Judgment on a Motion for Execution In the case of Henry P. Newman's Mandchurische Export Ca. v. Zimmerman & Ca., on a motion for execution, his Honour Judge Lobingier has given judgment in favour of the defendant.
In giving judgment, his Honour said, in part:—On or before March 20, 1916, the parties to this cause, through their respective counsel, entered into a stipulation, which was filed on that date. On the same day and in pursuance of said stipulation this Court rendered and filed the following judg-
This cause comes on for hearing upon the petition and answer filed'
herein and stipulation of the parties that judgment shall be entered for the plaintiff against the defendants according to the terms of said stipulation Upon consideration whereof the Court finds that there is due the plaintiff from the said defendants the sum of Rbls. 50,000 in full of all claims of the plaintiff against the said defendants arising out of the causes of action stated in the petition herein; provided, however, that no execution hereon shall issue against the property of said defendants until the expiration of four months after the declaration of peace between the belligerents engaged in the existing war; but nothing herein shall prejudice a proof of claim founded on this judgment against the estate in bankruptcy of the said defendants in the event that they are declared bankrupts previous to said declaration.
It is conceded by pilaintiff's present counsel in his brief that the war mentioned in the foregoing stipulation and judgment "terminated on the ratification of the Treaty of Versailles, January ly, 1920." Four months after that would have been May 10, 1920, the same year, but under date of April 1, defendant's then counsel, the late Edgar Pierce Allen, wrote a letter which appears to the Clerk of the Court in the file and which reads in part as follows I beg to hand you herewith deposit receipt on the International Banking Corporation, Tientsin, covering Rbis, 50,000, endorsed to you, constituting a payment by Mr. S. Zimmerman on account of the judgment of the Court rendered in Tientsin. I think, cary in 1916, in favour of J. P. Newman & Ca., a German firm. The roubles are paid into Court because relations have not yet been resumed. I could have sent the notes to you in Shanghai, but thought it safer to place them in your control in a bank.
Subsequently the bank in question sent the clerk a receipt for "One package said to contain Rbls. 50,000 held originally for account of P. Allen, and en over te yourself,"* 'As a general rule a clerk of Court' is, authorized to receive payment of judgments rendered in his Court, and this deposit in the bank to the clerk's credit ent to deposit with him, and, therefore, to have constituted payment into Court within the foregoing rule and within the terms of the stipulation and judgment.
Plaintiff, however, has sought an execution on the ground that the debt for which judgment was given is payable in gold roubles of the intrinsic value of 51} cents lawful currency of the United States.
It will be seen, however, that no such provision is contained either in the stipulation or the judgment, both of which merely require defendant to pay Rbls. 50,000 in full payment. This was entirely within the discretion of the parties, We have cited two decisions that where action is brought in another country than that in which the debt is payable the amount is to be computed im the domestic currency according to the rate of exchange at the time of trial or judgment or in some cases at the time of the breach complained of. This action, however, is not brought in a jurisdiction foreign to that in which the contract was made or was to be performed, and unlike the cases cited the question of the medium of payment is not left to the Court's discretion, nor to any other contingency, but is rigidly fixed by the stipulation upon which the judgment was based. Cases more nearly in point are these in which payment was contracted for in Confederate currency. But there was no stipulation, og here, for judgment in that currency, which, moreover ceased to have either value or validity when the de facto government issuing it had ceased to exist.
Text read from the printed page and cleaned; old type leaves the occasional error.