Blatchford v. Boyden

18 Ill. App. 378, 1885 Ill. App. LEXIS 170
CourtAppellate Court of Illinois
DecidedFebruary 23, 1886
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 18 Ill. App. 378 (Blatchford v. Boyden) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Court of Illinois primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Blatchford v. Boyden, 18 Ill. App. 378, 1885 Ill. App. LEXIS 170 (Ill. Ct. App. 1886).

Opinion

Bailey, P. J.

This' was an action of debt on a replevin bond. It appears that, on the 6th day of April, 1883, Seth F. Hanchett, sheriff of Cook county, having in his hands two executions against the property of Charles S. Munson, one in favor of John L. Barn run and Ralph Arthur, for $1,048.65 and costs, issued February 10,1883, from the Superior Court of Cook county, and one in favor of Robert E. Jenkins,'assignee of the estate of Josiah R. Butler, for $733.14 and costs, issued March 1,1883, from the Circuit Court of Cook county, levied said executions upon certain goods and chattels, consisting of the furniture and fixtures in the Massasoit House, Chicago. On the following day Eliphalet W. Blatchford and Caleb F. Gates brought their replevin suit and caused said goods and chattels to be replevied from the sheriff. Hanchett, the sheriff, Burke, his deputy, and the plaintiffs in the executions were made parties defendant to the replevin suit.

In the affidavit in replevin, Jenkins was described as assignee of the estate of Josiah B. Butler, but in the writ and bond he was by mistake described as assignee of the estate of Joseph B. Barker. Subsequently, on motion of the plaintiffs in the replevin suit, leave was given to amend the files by changing the name of Joseph B. Barker to Josiah B. Butler, and at the same time and as a part of the same order, the court, on motion of said plaintiffs, ordered that the suit be dismissed at their costs, and that the defendants recover of the plaintiffs the possession of the property replevied, and have a writ of retorno hahendo therefor. It does not appear that said amendment was actually made in any of the papers in said suit. The property replevied not having been returned, the present suit was brought. In this suit Jenkins is named as one of the parties for whose use the suit is prosecuted, by his proper description, it being averred in the declaration that he was incorrectly described in the bond as assignee of the estate of Joseph B. Barker.

Objection was made at the trial to the admission of the bond in evidence on account of this error of description as to Jenkins’ trust capacity. The bond was correctly described in the decoration, and proper averments were made in relation to said error of description in the bond, and we see no reason why it was not properly admissible under -the defendants’ plea of non est factum.

But it is urged that by bringing suit for the use of Jenkins as assignee of Butler, the plaintiffs are seeking to impose upon the obligors a different liability from that imposed by the condition of the bond. In this view we are unable to concur. Jenkins, though named as one of the usees, is in no sense a party to the suit, nor do we think his presence as a usee in any form at all essential to the protection of his equitable rights to a portion of the damages recoverable on the bond. Though made a party to the replevin suit, neither he nor the plaintiffs in the other execution were necessary or even proper parties to that suit. They had no property, either general or special, in the goods and chattels levied upon, and no jiossession of them or right of possession. The legal custody and possession of said goods and chattels was in the officer only.

In Richardson v. Reed, 4 Gray, 441, it is held that a creditor at whose suit an attachment is levied upon goods not the property of his debtor, is not liable in replevin for the goods attached, either alone or jointly with the attaching officer. The principles upon which this decision is based, and which seem to us to be entirely sound and satisfactory, are stated by the court as follows: “ The grounds and incidents of a replevin suit are incompatible with the joinder of the creditor and officer as defendants. The writ of replevin assumes that the goods which are to be replevied have been taken, detained or attached by the defendant, and are in his possession or-under his control; and it directs that they shall be replevied and delivered to the plaintiff, provided he shall give bond conditioned, among other thing;, to restore and return the same goods to the defendants, and pay him damages, if such shall be the final judgment in the action. But attached goods are in the legal custody and possession of the officer only. The attaching creditor has no property in them, general or special, no right to the possession of them, and no right of action against a third person who may take them from the officer or destroy them. How then can the goods be returned on a writ of return or reprisal to him who never had possession of them, or right to possession ? Or how can he be entitled to damages for the taking and detaining of goods in which he had no property ? ” See also Grace v. Mitchell, 31 Wis. 533 ; Mitchell v. Roberts, 50 N. H. 486; Wells on Replevin, Sec. 143.

In this case the sheriff was the proper party defendant to the replevin suit, and the return of the property having been awarded, he was the proper party to recover, in the name of the coroner, for his own use as sheriff, the amount of the liens represented by both the executions in his hands. This right on the part of the sheriff was in no degree affected by the act of the plaintiffs in the replevin bond in improperly joining the execution creditors as co-defendants with him, or in naming them as such defendants in the condition of the bond. The right to enforce the entire liability upon the bond was in the sheriff, and no additional liability was imposed upon the obligors by naming Jenkins in any form as a usee.

The principal controversy in the case arises upon the defense made by the pleas in mitigation of damages filed by the defendants pursuant to the provisions of section 26 of the statute in relation to replevin. In those pleas it is alleged that the merits of the case had not been determined in the trial of the replevin suit, and that at the time of the com, mencement of the replevin suit, the goods and chattels replevied were the property of Eliphalet W. Blatchford and Caleb F. Bates, the plaintiffs in said suit.

To maintain their title Blatchford and Gates offered in evidence a chattel mortgage of said property, dated April 4,1881j executed by Charles S. Munson to them under their firm name of E. W. Blatchford & Co., to secure the payment of three promissory notes payable to E. W. Blatchford & Co., one for §4,800, due on or before six months from said date, and one for §5,800, due on or before twelve months from said date, both signed by Charles S. Munson and Maggie Munson, and one for §13,000, due on or before two years from said date, signed by Charles S. Munson. The mortgage contained a provision authorizing the mortgagees, in case of default, to také possession of the mortgaged property and sell the same at public auction after giving certain notice, or at private sale with or without notice, for cash or on credit.

It appears that a short time prior to the expiration of two years from the date of the mortgage, said notes being unpaid, E. W. Blatchford & Co., and Munson, in anticipation of the termination of the lien of the mortgage, entered into an agreement or arrangement by which they agreed, at the expiration of said two years, to take possession of the mortgaged property and foreclose the mortgage by making a private sale of the property back to M.rason on credit, and take a new mortgage from him to secure the purchase money.

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Related

Richardson v. Cassidy
63 Ill. App. 482 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1896)
Larson v. Laird
36 Ill. App. 402 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1890)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
18 Ill. App. 378, 1885 Ill. App. LEXIS 170, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/blatchford-v-boyden-illappct-1886.