Perkins

Plaintiff, Idonah Slade Perkins, brought this action against defendant, Benquet Consolidated Mining Company, to recover from defendant the dividends declared by defendant on certain shares of its capital stock alleged by plaintiff to be her property. Defendant’s basic defense to this action is that, under Philippine law, which it claims controls, Eugene Arthur Perkins, husband of plaintiff, is entitled to such dividends. The trial court ruled, in accordance with plaintiff’s contentions, that the issue as to who had title to the stock, as to who was entitled to the dividends, and as to what law governed, had been settled by a final judgment of the New York courts by which it was determined, in an action between plaintiff and her husband, that plaintiff was the owner of the stock here in question and entitled to all dividends declared thereon. (Perkins v. Guaranty Trust Co. of New York, 274 N.Y. 250 [ 8 N.E.2d 849 ].) The trial court held that the New York judgment was res judicata, that defendant, who was not a party to that action, was conclusively bound thereby, and that under the full faith and credit clause the courts of this state must give effect thereto. It therefore entered…

Plaintiff, Idonah Slade Perkins, brought this action against defendant, Benquet Consolidated Mining Company, to recover from defendant the dividends declared by defendant on certain shares of its capital stock alleged by plaintiff to be her property. Defendant's basic defense to this action is that, under Philippine law, which it claims controls, Eugene Arthur Perkins, husband of plaintiff, is entitled to such dividends. The trial court ruled, in accordance with plaintiff's contentions, that the issue as to who had title to the stock, as to who was entitled to the dividends, and as to what law governed, had been settled by a final judgment of the New York courts by which it was determined, in an action between plaintiff and her husband, that plaintiff was the owner of the stock here in question and entitled to all dividends declared thereon. (Perkins v. Guaranty Trust Co. of New York, 274 N.Y. 250 [ 8 N.E.2d 849 ].) The trial court held that the New York judgment was res judicata, that defendant, who was not a party to that action, was conclusively bound thereby, and that under the full faith and credit clause the courts of this state must give effect thereto. It…

It is my conclusion that the defendant’s petition for rehearing should be granted in order to reconsider that portion of our decision dealing with the question of the application of the defenses of estoppel and election of remedies, insofar as those defenses affect the defendant company’s liability for the payment to plaintiff of the amount of the dividends which admittedly said company has already paid to plaintiff’s husband. Furthermore, our decision affirming that portion of the trial court’s judgment is based largely upon the assumption that the trial court found that in making such payments said company did not act “in good faith reliance on any of the Philippine adjudications, or transactions”; whereas as pointed out by the petition for rehearing the record does not support that assumption. The trial court’s decision contains no finding that in making said payments the company did not act in good faith, nor did it find that it did not rely on the Philippine judgments and decrees. In fact, so far as the record shows, plaintiff has never charged in any of her pleadings that said company did not act in good faith in making said payments or that it did not rely upon the validity…