Griffin v. Union Savings & Trust Co.

Citations

• 86 Wash. 605
• 150 P. 1128
• 1915 Wash. LEXIS 1017

Syllabus

<p>Corporations — Representation—Contracts—Officers—Personal Liability — Evidence—Ambiguity—Parol Evidence. Where a guaranty of the payment of drafts was written on the letter-head of a hank showing the names of its officers, and was signed “O. B. Woolley, manager,” hut contained nothing to show that the hank was bound, it is prima facie the personal undertaking of Woolley on the theory that “manager” was only descriptio personae; but the fact that it was written upon the letter-head and the word “manager” attached, creates sufficient ambiguity to admit of parol evidence to overcome the presumption, the burden being upon plaintiff in an action on the guaranty.</p> <p>Same — Representation—Contracts—Officers—Personal Liability. The fact that the manager of a bank had no authority to guarantee drafts on behalf of the bank, is some evidence that he did not intend to bind the bank in giving a guaranty on a bank letterhead and appending his official title of “manager” after his signature.</p> <p>Guaranty — Consideration—Evidence — Sufficiency. Consideration moving to a bank for a guaranty, by its manager, of drafts to be made by a mining company, is not shown by a prior agreement made by the manager with two of the persons interested in the mining company, and who were owners of a mill company that was largely indebted to the bank, whereby such owners agreed, upon selling their interests in the mining company to pay over the proceeds of such sale to the bank or its manager; especially where the existence of such agreement was kept secret from the hank’s officers, and was not mentioned in the guaranty, and the guaranty was not given because of it.</p> <p>Fullerton, X, dissents.</p>