Dyer v. Muhlenberg County

Citations

• 117 F. 586
• 54 C.C.A. 172
• 1902 U.S. App. LEXIS 4461

Syllabus

<p>L Compromise and Settlement—Contemporaneous Agreements—Construction.</p> <p>A county was indebted on a series of railroad bonds to an amount equal to about one-fourth the value of all its taxable property, and numerous judgments had been recovered on such bonds, which could not be collected. The legislature authorized it to compromise such indebtedness, and for that purpose to levy taxes and issue new bonds, and a part of it had been so compromised. Plaintiff, who was the owner of a number of judgments on the old bonds and also of one rendered on some of the new issue, entered into two written agreements with the county on the same day, by the first of which it was provided that, in consideration of similar agreements by the other creditors, plaintiff’s judgments on the old bonds should be compromised for 20 per cent, and costs, to be paid by the county by a day named. The second agreement recited that it was made in consideration of the first, and provided that on the same date the county should pay the remaining judgment in full. Held., that such agreements were parts of the same contract, to be construed together, and that the acceptance by plaintiff of payment of the second judgment after the date fixed by the contract, with knowledge that such payment was made from taxes levied and collected to carry out the compromise agreement, and which, under the constitution of the state, could be used for no other purpose, was a waiver of the right to insist that time was of the essence of the contract, and bound him to carry out the compromise agreement as to the other judgments.</p> <p>2. Same—Consideration.</p> <p>The contract, having been made in consideration of similar agreements by the other creditors, and as a part of a general scheme to settle and adjust the entire indebtedness of the county, was based on a valid consideration, and the other creditors who came into the scheme had an equitable right to its fulfillment, which made it binding on both the parties.