DocketNumber: 8 Div. 69.
Citation Numbers: 79 So. 255, 201 Ala. 683
Judges: McCLELLAN, J.
Filed Date: 4/11/1918
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 1/11/2023
The proposition urged in the application for rehearing is this: That the indorsement of the rent note by Mrs. Pride and its delivery by her to her husband, L. T. Pride, and its subsequent deposit with the appellant by L. T. Pride as collateral security for his loan from appellant, the appellant having no knowledge or notice that the note was the property of L. T. Pride's wife or that the payee, Mary M. Pride, was the wife of the payor, L. T. Pride, requires the application to the appellant's advantage and protection, of the doctrine of First National Bank v. Nelson and Brooks v. Griel Bros. Co., noted in the original opinion. The element of the stated proposition that would accord particular effect to the absence of knowledge or notice on the part of the appellant that the payee in the rent note was the wife of the borrower, L. T. Pride, is referable to principles of law whereby protection is extended a bona fide purchaser for value and without notice. Independent of that reference, the absence of knowledge or notice is ineffectual to avert the application of the statute. Bley v. Lewis,
"A pledge or mortgage by the wife of her property to one who is surety for her husband or cosurety with him on a debt for which he may be held liable as a principal is as much within the influence of the statute (section 2349, supra) as if she had signed the obligation herself, or directly pledged the property for the security of the debt for which her husband is liable. We are of opinion that the mortgage to Purcell leads to this result, and contravenes the provision of the statute which declares that 'the wife shall not, directly or indirectly, become the surety for the husband.' "
The soundness of this decision has not been doubted by this court. It was delivered in 1894, and, impressed with that interpretation and application, the statute (now Code, § 4497) has been twice readopted without change in its terms. In response to the insistence of solicitors for appellant, the Nelson Case and the Brooks Case, noted in the original opinion, have been re-examined. Those decisions are without influence or application to the circumstances presented in this cause. There the wife's property was sold by the husband as the agent of the wife. Here the husband deposited the wife's note (not negotiable paper) as security for his debt to the appellant. If the wife herself had made the deposit of this note with this appellant as security for the loan to her husband, the statute (Code, § 4497) would have applied; she would not have been estopped to assert and avail of the statute's invalidating effect. Authorities supra.
Under the statute and the decisions of this court, the transaction that undertook to give security for this husband's debt through the deposit of the wife's property was void as to her and her property.
Rehearing denied.
ANDERSON, C. J., and SAYRE and GARDNER, JJ., concur.