Capital Lumbering Co. v. Learned

59 P. 454, 36 Or. 544, 1899 Ore. LEXIS 93
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 26, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by28 cases

This text of 59 P. 454 (Capital Lumbering Co. v. Learned) 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
Capital Lumbering Co. v. Learned, 59 P. 454, 36 Or. 544, 1899 Ore. LEXIS 93 (Or. 1899).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Moore,

after stating the facts, delivered the opinion of the court.

1. It is contended by defendants ’ counsel that the court erred in striking certain allegations from the answer, to the prejudice of their clients. It was alleged therein, in effect, that at the time said property was seized it was in the possession of Mrs. Learned, and that the sheriff, after levying thereon, left it upon her premises, situated about three miles east of Salem, where it has at all times since remained. It is argued that, the sheriff not having removed the property when he seized it, it was incumbent upon him, when it was adjudged that he was entitled thereto, to receive it at the same place and in the same condition that it was when his constructive possession was disturbed. The complaint alleged that the sheriff [547]*547made a valid levy upon the property and took the same into his possession; and this allegation, not being specifically denied in the answer, is admitted : Hill’s Ann. Laws, § 94. The affirmative allegation of the answer which the court struck out being inconsistent with such admission, it was immaterial where the property was left by the sheriff upon its seizure.

2. The part of the answer which relates to where the property was to be found after its return was adjudged is important only when the character of the property and the duty of the defendants with respect to its return are considered. When a return of personal property is adjudged in an action for its recovery, it is the duty of the plaintiff, if he has secured possession thereof pending the litigation, and would escape the penalty of his undertaking, to take active measures to redeliver it to the defendant within a reasonable time, in the same condition as when taken : Cobbey, Kepi. § 1182 ; Parker v. Simonds, 8 Metc. (Mass.) 205 ; Berry v. Hoeffner, 56 Me. 170. This rule imposes upon the plaintiff in such case the duty of seeking the defendant in the action, and tendering the property to him, if it be readily capable of manual delivery ; but if such a course is difficult, by reason of its bulky character, an offer to redeliver it to the defendant is all that the law.enjoins. Thus, in an action for the possession of a steam engine, boiler, engine house, office, and hay scales, it was adjudged that the property be returned to the sheriff, who had levied thereon, but had not removed it from the place where it was then situated. The plaintiff offered to return it at the place where it was seized, but the sheriff refused to accept it, and thereafter commenced an action to recover its value, whereupon he was perpetually enjoined from enforcing the alternative judgment; the court holding that the property was of such a cumbrous nature as to render its removal incon[548]*548yenient, and that the plaintiff had done all that the law required of him in such cases : Frey v. Drahos, 10 Neb. 594 (7 N. W. 319). So, too, in Gans v. Woolfolk, 2 Mont. 458, a carpet containing six hundred yards, tacked to a floor, and not removed by the sheriff who seized it, was adjudged to be returned to him, and it was held that the carpet was so bulky as to render it necessary that the parties entitled to it should designate some convenient place to receive it, and, in the absence of such designation, the plaintiff could select a proper place for its delivery. Mr. Justice Blake, speaking for the court, in rendering the decision, says : “The carpet was a bulky and cumbersome article, and the respondents were not required to tender it, like money, to the appellants wherever found. They were obliged to deliver the property at some particular place. If the appellants neglected or refused to appoint the place, the respondents had the right to select it, with a reasonable regard for the-convenience of the appellants, and there deliver the goods.” In McClellan v. Marshall, 19 Iowa, 561 (87 Am. Dec. 454), plaintiff, having commenced an action in replevin, obtained the possession of a mare, which, upon the trial, was adjudged to be returned to the defendant, and in complying therewith the mare was driven forty miles, and tendered to the plaintiff. In the case at bar the property adjudged to be returned was of such character that it could be taken to the sheriff, and, this being so, it was incumbent upon Mrs. Learned to seek that officer at his place of business, and there tender the property to him in the same condition as when she received it: Pittsburgh Nat. Bank v. Hall, 107 Pa. St. 583. No error was committed, in our judgment, in striking out the allegation referred to from the answer.

3. It is contended that the court erred in striking out the denial in the answer that the chattels were of the value of $185. It will be remembered that the complaint [549]*549in the replevin action alleged that the property was of that value, and that the undertaking executed to secure the possession of the property contained the same recital. Such averment was binding upon Mrs. Learned, and es-topped her from contradicting the value she placed thereon. The defendant Stump, though not nominally a party to the action, became such in effect by signing the undertaking, and is to be treated as in court during the litigation, and, not having objected to the proceedings, is concluded by the judgment rendered against his principal: Cobbey, Kepi. § 1313 ; 20 Am. & Eng. Enc. Law (1 ed.), 1146; 1 Greenleaf, Ev. § 523. Thus the recital in a replevin bond of the value of the property is sufficient evidence of the value in an action on the bond, and estops the plaintiff and his sureties from denying the same : Wiseman v. Lynn, 39 Ind. 250. To the same effect, see 1 Brandt, Sur. § 45 ; Wells, Repl. § 453 ; Swift v. Barnes, 16 Pick. 194; Tuck v. Moses, 58 Me. 461; Trimble v. State, 4 Blackf. 435; McFadden v. Fritz, 110 Ind. 1 (10 N. E. 120); Washington Ice Co. v. Webster, 125 U. S. 426, 31 L. Ed. 799 (8 Sup. Ct. 947). No error was committed in striking out the denial.

4. The plaintiff having been incorporated to manufacture lumber and to erect buildings, it is contended by defendant’s counsel that it had no authority to take an assignment of Knight’s judgment, and hence no legal capacity to maintain an action of this character. The rule is well settled that, notwithstanding a corporation may have been created for the transaction of certain business, which is specified in the articles of incorporation, it may invoke any legal or equitable remedy which would be available to an individual under similar circumstances : 1 Morawetz, Priv. Corp. § 357. The right of a corporation to sue is a necessary incident to its creation, and, whatever its business may be, any right of action which [550]*550necessarily arises therefrom will receive the consideration of a court to which it may apply for relief. To reach any other conclusion would be equivalent to holding that, while plaintiff, under its articles of incorporation, might lawfully engage in the manufacture of lumber, if it sold any of its product on credit to a person who failed to keep his engagements in relation thereto, it could have no remedy for the enforcement of the debt. The statement of such consequence is a sufficient answer to the contention.

5.

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

Related

Marine Ecology Systems, Inc. v. Spooners Creek Yacht Harbor, Inc.
253 S.E.2d 613 (Court of Appeals of North Carolina, 1979)
First National Bank of Oregon v. Mobil Oil Corp.
538 P.2d 919 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1975)
Hoeh v. Kirby
39 P.2d 657 (Montana Supreme Court, 1935)
O'Rourke v. O'Rourke
1930 OK 149 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1930)
Lawer Auto Supply Co. v. Teton Auto Co.
284 P. 1001 (Wyoming Supreme Court, 1930)
Booth v. National Surety Co.
278 P. 987 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1929)
Burkitt v. Vail
260 P. 1014 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1928)
Brown Garage Co. v. A. G. Graben Motor Co.
205 N.W. 841 (Supreme Court of Iowa, 1925)
Moore ex rel. Webb v. Paul F. Beech Co.
221 Ill. App. 609 (Appellate Court of Illinois, 1921)
Folen v. Saxton
171 P. 669 (Idaho Supreme Court, 1918)
State v. Stiles
160 P. 126 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1916)
Interior Warehouse Co. v. Dunn
157 P. 806 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1916)
Fergusson v. Comfort
184 S.W. 1192 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1916)
Green v. Rehbine
1914 OK 474 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1914)
Schleuning v. West
148 N.W. 604 (South Dakota Supreme Court, 1914)
Wallace v. Cox
142 N.W. 891 (Nebraska Supreme Court, 1913)
Hallidie Machinery Co. v. Whidbey Island Sand & Gravel Co.
131 P. 1156 (Washington Supreme Court, 1913)
City of Woodburn v. Aplin
131 P. 516 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1913)
State v. Astoria
126 P. 999 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1912)
Zelig v. Blue Point Oyster, Co.
113 P. 852 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1911)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
59 P. 454, 36 Or. 544, 1899 Ore. LEXIS 93, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/capital-lumbering-co-v-learned-or-1899.