendant, and must have reached him about nineteen days before the suit was commenced. The defendant was a witness upon the trial, and did not deny that he received the account, and he retained it without making any objection, although the letter in which it was enclosed fairly challenged him to dispute it if inaccurate. He must therefore be deemed to have assented to its accuracy, and the plaintiffs therefore rightly contend that it became a stated account. Lockwood v. Thorne, 18 N. Y., 285 ; Champion v. Joslyn, 44 id., 653 ; Stenton v. Jerome, 54 id., 480; Quincey v. White, 63 id., 370; Guernsey v. Rexford, id., 631.

But the plaintiffs are not obliged wholly to rely upon the last account rendered as an account stated. All the prior accounts which were clearly assented to contain all the money advanced by the plaintiffs as well as the money received by them from the defendant. The only new items in the last account are the interest on the prior balances and the expenses of the sale of the stock amounting only to $15.50 upon the debit side, and the proceeds of the sale upon the credit side. It was proved by undisputed evidence that the stock was sold at public auction for the market price. So that all the items of the account are thoroughly established without any reference to or reliance upon the last account, except the sum of $15.50, composed of three small items, and to these items the defendant made no kind of objection upon the trial. In fact no item in the account has ever been in any way disputed.

The defendant as a witness testified that he met Knickerbocker one of the plaintiffs, at Saratoga Springs in July or August, 1884, that Knickerbocker said to him : “What are you going to do about the stock;” that he replied “I don’t consider myself responsible for it after the margin was used up,” and told him that he did not consider himself responsible, that when he put up ten per cent margin if he did not make up his mind that he “ wanted to continue it

racy of the accounts which had long before been rendered to him, «and upon the proofs they were accurate and he was bound by them. ‘There was nothing, therefore, for submission to the jury, and the court did not err in directing a verdict for the plaintiffs.

The defendant now claims that the sale of his stock was illegal "because he was not notified-of the time and place of the sale. But no such point was made at the trial. There he simply asked to go to the jury “ on the question of whether or not the account was stated. ” If he had made this point then the plaintiffs might have shown that he actually had the proper notice, or that by the contract with them he was not entitled to such notice.

We therefore conclude that the judgment should he affirmed.

All concur.