Pronger v. Old National Bank

Citations

• 20 Wash. 618
• 56 P. 391
• 1899 Wash. LEXIS 214

Syllabus

<p>CORPORATIONS—FRAUD—ULTRA VIRES AS DEFENSE—AFFIRM AN CE OF FRAUDULENT SALE—REMEDIES—APPEAL—SUFFICIENCY OF ■ EVIDENCE—INSTRUCTIONS—HARMLESS ERROR.</p> <p>Where a national bank, through its officers, has induced a person to enter into an agreement in the nature of a partnership for the purpose of defrauding him, it cannot avoid liability on the ground that the contract was ultra vires, and that the person setting up the fraudulent representations had no right to rely on them.</p> <p>In an action for fraud a prima facie case is established when the evidence discloses that the defendant bank owned two notes which it had taken in the course of business; that the payor of the notes was insolvent, and the notes worthless; that defendant, knowing this, caused the notes to be forwarded to plaintiff without his consent and his account with the defendant bank to be charged with the face value of the notes, falsely representing that the notes were taken for a loan of plaintiff’s money made by an officer of the defendant bank to the payor, who was solvent and would pay the notes on demand; and that plaintiff had suffered loss thereby to the extent of the account charged against him by defendants.</p> <p>A judgment founded on the verdict of a jury will not be reversed, where there is a substantial conflict in the evidence, merely because the appellate court may be of the opinion that the weight of the evidence is contrary to the conclusion necessary to be reached in order to sustain the judgment.</p> <p>One who has been induced to purchase promissory notes through fraudulent representations is not barred from maintaining an action for damages on account of the fraud, by the fact that he affirmed the contract and assumed ownership of the notes.</p> <p>A charge to the jury must be read as a whole, and, if the whole charge fairly states the law of the case, as applicable to the facts, it will not work a reversal, even though disconnected portions of the charge may state the law to