Riverside Portland Cement Co. v. Maryland Casualty Co.

On application for a hearing in this court after decision by the district court of appeal of the first appellate district, division one.

From an inspection of the record it seems clear that as suggested by the district court of appeal in its opinion, there is not sufficient support in the evidence for the conclusion that plaintiff or its assignor relied upon the affidavit attached to the bond in extending credit, and that, as said by the district court of appeal, “the real fact, as shown by the evidence, is that they inspected the record for *92 information as to who the sureties were, and relied upon the bond only in connection with an independent investigation of their worth and financial standing. ’ ’ This being the situation, the finding substantially to the effect that the plaintiff and his assignor relied in giving credit upon such affidavit and the certificate of the notary that the same had been subscribed and sworn to before him is not sufficiently sustained by the evidence, with the result that the matter complained of was not the proximate cause of plaintiff’s loss. In so far as the opinion of the district court of appeal holds or implies that the notary’s default…

This is an appeal by the defendant Maryland Casualty Company, a corporation, from a judgment against it as surety upon, and in the full amount of, the official bond of C. B. Davis, a notary public.

E. P. Hunziker and E. C. A. Berger, as contractors, were about to erect a seven-story reinforced concrete hotel building for C. W. Howard, the ostensible owner. Before the contract for the work had been signed Hunziker took Davis, the notary, to his home, where he asked his wife, Josephine Hunziker, and his mother-in-law, Mary W. Crutsinger, to sign the printed form of bond to laborers and materialmen, attached to the contract. At the instance of Hunziker the women affixed their signatures to the purported bond, and to the affidavit attached, in the presence of Davis. He did not swear the signers to the truth of the contents of the affidavit, but, according to the findings, at his direction they “did raise their right hands and swear to. their signatures, said bond being then blank as to amount. ’ ’ Hunziker then took the blank form away with him and delivered it to a man named Paden, who was the real owner of the property on which the building was to be erected.

Subsequently, at…

This is an appeal by the defendant Maryland Casualty Company, a corporation, from a judgment against it as surety upon, and in the full amount of, the official bond of C. B. Davis, a notary public. E. P. Hunziker and E. C. A. Berger, as contractors, were about to erect a seven-story reinforced concrete hotel building for C. W. Howard, the ostensible owner. Before the contract for the work had been signed Hunziker took Davis, the notary, to his home, where he asked his wife, Josephine Hunziker, and his mother-in-law, Mary W. Crutsinger, to sign the printed form of bond to laborers and materialmen, attached to the contract. At the instance of Hunziker the women affixed their signatures to the purported bond, and to the affidavit attached, in the presence of Davis. He did not swear the signers to the truth of the contents of the affidavit, but, according to the findings, at his direction they "did raise their right hands and swear to their signatures, said bond being then blank as to amount." Hunziker then took the blank form away with him and delivered it to a man named Paden, who was the real owner of the property on which the building was to be erected. Subsequently, at Paden's…