Marine Bank v. Kalt-Zimmers Mfg. Co., 293 U.S. 357 (1934)
Please note: this case begins in mid-page. It therefore shares a citation with the last page of the previous case. If you are attempting to follow a link to the last page of 293 U.S. 351, click here.
Marine National Exchange Bank of Milwaukee v.
Kalt-Zimmers Manufacturing Co.
No. 148
Argued November 14-15, 1934
Decided December 10, 1934
293 U.S. 357
CERTIORARI TO THE CIRCUIT COURT OF APPEALS
FOR THE SEVENTH CIRCUIT
Syllabus
1. Bonds issued in Wisconsin payable to bearer recited that they were secured by a deed of trust to a named trustee,
to which deed of trust reference is hereby made with the same effect as though recited at length herein, for the description of the property mortgaged, the nature and extent of the security, the rights of the holders of the bonds, and the terms and conditions upon which said bonds are issued, held, and secured, and may, before their fixed maturities, be declared at once due and payable, and the manner of prepayment before maturity.
The Supreme Court of Wisconsin, construing the Wisconsin negotiable instruments statute, decided that the reference did not make the bonds nonnegotiable.Held, that the construction is binding in the federal courts, though the statute may have been intended to be declaratory of the rule at common law. Burns Mortgage Co. v. Fried, 292 U.S. 487. P. 363.
2. Under the Wisconsin negotiable instruments Act, as construed by the Supreme Court of the State, notice of facts tending to put a cautious buyer upon inquiry will not defeat the title of the holder of negotiable paper, if in truth there was neither actual knowledge of an infirmity nor a conscious joinder in a fraud. P. 364.
3. Under the Wisconsin negotiable instruments Act, as construed by the Supreme Court of Wisconsin, the pledgee of a negotiable bond, payable to bearer, who knows from a recital on the face of the bond that the pledgor -- pledging it for his own indebtedness -- is the trustee under a deed of trust securing it with like bonds and certifier of the bond issue, is not chargeable, from that knowledge alone, with actual notice of the fact that the pledgor is fiduciary of the bonds themselves, or with a fraudulent participation in the abuse of the trust relation. P. 365.
4. This construction binds the federal courts. Burns Mortgage Co. v. Fried, supra. P. 366.
5. The principle that a construction placed upon a state statute by the highest court of the State is to be read into the statute from the day of its enactment, applies to interests dependent on the statute which were created between the enactment and the decision. Kuhn v. Fairmont Coal Co., 215 U.S. 349, distinguished. P. 367.
70 F.2d 815 reversed.
Certiorari to review the affirmance of a decision of the District Court in a bankruptcy case, denying the present petitioners leave to sell negotiable bonds which had been pledged to them by the bankrupt.