Barrett v. Carney

33 Cal. 530
CourtCalifornia Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 15, 1867
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 33 Cal. 530 (Barrett v. Carney) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Barrett v. Carney, 33 Cal. 530 (Cal. 1867).

Opinions

By the Court, Currey, C. J.:

This action was brought to recover the several amounts which appeared to be due on five promissory notes made by the defendant. He answered, pleading the general issue, and also, as an affirmative defence in bar to the several causes of action set forth in the complaint, a judgment and decree of the County Court of El Dorado County discharging him from all his debts under the provisions of the .Act entitled “ An Act for the relief of insolvent debtors and the protection of creditors.”

The plaintiff, having produced his evidence and rested, the defendant offered in evidence certain proceedings in insolvency, wherein he was plaintiff and his creditors were defendants. To the offered evidence the plaintiff objected on the grounds : First—That there was no legal evidence of the publication of notice to creditors, in that the affidavit of the fact was not made by a person authorized by the statute [534]*534to clo so. Second—That the petition did not show that the County Court had any jurisdiction of the person of said Carney, because it did not state that he had resided in the county six months prior to the filing of such petition; and Third—That the notes on which the action was brought were not described in the defendant’s schedule of indebted- • ness annexed to his petition. The Court sustained the objections, and, as a consequence, the evidence offered was rejected. To this ruling the defendant excepted. Judgment was then given for the plaintiff for the amount of the notes and the interest due on the same. The defendant moved for a new trial, relying, as it - appears from the statement, which was settled by the District Judge, upon the alleged error of the Court in. sustaining the objection to the offered evidence. The statement does not profess to set forth entirely the proceedings had in the insolvency case, but only so much thereof as was deemed necessary to preserve upon the record sufficient to present for review the question of law involved in the objection, ruling and exception. The motion being overruled, the defendant appealed from the judgment and the order denying a new trial.

I. The petition of Carney, the alleged insolvent, together with the schedules accompanying it being filed, the Judge of the Court in which the insolvency proceeding was instituted made an order summoning the creditors to be and appear before him in open Court, at a particular time and place, then and there to show cause, if any they had, why the prayer of the insolvent should not be granted, and an assignment of his estate be made and he be discharged from his debts and liabilities; and further, that the Clerk of the Court issue a notice to the creditors to appear at the time and place and for the purposes so specified, and that such notice should be published at least thirty days in a particular newspaper published in the county. The notice issued and published was in due form. The proof of its publication was by affidavit made by one of the proprietors of the newspaper designated, to the effect that such notice was published [535]*535in such newspaper, the same being a weekly newspaper, regularly once a week for more than thirty days immediately following the date of the order of the Judge and the issuing of the notice by the Clerk. The objection to the competency of the proprietor of the newspaper who made the affidavit is answered by this Court in Schloss v. His Creditors, 31 Cal. 203, to which counsel are referred, as that cáse seems to have escaped their attention in the submission of this case upon briefs.

IT. The validity of the decree discharging the defendant from his debts under the Act named was, and is still, objected to on the ground that the petition does not affirmatively show that he had been a resident of the County of El Dorado for six months immediately prior to presenting it to the Judge. It is maintained on the part of the plaintiff that six months residence by the petitioner, in the county in which the proceeding is instituted in insolvency cases, next preceding the time of filing the petition, is a fact of jurisdictional consequence.

The second section of the Act mentioned reads as follows: “Such insolvent debtor shall petition the Judge having original jurisdiction within the place of his domicil or usual residence, which petition shall briefly state the circumstances which compel him to surrender his property to his creditors, and shall conclude with a prayer to make a cession of his estate and to be discharged from his debts, in pursuance of the provisions of .this Act; provided such insolvent debtor shall have resided within the county where he files his petition for "at least six months next preceding the filing of the same.” (1 Hittell Gen. Laws, 3,811.) All that this section of the Act requires the petitioner to state in his petition is the circumstances which compel him to surrender his property to his creditors, accompanied with a prayer expressive of his desire to make a cession of his estate, etc. The same section makes a six months residence in the county, next preceding the filing of his petition, a condition precedent to his right to institute the proceeding; and it may be admitted that the [536]*536better practice is for the Judge to require the condition of residence for the necessary period to be made to appear by the petition, but the statute does not require this in order to clothe the Judge or Court with jurisdiction in the premises. The Act of Hew York of 1813, for giving relief in cases of insolvency, provided that every person applying for the benefit of the Act should make application in the county of which he was an inhabitant, or wjthin which he was imprisoned, and not elsewhere, and required proof of such fact to be made to the Judge or officer before any order notifying the creditors of the application should be granted. In pleading a discharge under this Act, it was held in many cases that the plea must show that the party relying upon the discharge in har of a recovery was an inhabitant of the county when making application for the benefit of the Act. (Service v. Heermann, 1 John. 91; Trary v. Daken, 7 John. 75; Ropevelt v. Kellogg, 20 John. 208; Wyman v. Mitchell, 1 Cow. 316; Porter v. Miller, 3 Wend. 329.) The facts essential to the jurisdiction of the Courts or officers discharging insolvent persons under the Hew York Act had to be averred in collateral actions in which such decrees were pleaded, because they were the decrees of Courts or officers of limited or special jurisdiction. In such cases a general averment of jurisdiction was not sufficient, but the facts upon which it depended had to appear. (Jones v. Reed, 1 John. Cas. 20; Dakin v. Hudson, 6 Cow. 221; Cleveland v. Rogers, 6 Wend. 438; Lawton v. Erwin, 9 Wend. 237; Foot v. Stevens, 17 Wend. 483; Hart v. Seixas, 21 Wend. 45; Bloom v. Burdick, 1 Hill, 139; People v. Koeber, 7 Hill, 40.) The rule in respect to judgments, decrees and decisions of Courts and officers of limited jurisdiction is one resting for its support on a solid foundation, which is understood by every person well learned in the law. But as obviating this objection, the appellant maintains that the same intendments should be made in aid of the jurisdiction of County Courts in insolvency cases — the same being Courts of record—as are indulged in respect to judgments of Courts of general com[537]

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Bluebook (online)
33 Cal. 530, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/barrett-v-carney-cal-1867.