Davis v. Bar T Cattle Co.

431 P.2d 825, 247 Or. 437, 1967 Ore. LEXIS 500
CourtOregon Supreme Court
DecidedAugust 23, 1967
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 431 P.2d 825 (Davis v. Bar T Cattle Co.) 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
Davis v. Bar T Cattle Co., 431 P.2d 825, 247 Or. 437, 1967 Ore. LEXIS 500 (Or. 1967).

Opinion

DENECKE, J.

This appeal presents some novel questions in garnishment.

The plaintiff obtained a judgment against Bar T Cattle Company and on January 30, 1964, a notice of garnishment issued pursuant to a writ of execution was served on the garnishee Bank. The Bank filed a return alleging that it held personal property of Bar T as a chattel mortgagee in possession; that it had been and was liquidating such collateral at private sale because Bar T was in default; and that it was unable to state whether any balance would be remaining for application upon plaintiff’s judgment. The property consisted of cattle and feed.

[440]*440Plaintiff filed allegations against the Bank. The crucial pleading is plaintiff’s second amended allegations filed in March, 1965. Plaintiff alleged therein that the Bank had completed liquidation and had no moneys remaining. It further alleged this was so because the Bank had failed to conduct the sales in a reasonable manner and had charged unreasonable expenses. The Bank filed an answer admitting all except the improper selling and unreasonable expenses. The Bank demurred upon the grounds of no jurisdiction and that the allegations stated no cause of action. The demurrer was sustained and the plaintiff appeals.

The Bank concedes that a garnishing creditor can secure judicial relief against a garnishee if the creditor can prove that the garnishee liquidated the debtor’s collateral in an unreasonable manner or charged unreasonable expenses. The Bank contends, however, that a garnishment proceeding is not the correct procedure to obtain such relief.

The decisions of other states generally indicate that the plaintiff can litigate the issues he is raising here in a garnishment proceeding.

The opinion in Merchants’ & Manufacturers’ Nat. Bank of Pittsburg v. Baeder Glue Co. (Kern, Garnishee), 164 Pa 1, 30 A 290 (1894), seemingly does not report all that occurred; however, it was a garnishment proceeding on execution against a garnishee who held collateral of the debtor as security. The garnishee made a return that he had no goods of the debtor. The evidence was that the garnishee had 2,200 barrels of glue as collateral and he sold these for $24,000 to a buyer who within a few days sold the same for $32,000. The court stated the issue to be whether the garnishee had any goods of the debtor or was indebted [441]*441to the debtor. Judgment was entered against the garnishee. The court stated:

“The holder of collateral securities is not bound to obtain the highest possible price for them, but he is bound to the exercise of common business prudence and of good faith in his management and conversion of them. * * * They [the creditors] have a right to demand what he [the debtor] ought in good conscience to demand, — an account from his creditor for the collaterals placed in his hands. This disposes of the sixth, seventh, eighth, ninth, tenth, and eleventh assignments of error.” 30 A at 291.

In McDonald v. Creager, 96 Iowa 659, 65 NW 1021 (1896), the plaintiff judgment creditor garnished Crittenden. In a hearing the court found Crittenden had choses in action of the debtor but was entitled to hold the same and the court ordered him to liquidate them, pay the necessary expenses of liquidation, pay himself the amounts owed him by the debtor, and pay the plaintiff’s judgment out of any surplus. Subsequently, the garnishor filed supplemental proceedings alleging that Crittenden had liquidated the choses in action but refused to account to or pay plaintiff. The trial court determined the amount received by the garnishee and fixed the amount of expenses and fees that the garnishee could deduct, and ordered the balance, after deducting the amount owed the garnishee, paid into court. The appellate court reversed partly because it took a different view of what could be allowed as reasonable expenses, but the ability of the court in a garnishment proceeding to pass upon the garnishee’s conduct and expenses in liquidating collateral was unchallenged.

The decision most comparable to the present case is Galveston Dry-Goods Co. v. Blum, 23 Tex Civ App [442]*442703, 57 SW 1121 (1900). The debtor transferred stocks of dry goods to Blum by an assignment for the benefit of creditors. The plaintiff then garnished Blum in aid of a writ of execution. Subsequently, Blum sold the goods, paid the creditors for whose benefit the assignment had been made, and no balance remained. In the garnishment proceeding the trial court refused to require the garnishee, Blum, to furnish an account to the plaintiff and found for the garnishee. The appellate court reversed and ordered an accounting. It held the following requested instruction should have been given:

“* * * ‘You are instructed that in the preservation, custody, and disposition of the property taken by Ben Blum from Levine under the trust deed, Blum was bound to use the care and prudence which a man of ordinary prudence would use in his own affairs; and if through his failure to use such care and prudence after the service of plaintiff’s writ of garnishment on him, June 27, 1898, said property was wasted, or failed to bring what it would have brought had such care and prudence been observed by Blum, then he is responsible to plaintiff for the excess of the amount said property ought to have brought, by the use of such proper care and prudence, over the amount of the claims of creditors, if any, who accepted said deed of trust before said garnishment was served, and the reasonable expenses of administering the trust, and you will find a verdict for plaintiff for the amount of such excess, if any, not to exceed the sum of $498.65.’ * * 57 SW at 1122.

The court further held :

“* * * There was evidence sufficient to raise the issue as to whether the expenses claimed by appellee were reasonable expenditures, and as to whether the amount claimed to have been realized by the sale of the goods was their reasonable value. [443]*443It is the duty of a trustee [garnishee] to use ordinary care and prudence in the preservation and sale of goods intrusted to him to be sold for the benefit of others, and if, by his failure to use that care which a man of ordinary prudence would use in conducting his own business of like character, any loss occurs to the beneficiaries of said trust, he would be liable to them for such loss.” 57 SW at 1122-1123.

Rood, Garnishment (1896), 208, § 173, is in accord:

“If, for the purpose of satisfying his claim, the lienholder proceeds under his right to sell, he is not bound to obtain the highest possible price for the goods, but he must exercise common business prudence and good faith in the conversion of them, and, to the extent of his failure to do so, he is liable to the garnishing creditor. * * *”

The Bank correctly points out that garnishment is statutory and contends that regardless of what other jurisdictions have held under their garnishment statutes, the Oregon statutes do not permit the plaintiff to obtain this type of relief in a garnishment proceeding.

In Williams v. Gallick, 11 Or 337, 340, 3 P 469 (1884), this court held that under the Oregon garnishment statute the defendant debtor has an interest in property pledged to the garnishee which can be levied upon by a garnishing creditor. In that ease the debtor pledged personal property with Gallick to secure Gal-lick against a potential liability.

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Related

Korgan v. Walsleben
876 P.2d 355 (Court of Appeals of Oregon, 1994)
Turlay v. Farmers Insurance Exchange
488 P.2d 406 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1971)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
431 P.2d 825, 247 Or. 437, 1967 Ore. LEXIS 500, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/davis-v-bar-t-cattle-co-or-1967.