Boyle v. Good-Hopkins Lumber Co.

269 F. 515, 1920 U.S. App. LEXIS 1874
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedDecember 6, 1920
DocketNo. 3524
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 269 F. 515 (Boyle v. Good-Hopkins Lumber Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Boyle v. Good-Hopkins Lumber Co., 269 F. 515, 1920 U.S. App. LEXIS 1874 (9th Cir. 1920).

Opinion

HUNT, Circuit Judge.

This appeal presents the question whether a chattel mortgage given by the bankrupt, Pine Tree Lumber Company, to Good-Hopkins Lumber Company, has validity and created a lien superior to any lien of the trustee in bankruptcy of Pine Tree Lumber Company.

The trustee, while receiver of the bankrupt company, petitioned the District Court for leave to sell 1,000,000 feet of lumber, more or less, upon which Good-Hopkins Lumber Company claimed a lien. Upon a hearing the-referee in bankruptcy disallowed the claim as a preferred and secured one and allowed it as a general claim, and thereafter the lumber was sold free of lien. The District Court reversed the order of'.the referee and allowed the claim as a preferred one, and the trustee appealed.

The claim of Good-Hopkins Lumber Company is founded upon a chattel mortgage, duly recorded, made by the bankrupt on June 20, 1918. The mortgage provides that the Pine Tree Lumber Company, in consideration of sums “to be loaned as hereinafter specified,” grants, bargains, transfers, and sets over unto Good-Hopkins Lumber Company, a Washington corporation, “all of the lumber of every kind and character which shall be sawn by the mortgagor at its mill, beginning June 1, 1918, and put in pile upon a certain piling ground in the north half of the southeast quarter (N. % S. E. %) of section 17, township 17 S., range 11 E., W. M., in Deschutes county, Oregon, which piling ground is located near said mill, up to the full amount of six, million feet.” Other provisions of the mortgage make it a security for all notes given during the continuance of the mortgage, and provide that if the mortgagor shall pay unto the mortgagee sums which may be secured by the mortgage in accordance with the conditions of the notes, and in any event before June 1, 1919, and shall comply with the terms of a certain contract between the parties, executed February 7, 1918, then the mortgage shall be of no effect; otherwise, to remain in full force. There are further references to advances made in accordance with the terms of the contract referred to bgtween the parties, dated February 7, 1918.

There was testimony to the effect that the bankrupt owned by a contract of purchase the standing timber from which the lumber referred to in the chattel mortgage was sawn. About December 1, 1918, Good-Hopkins Company gave its permission for the Pine Tree Company to make a contract for sawing lumber with another company, and it appears that after that time the Pine Tree Company did nothing for the Good-Hopkins Company. On August 29, 1919, the Pine Tree Lumber Company was adjudged a bankrupt. Boyle, now [517]*517trustee, was appointed receiver, and found 1,000,000 feet of lumber, more or less, on hand. The Pine Tree Lumber Company had sawed this lumber and placed it in its lumber yards near its mill in Deschutes county. The lumber so piled never was in the actual, manual possession of Good-Hopkins Lumber Company, but was in the possession of the bankrupt corporation, and passed from its possession into the hands of the receiver on August 29, 1919, and was retained by the receiver until sold pursuant to an order of court. It also appeared that the money loaned, and which the mortgage was given to secure, was all used in the production of the lumber covered by the mortgage, and all the lumber covered by the mortgage was produced and put in piles prior to December 1, 1918, and each pile was stenciled “Good-Hopkins Lumber Company.”

It is conceded that rights of the parties are to be determined under the law of Oregon. So far as the record advises us, no attaching creditor appears to have filed a claim or to have held an attachment lien. The rights of the trustee as defined under the amendment of 1910 (Act June 25, 1910, c. 412, 36 Stat. 840 [U. S. Comp. Stat. Supp. 1911, p. 1500]) to section 47a of the Bankruptcy Act are:

“(2) Collect and reduce to money the property of the estates for which they are trustees, under the direction of the court, and close up the estate as expeditiously as is compatible with the best interests of the parties in interest; and such trustees, as to all property in the custody or coming into the custody of the bankruptcy court, shall be deemed vested with all the rights, remedies, and powers of a creditor holding a lien by legal or equitable proceedings thereon.” In re Flatland, et ux, 196 Fed. 310, 116 C. C. A. 130.

In equity the mortgage is valid as against the mortgagor and all persons claiming through him with notice, and we think it is valid in the adjustment of the rights in bankruptcy, even though the mortgagee4 did not take actual, manual possession of the property. The effect of the‘mortgage was to operate as a contract to assign as soon as the mortgagor acquired the property, and thus there was created a lien capable of enforcement in equity as a lien attaching to the property. The lumber was all sawed and put in piles several months before the date of the appointment of the trustee, and a circumstance in favor of the validity of the mortgage is the fact that after the production of the lumber the mortgagor marked and numbered each pile with the name of the mortgagee, appellee herein. In Coates v. Smith, 81 Or. 556, 160 Pac. 517, the Supreme Court of the state assumed that the rights of a trustee are equal to those of an attaching creditor under the statutes of Oregon, and held that it was the settled law of that state:

“That a trustee having the right of an attaching creditor, is not ipso facto a bona fide purchaser for value. That one is such a purchaser and not affected by outstanding equities is an affirmative defense, and must be pleaded and proved. Before an attaching creditor, or one standing in an equal position, can be deemed a purchaser in good faith, he must allege and prove all the facts necessary to establish that character of his ownership.”

In support of this rule many earlier Oregon decisions are cited.

In the earlier case of Flanigan v. Graham, 42 Or. 403, 71 Pac. 137, 790 (decided in 1903), the court, speaking through Justice Wolverton, [518]*518recognized that the general principle that a mortgage intended to cover property not in existence or after-acquired seems to be that at law such a mortgage is ineffectual and void, but that in equity it is regarded as an executory agreement which, though not effectual per se to transfer the present legal title, yet operates, to impress a lien according to the agreement of the parties when the property comes into existence. The court continued:

“The instrument called a ‘mortgage,’ under such conditions, is construed as operating by way of a present contract to give a lien, which, as between the parties and all others having notice or knowledge thereof, takes effect or attaches to the subject as soon as it comes into the ownership of the mortgaging party.”

The doctrine of the case is approved in Jones on Chattel Mortgages, § 170.

Kenny v. Hurlburt, 88 Or. 688, 172 Pac. 490, 173 Pac. 158, L. R. A. 1918E, 652, Ann. Cas. 1918E, 737, is relied upon by the appellant as supporting the proposition that, actual possession not having passed to the mortgagee, the mortgage is invalid. That case arose between a trustee in bankruptcy and the holder of a chattel mortgage covering a stock of goods in a retail mercantile house. The trustee was appointed in the bankruptcy of Pulfer Mercantile Company.

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

Related

First Nat. Bank of Burns v. Frazier
22 P.2d 325 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1933)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
269 F. 515, 1920 U.S. App. LEXIS 1874, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/boyle-v-good-hopkins-lumber-co-ca9-1920.