Caldwell Backing & T. Co. v. Porter

95 P. 1, 52 Or. 318, 1908 Ore. LEXIS 128
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedApril 14, 1908
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 95 P. 1 (Caldwell Backing & T. Co. v. Porter) 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
Caldwell Backing & T. Co. v. Porter, 95 P. 1, 52 Or. 318, 1908 Ore. LEXIS 128 (Or. 1908).

Opinions

[323]*323Opinion by

Mr. Chief Justice Bean.

1. The defendant’s motion to dismiss the proceeding and discharge the garnishee from liability because of the failure of plaintiff to appear at the time and place mentioned in the order requiring the garnishee to appear and be examined on oath concerning the matters stated in its answer to the garnishee process, was waived by defendant. It subsequently answered, and proceeded to trial without objection, and without asking or requesting a ruling on the motion.

2. Nor is there ány merit in the objection made at the opening of the case to the admission of any testimony because plaintiff’s remedy is in equity and not at law. All the property of a defendant not exempt from execution is liable to attachment (Section 800, B. & C. Comp.), and this includes money and credits.

3. If the garnishee bank was indebted to the partnership of Porter, Jones & Test, or that firm had a balance to its credit on the books of the bank, at the time the garnishee process was served, it was liable to seizure under an attachment in the action brought by plaintiff against the firm, and, if the answer of the bank was not satisfactory to plaintiff, it had a right to proceed in the manner provided by statute. A proceeding against a garnishee on an attachment or execution issued in an action at law is in no sense equitable, but strictly at law, and the pleadings are framed and issues of fact arising thereon tried as in ordinary law actions. Case v. Noyes, 16 Or. 329 (19 Pac. 104) ; Smith v. Conrad, 23 Or. 206 (31 Pac. 398).

4. It is contended that defendant’s motion for a non-suit should have been sustained because plaintiff did not prove the commencement of an action by it against Porter, Jones & Test, or the issuance and service of an attachment therein, or the answer of the garnishee to such attachment, or that a judgment had been rendered in favor of plaintiff in such action. Plaintiff offered in [324]*324evidence the pleadings and record in the action referred to, which would have furnished the proof suggested, but-they were ruled out by the court on an objection of defendant, and it would seem that it ought not be permitted to take advantage of a failure of proof in this respect. The ruling of the court was probably based on the theory, that proceedings against a garnishee are auxiliary to the action in which the attachment was issued, and therefore the court will take judicial knowledge of the proceeding in such action without proof, and there are many authorities which support this view. State v. Bates, 22 Utah, 65 (61 Pac. 905 :83 Am. St. Rep. 768) ; Kenosha Stove Co. v. Shedd, 82 Iowa, 540 (48 N. W. 933) ; Hollenbach v. Schnabel, 101 Cal. 312 (35 Pac. 872: 40 Am. Rep. 57) ; Flood v. Libby, 38 Wash. 366 (80 Pac. 533: 107 Am. St. Rep. 851) ; Farrar v. Bates, 55 Tex. 193; Farrington v. Sexton, 43 Mich. 454 (5 N. W. 654) ; S. E. Olson Co. v. Brady, 76 Minn. 8 (78 N. W. 864); Morrison v. Hilburn & Poole, 126 Ga. 114 (54 S. E. 938). But whatever the true rule may be in this regard, defendant specified particularly the grounds of its motion for a nonsuit', which do not include the point now made, and it is the law that the grounds stated in such a motion are conclusive upon the moving party, both at trial and in an appellate court, and that he cannot raise for the first time on appeal a ground of nonsuit not stated below. 6 Enc. Pleading & Practice, 879; Meier v. Northern Pac. R. R. Co., 51 Or. 69 (93 Pac. 691).

5.' It is also claimed that the court erred in directing a verdict in favor of plaintiff at the close of the testimony. This depends upon whether the garnishee bank had the right, as against the partnership of Porter, Jones & Test, to charge to the firm account the notes held by it against the individual members of the firm. Plaintiff, by virtue of the attachment, was subrogated to the rights of the firm against the bank, and is entitled to recover [325]*325against it, if the firm could have done so at the time the attachment was served. Keene v. Smith, 44 Or. 525 (75 Pac. 1065).

6. Simple contract partnership creditors have no lien in their own right upon partnership assets which will prevent the partners, while the property is under their control, from in good faith applying it to the payment of the individual debts of the members of the firm or otherwise disposing of it. Stahl v. Osmers, 31 Or. 199 (49 Pac. 958) ; First National Bank of Indianola v. Brubaker, 128 Iowa, 587 (105 N. W. 116: 2 L. R. A. (N. S.) 256: 111 Am. St. Rep. 209) ; Pepper v. Peek, 17 R. I. 55 (20 Atl. 16) ; Carver Gin & Machine Co. v. Bannon, 85 Tenn. 712 (4 S. W. 831: 4 Am. Rep. 803); Woodmansie v. Holcomb, 34 Kan. 35 (6 Pac. 603); National Bank of the Metropolis v. Sprague, 20 N. J. Eq. 13; Smith v. Smith, 43 Am. Rep. 359, 364, note. But the partners have a lien on such property for the payment of the partnership debts, or for the surplus due each partner, and therefore one partner cannot appropriate the property to the payment of his individual debts without the consent of all the other partners. Such a payment is regarded in law as a misapplication of the assets of the firm and a fraud upon the rights of co-partners, and, if the individual creditor has knowledge of the fact, the property may, according to the weight of authority, although there is some conflict in the decisions, . be recovered in an action at law in the name of the firm, or by a creditor succeeding to its rights by attachment or garnishment. Johnson v. Hersey, 70 Me. 74 (35 Am. Rep. 303) ; Coote & Jones v. Bank of United States, 3 Cranch, C. C. 95, Fed. Cas. No. 3,204; Davies v. Atkinson, 7 Am. Rep. 373, 377; note; Cannon v. Lindsey, 85 Ala. 198 (3 South. 676: 7 Am. Rep. 38); Rogers V. Batchelor, 12 Pet. (U. S.) 221 (9 L. Ed. 1063) ; Johnson & Pitt v. Crichton, 56 Md. 108; Davies v. Atkinson, 124 Ill. 474 (16 N. E. 899) ; Cotzhausen v. Judd, [326]*32643 Wis. 213 (28 Am. Rep. 539) ; Viles v. Bangs, 36 Wis. 131; Howell & Gibson V. Sewing Machine Co., 12 Neb. 177 (10 N. W. 700) ; Brickett v. Downs, 163 Mass. 70 (39 N. E. 776) ; Locke v. Lewis, 124 Mass. 1 (26 Am. Rep. 631).

7. It is undisputed that at the time the garnishee bank charged up to the firm account the notes of the individual members, it knew the character of the obligations. Its act was therefore prima facie invalid as against the partnership and its creditors, and the burden of proof was on the bank to show that it made such charge with the assent, express or implied, of all the partners. Coote & Jones v. Bank of United States, 3 Cranch, C. C. 95, Fed. Cas. No. 3,204; Willis V. Holmes, 28 Or. 265 (42 Pac. 989).

8.

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Bluebook (online)
95 P. 1, 52 Or. 318, 1908 Ore. LEXIS 128, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/caldwell-backing-t-co-v-porter-or-1908.