Baldwin v. Johnston

3 Ark. 260
Supreme Court of Arkansas·Decided January 15, 1848·Published

Opinion

Oldham, J.

This was a bill filed in the Circuit Court of Pulaski county, on the chancery side thereof, by Baldwin as a judgment creditor of John W. Johnston, against said John W. and Margaret his wife, and George W. Johnston, to subject certain slaves to the payment of the judgment.

The material facts established by the bill, answer, exhibits, and proof, are that on the 10th day of May, 1842, Baldwin recovered in the Pulaski Circuit Court against John W. Johnston, judgment for three hundred dollars debt, forty-eight dollars and seventy-five cents damages, and also his costs, for which execution issued, and was returned no property found. That on the 29th day of January, 1841, said Johnston executed a deed of trust to Thomas W. Newton, as Cashier of the Real Estate Bank of the State of Arkansas, and his successors in office, conveying certain tracts of land, and seven slaves therein named, to. indemnify Albert Pike and Thomas Thorn, who were about to become bis security on a note to said Bank for the sum of $6582, to be dated on the 6th day of February, A. D. 1841, and to become due twelve months after daté. The trust deed was duly acknowledged, was filed for record on the 12th day of November, 1841, and recorded. On the 28th July, 1841, Johnston executed a declaration of. trust by which it was declared that said Newton and his successors held the land and negroes conveyed by said deed, not only for the liabilities specified in the deed, but also for the payment of thirty-five hundred dollars received by said Johnston on the account and credit of James B. Keatts, as a stockholder of the Real Estate Bank. On the 26th day of April, 1843, Newton, as such trustee, sold the land and slaves to Albert Pike, for the sum of $3000, at public sale, according to the direction of the deed. On the same day Pike executed and delivered to Johnston a writing under seal by which he promised and agreed that if he should purchase the property to be sold by Newton, under the deed of trust on that day, he would convey the same to Johnston if he would, within two years, pay the debt for which Pike was his security in the Real Estate Bank, and all the costs and charges to which he might be exposed on account of said debt or sale, and all moneys which he might have to pay on account thereof, in the same kind of funds with interest.

On the 29th day of May, 1843, five of said slaves having been previously levied upon by the sheriff of Pulaski county, by virtue of sundry writs of execution against John W. Johnston and others, and advertised for sale, on that day were sold and purchased by George W. Johnston, or other persons whose bids he assumed. At the sale Pike was present, and gave notice that he held the slaves under his purchase at the trustees’ sale, and that he would assert and maintain his title. The proceeds of the' sale were, by order of the Circuit Court, applied to a judgment of Chester Ashley, against .John W. Johnston, recovered on the 23d day of June, 1841, for $1600, upon which an execution was issued on the 10th day of February, 1842, which was levied upon the slaves and returned without sale, and a venditioni exponas was afterwards issued.

On the 6th day of June, 1843, John W. Johnston sold his interest in a contract for carrying the United States mail, to Thomas Thorn, for which Thorn assumed the debts and liabilities for which the deed of trust and declaration of trust were executed to Newton, and Johnston, Pike and Keatls were completely discharged and released therefrom. On the 7th day of June, 1843, Pike conveyed the negroes purchased by him at the trustees’ sale to George W. Johnston, in trust for the use and benefit of Margaret Johnston, wife of said John W., during her life-time, and after her death to go to her heirs. No consideration appears to have been paid save the assumption of the debts of Thorn for which the deed of trust had been executed.

At the November term, 1843, one of the negroes, not being sold at -the previous term of the court, was sold under execution by the sheriff, and purchased by William Field, for $500. George W. Johnston immediately obtained possession of the negro by a wilt of replevin. The suit was afterwards determined against him upon a technicality, and Field took judgment against him for the value of the negro.

The bill upon these facts seeks to subject the negroes to the payment of the complainant’s judgment against John W. Johnston.

The defendant George W. Johnston, in his answer insists, that by virtue of the act of the General Assembly, approved Dec. the 28th, 1840, the judgment recovered by Ashley became a lien upon the slaves from the rendition of the judgment, and that Ashley was thereby invested with a legal right to complete the execution of his judgment by having the slaves sold for the satisfaction of his demand. In other words, that the judgment, having been rendered before the deed of trust to Newton was filed for record, had priority over the latter and that the sheriff’s title is paramount to the trustee’s.

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Baldwin v. Johnston, 3 Ark. 260 (Ark. 1848).

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