American Engine Co. v. Crowley

117 N.W. 428, 105 Minn. 233, 1908 Minn. LEXIS 504
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedJuly 31, 1908
DocketNos. 15,712-(126)
StatusPublished
Cited by14 cases

This text of 117 N.W. 428 (American Engine Co. v. Crowley) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
American Engine Co. v. Crowley, 117 N.W. 428, 105 Minn. 233, 1908 Minn. LEXIS 504 (Mich. 1908).

Opinion

BROWN, S.

In 1905 plaintiff Columbia Incandescent Lamp Company, a corporation, recovered a judgment in the district court of St. Louis county against Daniel D. Crowley and another, doing business as the Crowley Electric Company, for the sum of $145.35. In 1906 plaintiff American Engine Company, a corporation, recovered a judgment against Daniel D. Crowley, the same person above mentioned, and others, copartners as the Crowley Electric Company, for the sum of $1,475.52. Executions were subsequently issued upon each judgment and returned by the sheriff unsatisfied. In 1907 garnishment proceedings were instituted in both actions, with the City National Bank of Duluth as garnishee. Upon the return day the garnishee appeared and disclosed that it had in its possession several thousand dollars belonging either to Daniel D. Crowley, defendant, or to the Chisholm Light & Power Company, a corporation. The officers of the garnishee were not certain as to the ownership of the money.

Plaintiffs then applied to the court for leave to file supplemental complaints for the purpose of litigating and determining the true ownership of the money. Leave was duly granted, and complaints were filed, in which, among other things, it was alleged that the money was [235]*235the property of defendant Crowley. Thereupon the Crowley Electric Company, a corporation, intervened in the action, alleging that the money belonged to it, and that defendant Crowley, of the Chisholm Eight & Power Company, had no interest therein. The Chisholm Eight & Power Company, and defendant Crowley also, answered, disclaiming ownership of .the money, and alleging that it belonged to the Crowley Electric Company, a corporation.

The actions were consolidated when called for trial, and the issue respecting the ownership of the fund in the hands of the garnishee thus raised was submitted to the jury. A verdict was returned for plaintiff in each action, upon which judgment was rendered, and the in-tervener, Crowley Electric Company, and defendants, appealed. Several questions are presented by the assignments of error, which will be considered in the order given in the brief of appellants.

1. It appears that subsequent to the commencement of the garnishment proceedings, and after the joining of issue by the supplemental pleadings therein, plaintiffs instituted supplementary proceedings, in which defendant Crowley appeared and made disclosure concerning property owned by him not exempt from execution, at the conclusion of which the court made an order appointing a receiver of all his property and effects, with the usual power to take possession of and convert the same into money and pay and discharge therewith plaintiffs’ judgments. The receiver duly qualified and entered upon the discharge of his duties. At the opening of the trial here under review defendants and the intervener moved the court to dismiss the action and the garnishment proceedings, for the reason that the appointment of the receiver in the supplementary proceedings vested in him as a matter of law all title and right to the money in question, conceding for the purposes of the motion that it was the property of Crowley, and that he alone could maintain proceedings to recover it. The motion was denied, and the ruling is assigned as error.

The point is without substantial merit. The garnishment proceedings were pending, and the issues therein respecting the ownership of the particular money had been joined .by proper pleadings, long before the receiver was appointed or the supplementary proceedings instituted. If the appointment of the receiver changed in any material respect the rights of plaintiffs to continue the garnishment proceed[236]*236ings, the objection was not properly raised. While our statutes require all actions to be prosecuted in the names of the real parties in interest, section 4064, R. R. 1905, provides that an action shall not .abate by reason of a transfer of plaintiffs’ interest therein if the cause .of action survives, and that, where a transfer has taken place pending the action and before trial, his successor may be substituted as a party plaintiff, or the court may allow it to continue in the names of the .original parlies. This statute applies to the case at bar, and defendants’ remedy was by motion for substitution, and not for dismissal. At all events, the order denying the motion to dismiss was in effect an order that the action proceed in the names of the original parties.

Counsel cite authorities -in support of the contention that a receiver appointed at the instance of creditors may maintain proceedings to set aside fraudulent conveyances, and that, pending the receivership, creditors, on whose motion the receiver was appointed or for whose benefit he is acting, cannot maintain creditors’ suits to recover assets of the debtor. There is no question of the soundness of the proposition affirmed by these authorities. The question, however, is not involved in this case. It appeared in nearly all the cases cited that the receiver was first appointed, in which case there can be little doubt of his prior right to act. In the case at bar the action and garnishment proceedings were pending and at issue when the receiver was appointed in the supplementary proceedings, and the authorities referred to do not, therefore, apply. The subsequent appointment of the receiver .amounted at most to a transfer of plaintiffs’ interest in the subject-matter in litigation, and the statute above referred to, providing for .a substitution, controls the situation.

3. The principal question contested on the trial was the ownership •of the money in the hands of the garnishee. Plaintiffs claimed that it in fact belonged to Crowley, while Crowley, and the intervener insisted that it belonged to the Crowley Electric Company. This question was submitted to the jury under clear and fair instructions, to which no exceptions were taken. The jury found that Crowley, the judgment debtor, owned the money, and the assignments of error on this branch of the case present the sole question whether the verdict is clearly and palpably against the evidence.

Our examination of the record, quite, voluminous, leads to the [237]*237conclusion that the verdict should not be disturbed. The evidence shows that Crowley was for some time prior to the dates herein mentioned engaged with different persons under the copartnership name of Crowley Electric Company; and he thereafter was instrumental in the organization of the Chisholm Light & Power, Company, a corporation, and was its principal stockholder. This concern operated an electric light plant at Chisholm from June, 1904, until early in the year 1907, when the plant was sold to other parties for the consideration of about $18,000, and that corporation then ceased to do business and wound up and closed its affairs. The proceeds of the sale of that plant were deposited in the garnishee bank and is the money now in controversy in this action.

It is claimed by defendants that, at the time of the incorporation of the Chisholm Light & Power Company, Crowley was indebted to his wife and his sister-in-law in the aggregate sum of $11,000, and that in payment thereof he assigned and transferred to them certain shares of stock held by him in that corporation, and that by virtue of their ownership thereof they were the principal owners of the proceeds of the sale of the plant, the money here in question.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
117 N.W. 428, 105 Minn. 233, 1908 Minn. LEXIS 504, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/american-engine-co-v-crowley-minn-1908.