Barnes v. Spencer

153 P. 47, 79 Or. 205, 1915 Ore. LEXIS 366
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 23, 1915
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 153 P. 47 (Barnes v. Spencer) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Oregon Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barnes v. Spencer, 153 P. 47, 79 Or. 205, 1915 Ore. LEXIS 366 (Or. 1915).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Bean

delivered the opinion of the court.

1. The defendant Spencer claims as a purchaser in good faith for a valuable consideration, under the provisions of Section 301, L. O. L., which provides that from the date of the attachment, until it be discharged or the writ executed, the plaintiff, as against third persons, shall be deemed a purchaser in good faith and for a valuable consideration of the property attached, and under Section 233, subdivision 4, L. O. L., which declares that an execution is levied on property in the same manner and with like effect as similar property is attached. Defendant maintains that the property is. not subject to the prior equity of plaintiff. In order for defendant Spencer, as an attaching creditor, to be deemed a purchaser in good faith and for a valuable consideration as against the plaintiff, Grace D. Barnes, who is the owner of an outstanding equity in the property upon which execution was levied, the defendant must .allege and prove all the facts necessary to establish that character of his ownership as against such equity. One of such material facts is that his claim is founded upon a fair valuable consideration: Flegel v. Koss, 47 Or. 366 (83 Pac. 847); Rhodes v. McGarry, 19 Or. 222 (23 Pac. 971); Haines v. Connell, 48 Or. 469 (87 Pac. 265, 88 Pac. 872, 120 Am. St. Rep. 835). An at[215]*215taching creditor, although placed on an equality with a purchaser, cannot claim any greater privilege than would be granted to such purchaser: Jennings v. Lentz, 50 Or. 483, 487 (93 Pac. 327, 29 L. R. A. (N. S.) 584). The defendant Spencer recognized this principle, and by his amended answer has alleged facts to bring him within the rule laid down in the Rhodes-McGarry Case. The question therefore recurs upon the proof and the equities of the case.

2. It is the contention of counsel for Spencer that plaintiff cannot question the judgment rendered in Spencer v. Barnes. It is said by Mr. Freeman in his work on Judgments (3 ed.), Section 162:

“It is well understood, though not usually stated in express terms, in works upon the subject, that no one is privy to a judgment whose succession to the rights of property thereby affected occurred previously to the institution of the suit.”

The question as to whether or not Mrs. Barnes can compare her equities in the property in controversy with those of Spencer, who has a judgment which is valid and binding as between him and Barnes, the parties thereto, is an important one. Our statute and decisions thereunder place a judgment creditor in practically the same position as a purchaser holding under a deed subsequent to the equities claimed. In Gottlieb v. Thatcher (C. C.), 34 Fed. 435, it was held by Mr. Justice Brewer, that, as against a prior grantee and purchaser at an execution sale under a preceding judgment, a subsequent judgment against the grantor and debtor is not conclusive, either as to the amount of the debt, or as to the circumstances and character of the transaction out of which the indebtedness arose, and where made defendant to a bill by the holder of such judgment to set the conveyance aside as in fraud of [216]*216creditors, and to subject tbe land, such prior grantee and purchaser may show that the debt for which the judgment was rendered had been more than paid when it was obtained, and that the creditor had taken an unfair advantage of the debtor in the matter of interest. In Ingals v. Brooks, 29 Vt. 399, the facts of the case were as follows: Israel Brooks conveyed all his lands to his son Clark Brooks, and as part consideration therefor Clark agreed to pay the debts of his father. Leafy Brooks, who had become the wife of Ingals, presented a claim against the father, against which the son Clark maintained he had a setoff. They compromised, Clark Brooks released his setoff, and Ingals and wife threw off half the claim. Ingals then went to Israel Brooks and got him to allow judgment to go against him for the other half of the claim, of which proceeding Clark had no notice. Ingals then levied execution under this judgment on the lands held by Clark Brooks, and sold the same, and in course of time got a sheriff’s deed and began his action in ejectment. The court uses the following language:

“The judgment, being altogether inter alios, and in express violation of the understanding of Clark when he surrendered the claim against Leafy, one of the plaintiffs, and paid half the amount of the note in money, in agreed satisfaction of the whole, could have no effect upon the defendant Clark. He is entitled to show that the note was paid before sued, or that the judgment was, for other reasons, fraudulent to him: Atkinson v. Allen, 12 Vt. 619. This compromise of the note by Clark was just as effectual a bar to the claim, in law, and just as effectual a release of his undertaking to pay it at the time of the conveyance, as if he had paid all the money upon it. ’ ’

It is true he did undertake or “promise to pay all the debts of the grantor (his father), but he has in fact [217]*217paid them all, except the mortgage, which is not in question. And the judgment against Israel (the father), is either a subsequent debt, founded exclusively upon his promise to pay what they did not get of Clark, and which in no sense, under the circumstances, can be regarded as forming any portion of the debts which Clark was to pay, or else the whole proceeding, so far as it is attempted to give it the appearance of a prior claim, is a fraud upon the compromise and settlement made with Clark, and the consequent surrender of the note. And in either case it will not enable the plaintiff to treat the conveyance as void, and levy upon it as the land of Israel Brooks. Judgment reversed. Case remanded. ’ ’

In Boutwell v. McClure, 30 Vt. 676, the court says:

“The judgment upon the plaintiff’s claim in this action, whether rendered before or after the claimant’s appearance, concludes nothing upon the question. In all such cases there is likely to exist the form of a contract of a date early enough to accomplish its purpose, and it is not uncommon that this contract assumes the more solemn form of contracts, such as that of a promissory note, or even a judgment of a court of record. But in either case they are, of course, only conclusive upon the parties to such contracts. Upon any questions arising in regard to the creditor being bona fide such at a particular date, and continuing such to the present time, the contract is but prima facie evidence of the fact. It is always competent to impeach the debt, either as to its bona fide character, its date, or its continuance. For although the debt once existed, and of a date early enough to override the plaintiff’s claim, yet, if it has been extinguished by payment on the part of the debtor, it sinks at once into the common mass of his assets, and cannot be subsequently kept on foot, as the debt of a bona fide creditor.”

In Temple v. Osburn, 55 Or. 506 (106 Pac. 16), plaintiff held title under an unrecorded deed. Defendants, [218]*218by a conveyance ordered by the court, in a subsequent suit in which plaintiff was not a party, held that plaintiff was not bound by the decree. It was held in Davis v. Davis, 20 Or. 78 (25 Pac.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Matter of Estate of Hurlbutt
585 P.2d 724 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1978)
Matsuda v. Noble and Decoster
200 P.2d 962 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1948)
Hughes v. Helzer
185 P.2d 537 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1947)
Johnston v. McKean
162 P.2d 820 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1945)
Jansen v. Tyler
49 P.2d 372 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1935)
Wheeler Lumber, Bridge & Supply Co. v. Shelton
31 P.2d 163 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1934)
Holohan v. McCarthy
281 P. 178 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1929)
Larsen v. Commissioner
14 B.T.A. 160 (Board of Tax Appeals, 1928)
Geanakapulas v. Zographos
208 P. 585 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1922)
Bailey v. Hickey
195 P. 372 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1921)
Farmers' Nat. Bank v. Renfro
184 P. 564 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1919)
First Savings Bank v. Linnhaven Orchard Co.
174 P. 614 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1918)
Metropolitan Investment & Improvement Co. v. Schouweiler
163 P. 599 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1917)
Coates v. Smith
160 P. 517 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1916)
Bond v. Ellison
157 P. 1103 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1916)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
153 P. 47, 79 Or. 205, 1915 Ore. LEXIS 366, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barnes-v-spencer-or-1915.