Judges: Brown
Filed Date: 2/15/1911
Status: Precedential
Modified Date: 11/12/2024
The plaintiff is a corporation duly organized in 1888 under the Religious Corporation Law of this State. Section 3 of article 6 of the plaintiff’s by-laws provides: “A 'Sunday school shall be maintained by this Church, conducted in accordance with the instructions of Rev. Mary Baker Eddy in Christian Science Journal of October, 1895. Its management shall be delegated to first Reader of the Church. It shall have a secretary and treasurer to be elected at the annual meeting, and this officer shall, at that time, present a report of its affairs and progress, financially and otherwise. Its funds shall be under the care of the Church Committee.” In 1895 the defendant was duly elected to the office of secretary and treasurer of the plaintiff’s 'Sunday school, at the annual church meeting of the plaintiff corporation, and has continued in such office since that date up to the annual church meeting in January, 1910, having been elected each year at the regular annual meeting. For many years it has been the hope and intention of the members of plaintiff’s church to erect in Buffalo a suitable building for church worship purposes, and to this end a site was secured at the corner of Elmwood avenue and North street
In 1895 the defendant and other members of plaintiff’s Sunday school conceived the plan of raising moneys in the Sunday school and devoting all contributions of Sunday school scholars and teachers to the creation of a fund to be used for the purpose of placing an organ in the new church building, when erected; and the moneys then on hand and in defendant’s hands as secretary and treasurer of the Sunday school were treated as the organ fund. From 1895 down to January, 1910, the contributions consisting of the usual Sunday collections contributed by the Sunday school scholars and teachers were contributed by such persons for the purpose- of being added to the organ fund on hand, to be used by the plaintiff in obtaining a suitable organ to be placed in the new church when built. The only fund that the Sunday school ever had was this organ fund. At the end of the first year of her incumbency of the office of secretary and treasurer of the Sunday school, the defendant reported to the annual church meeting of the plaintiff the moneys in her possession as such secretary and treasurer,' Such reports have been made by the defendant to each annual church meeting of the plaintiff, some of such reports characterizing the moneys as the organ fund, all of them naming the banks where such moneys were deposited and showing
The contention of the defendant is that these moneys were paid to her by the individuals composing the Sunday school as their agent, for the purpose of being used to purchase an organ to be placed in a new church edifice to be erected on the site known as the Lilacs, which church was to be under the dominating influence and control of Hrs. Annie V. O. Leavitt; that the plaintiff having abandoned the project of erecting a church building on the Lilacs site, and Hrs. Annie V. O. Leavitt having withdrawn and ceased to be a member of plaintiff church and not to be the controlling influence of any church of the plaintiff, the conditions upon which such, moneys were paid to defendant now being impossible of performance, the plaintiff has no legal right or claim thereon; and that defendant does not hold and did not receive such moneys as the agent of the plaintiff.
'Considerable testimony has been taken upon the question as to what were the conditions upon which the contributions were made that compose the fund in defendant’s,possession. A careful examination of such evidence does not reveal the fact that such contributions were made upon such exact and precise conditions as defendant now seeks to impose. The-testimony-is very satisfactory that, such contributions were made for the express and special purpose of being used to provide a new organ in a new church to be erected by the plaintiff. -Some witnesses say that they understood that the new organ was to be placed in the new church building to be erected on the Lilacs site, but that it was to be any site' selected by Hrs. Leavitt; some witnesses say that the selec
In Commercial Travelers’ Home Assn. v. McNamara, 95 App. Div. 1, the defendant received the funds in dispute as the treasurer of a committee that in nowise was connected with the plaintiff, and plaintiff’s cause of action depended solely upon the announced intention of the committee that it would give the fund to the plaintiff. That action was brought ■to recover upon an unexecuted promise to make a gift without the slightest consideration. In the case at bar the action is brought to -recover from its treasurer -moneys that have -been given to and belong to the plaintiff.
The plaintiff is entitled to judgment against the defendant awarding it the custody of the funds in defendant’s hands or under her control, together with the accumulated interest thereon, and directing the banks with which the same is deposited to pay the -same to the plaintiff.
The plaintiff will, of course, take the fund for the specific purpose of providing a new organ in its new church when
Judgment is accordingly ordered, with costs, in favor of plaintiff against defendant.
Judgment accordingly.