Allen v. Cruden

157 N.W. 974, 34 N.D. 166, 1916 N.D. LEXIS 12
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedApril 29, 1916
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 157 N.W. 974 (Allen v. Cruden) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Allen v. Cruden, 157 N.W. 974, 34 N.D. 166, 1916 N.D. LEXIS 12 (N.D. 1916).

Opinion

Goss, J.

The complaint is for a joint conversion by a sheriff and another defendant. The sheriffs bondsmen on his official bond are also joined as defendants. To the complaint a demurrer was interposed and overruled. The issues of law thus presented are first for consideration.

After describing the property and stating its value on September 19, 1910, and averring its ownership as in one Olson, the complaint alleges, viz.:

“II.

“That prior to said 19th day of September, a. d. 1910, the defendant-Frank C. Davies had been duly elected sheriff in and for the county of Eddy and state of North Dakota, and on the 4th day of January, a. d. 1909, filed his official bond duly approved by the board of county commissioners of said county, with the county auditor of said county, with the defendants IB. Peoples, Peter Prader, and James G. Daily, as his sureties thereon. A duly certified copy of which bond is hereto annexed and made’a'part of this complaint and marked exhibit ‘A.’’ That the said Frank O. Davies then duly qualified as and heeame sheriff in and for said county, and at the' time hereinafter mentioned was acting sheriff in and for said county. ... -

[170]*170“III.

“That on or about the 19th day of September, a. d. 1910, the defendant F. R. Cruden and the defendant Frank C. Davies by virtue and under color of his office aforesaid, without the consent of the said Oscar Olson and without leave, license, or authority from him, forcibly and unlawfully seized upon said personal property all and singular, and took the same from the possession of the said Oscar Olson, and have unlawfully converted and appropriated said personal property all and singular in their own use and in derogation of the rights of said Oscar Olson and to his damage in the sum of seven hundred dollars ($700).

“IV.

“That by reason of said unlawful seizure and conversion of the said above-described personal property by the said defendants F. R. Cruden and Frank C. Davies, the said Oscar Olson has been put to trouble, inconvenience, costs, and expense and has been damaged thereby in the sum of five hundred dollars ($500).

“V.

“That prior to the commencement of this action the said Oscar Olson duly sold, assigned, and transferred to this plaintiff, Steven Allen, all his rights, title, claim, and interest in and to the said property, or his right to damages therefor and the value thereof, by reason of the unlawful taking, detention, and conversion thereof by the said defendants F. R. Cruden and Frank O. Davies, and which said assignment was for a valuable consideration, and that plaintiff is now the owner and holder of said claim.

“VI.

“That plaintiff has demanded and caused to be demanded from said defendants F. R. Cruden and Frank C. Davies, the return to him of said property seized and taken by said defendants as aforesaid, but that the said demand has been by the said defendants refused, and the [171]*171■said personal property all and singular has been at all times since said taking and now is detained and withheld by said defendants and by ■them converted and appropriated as aforesaid.”

The exhibit A referred to “as hereto annexed and made a part of this ■complaint” is the official bond, in statutory form and amount, of the sheriff, with defendants Peoples, Prader, and Daily as sureties thereon. Attached thereto is the oath of office taken by Davies, as sheriff, together with indorsements showing the filing of said official bond and oath with the county auditor. The grounds of demurrer taken are (1) improper joinder of causes of action, and (2) insufficiency of facts .stated to constitute a cause of action.

Beyond controversy the complaint states a cause of action in conversion against the sheriff, Davies. Lee v. Charmley, 20 N. D. 570, 33 L.R.A. (N.S.) 275, 129 N. W. 448; Welter v. Jacobson, 7 N. D. 32, 66 Am. St. Rep. 632, 73 N. W. 65. And stating a cause of action against •that official, one is charged against the bondsman if a breach of the official bond is disclosed, and said sureties may be joined with the principal in the same action. Lee v. Charmley, 20 N. D. 570, 30 L.R.A. (N. S.) 275, 129 N. W. 448; Stark County v. Mischel, 33 N. D. 432, 156 N. W. 931. As to the sheriff a cause of action in conversion is alleged. And where the same wrongful acts constituting the conversion are joined in and committed jointly by the official and another or others, all may be joined in one action to recover the damages suffered by the joint act of all, as each is responsible for the act of his joint tort-feasor, and ■either or all of said joint participants may be sued in one action where the rights to be vindicated all spring from and have origin in said joint act as the one transaction. This is the settled law of this jurisdiction under Stark County v. Mischel, supra. The test, then, is not whether Cruden can be joined with the sheriff where the two acting ■conjointly wrongfully converted the property of another, but instead is whether the complaint sufficiently states such joint and wrongful conversion by the two acting conjointly. As to this, appellant argues that Davies is alleged to have converted as sheriff, while Cruden appropriated as an individual, and hence they could not jointly convert this property because they were acting in different capacities. The reasons for their wrongful acts, conceding that their acts were wrongful, are immaterial. The owner of the property converted suffers damages be[172]*172cause of the conversion, irrespective of the reasons actuating the converters. The test is whether the two could act and did act conjointly, and so acting did those things sufficient to amount to the conversion of this property. Does the complaint, standing admitted in the face of the demurrer, sufficiently charge such acts and consequences? The natural import of the language is sufficient to charge a joint conversion. It alleges that “the defendant Oruden and the defendant Davies, by virtue and under color of his office aforesaid, without the consent of said Olson and without leave, license, or authority from him, forcibly and unlawfully seized upon said personal property all and singular and took the same from the possession of said Olson, and have unlawfully converted and appropriated said personal property all and singular to. their own use and in- derogation of the rights of said Oscar Olson and to his damage in the sum of $100.” Similar allegations are contained in every succeeding paragraph of the complaint; as, for instance, in the 5th paragraph, the “detention and conversion thereof by the said defendants Oruden and Davies” is charged and a demand for return is pleaded as having been made upon Oruden and Davies and refused, and that the property is “withheld by said defendants and by them converted and appropriated as aforesaid.” A joint conversion by these two defendants is stated as plainly as can be done without the use of the word “joint” to characterize their acts; and the use of that word would in nowise change the meaning or strengthen the pleading where the two, as here, are charged to have at all times, and in the commission, of every essential to constitute conversion by both jointly, acted together.

Appellant urges that “no facts are pleaded from which it can be inferred that the acts done by the sheriff constituted a breach of the obligation of the undertaking of the defendants,” the sureties.

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Related

Royer v. Rasmussen
158 N.W. 988 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1916)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
157 N.W. 974, 34 N.D. 166, 1916 N.D. LEXIS 12, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/allen-v-cruden-nd-1916.