Barnes Cycle Co. v. Haines

61 A. 515, 69 N.J. Eq. 651, 3 Robb. 651, 1905 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 78
CourtNew Jersey Court of Chancery
DecidedJuly 1, 1905
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 61 A. 515 (Barnes Cycle Co. v. Haines) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Jersey Court of Chancery primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barnes Cycle Co. v. Haines, 61 A. 515, 69 N.J. Eq. 651, 3 Robb. 651, 1905 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 78 (N.J. Ct. App. 1905).

Opinion

Grey, Y. C.

The defendant Joseph E. Haines sets up as his sole defence to the complainant’s claim his discharge in bankruptcy by the [654]*654United States district court on December 31st, 1900, from all his provable debts which existed on October 22d, 1900, save those excepted by the' United States Bankruptcy act from the operation of that discharge. It is not denied that the complainant’s judgment was a provable debt under the Bankruptcy act of 1898, which would be released by a discharge, unless it was within the second class of exceptions from the operation of that act, i. e.,

“judgments in actions for fraud, or obtaining money by false pretences or false representations, or for willful and malicious injuries to the person or property of another.”

The complainant admits that its judgment was obtained in an action for the price and value of goods furnished to the defendants Joseph E. and Abel Haines. In order to bring its debt within the above-quoted exception, it has offered proof in this cause to show that these goods were sold to the defendants upon tire faith of a written collateral guarantee, and that the defendant Joseph E. Haines, by a suppressio veri regarding the legal incapacity of his guarantors, induced the complainant to make the sale. The complainant contends that this was an obtaining property by false pretences, and that a debt arising from such a transaction is not released by a discharge in bankruptcy.

If .the second clause of section Yt of the Bankrupt act is carefully read, it will be observed that the debts saved by it from the operation of the discharge are judgments in actions of a certain character, viz., in actions for fraud, or obtaining property by false pretences or false representations, or for willful and malicious injuries, &c.

To be within the exception, it is not enough that there may have been fraud in the creation of the debt, and certainly not enough that there may have 'been a suppressio veri in the giving of a guaranty securing payment of the debt. The provable debt, to be within this exception, must itself have been a judgment recovered in an action brought for fraud, &c. This quality the complainant admits its judgment does not possess. Its judgment was recovered simply for the price of goods sold and de[655]*655livered, not for any fraud whatever. This construction of this exemption clause is given both by the federal courts, In re Blumberg, 94 Fed. Rep. 476, and by our own courts, Barnes Manufacturing Co. v. Norden, 67 N. J. Law (38 Vr.) 493.

It must be held that the complainant’s debt as against the defendant Joseph E. Haines was released by the subsequent discharge of Joseph in bankruptcy, and as to that defendant the bill of complaint must be dismissed, with costs.

The testator appears to have dealt with the body of his estate in two portions, one consisting of the homestead and its furniture, certain shares of Pennsylvania railroad stock, and a sum of money he secured to the use of his wife during her natural life. The other, consisting of the residue of his estate, he gave directly to his five children by name, “to be equally divided between them, share and share alike, and to the representatives of any deceased child to have the share of his, her or their parent per stirpes.”

There can be no question that the portion of the testator’s estate included in this residuary gift under the sixth clause vested in his children as tenants in common, in equal shares, immediately upon the testator’s death. The defendant Abel Haines was one of those children, and on his father’s death became the owner of a one-fifth share in this residuary property. This appears to have been paid to him after the settlement of his father’s estate. If any of this portion of the property of the defendant Abel Haines which came to him under the sixth clause of his father’s will is now existent, the evidence in this case has failed to locate and identify it. This inquiry, therefore, is practically limited to the construction of the third and fourth clauses of the will of Joseph E. Haines, by which he gives the homestead and its furniture to his wife during her natural life, and the Pennsylvania railroad stock and the cash for investment to the trustee for the benefit of Ms wife during her life, and the fifth clause, which is above recited.

The wido^y of the testator is still living. Eive of the testator’s children survive him. They are all yet living. The defendant Abel Haines is one of them.

By the express terms of the statute (P. L. 1902 p. 535 § 71) [656]*656power is given to this court (if there be a judgment at law and an execution issued thereon returned unsatisfied, leaving a balance due exceeding $100), at the instance of the plaintiff, to compel the defendant to discover any property or thing in action belonging to him, and to force the application of the discovered property to the payment of the amount owing on the judgment.

In this case the complainant contends that the above-quoted fifth clause of the will of Joseph M. Haines gave the defendant Abel Haines property which the statute enables this court to apply to the satisfaction of the complainant’s judgment.

The defendant Abel Haines, by his answer in this cause, admits the' existence of the situation contemplated by the statute. He admits the fact that he has the possibility of an interest in the homestead and its equipment, and in the railroad stock and the cash invested, in all of which his mother enjoys a life interest, and thus makes the discovery contemplated by the statute, but he denies that his interest in the property referred to is a vested estate, and contends that is a contingent interest, which will vest only in case he shall outlive his mother, the widow of the testator.

The jurisdictional incidents prescribed by the statute are admitted. The defence is put upon the ground that when discovery of the defendant’s property is made according to the statute it shows that his estate in it is not such an interest as can under the law be applied to satisfy the amount admittedly due on the complainant’s judgment.

The defendant Abel Haines bases this contention upon the fifth clause of his father’s will, above recited, insisting that a proper construction of that clause must declare that his fifth part in remainder in the homestead and its equipment and furniture given to the widow for life, and in the railroad stock and the cash investment given to the trustee for the benefit of the widow during her life, is a mere possibility; that if he shall survive his mother he may, upon her death, receive that fifth interest, and that the statute does not reach out to and apply a contingent interest such as this to the payment of j udgments of creditors.

Whether the defendant Abel Haines has, under his father’s [657]*657will, in the property in remainder a vested or a contingent interest is the question raised by the answer and the proofs in this cause.

The testator’s dominant purpose in making this will plainly appears on its face. His first and controlling object was to provide a home and maintenance for his wife during her life. This is shown by his devise of the homestead and its- equipment to her during her natural life, and by his creation of a trust fund in Pennsylvania railroad stock and in cash which should produce for her an income during her natural life.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
61 A. 515, 69 N.J. Eq. 651, 3 Robb. 651, 1905 N.J. Ch. LEXIS 78, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barnes-cycle-co-v-haines-njch-1905.