Grand Rapids Chair Co. v. Runnels

43 N.W. 1006, 77 Mich. 104, 1889 Mich. LEXIS 718
CourtMichigan Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 25, 1889
StatusPublished
Cited by25 cases

This text of 43 N.W. 1006 (Grand Rapids Chair Co. v. Runnels) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Michigan Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Grand Rapids Chair Co. v. Runnels, 43 N.W. 1006, 77 Mich. 104, 1889 Mich. LEXIS 718 (Mich. 1889).

Opinions

Morse, J.

The questions in this case to be determined grow out of proceedings under Act No. 229, Laws of 1887, known as the “Log-lien Law.” It was agreed by the contending parties in the court below that there were no issues of fact to be submitted to the jury, and thereupon the circuit judge of the Newaygo circuit directed a verdict in favor of the defendant. The action was in replevin, and the defendant took judgment for the return of the property, which consisted of 898 red oak and white oak logs, valued by the appraisers at $750.

The facts developed on the trial were these: At the time this suit was commenced, and at the time the logs were cut, Lyman T. Kinney, of Grand Rapids,- Michigan, owned the land§ upon which they grew. On September 17, 1887, he entered into an agreement in writing with one John G. Gunsolus, by which he sold all the red oak and white oak timber upon these lands to Gunsolus, said timber to be removed on or before April 1, 1888. The timber was to be paid for before it was loaded on the cars for shipment, at the rate of $4 per 1,000 feet stumpage, Doyle’s scale. It was agreed that the title to the timber should remain in said Kinney until it was paid for.

Gunsolus contracted the logs to be cut upon these lands to the Grand Rapids Chair Company, and made a contract with one Willard B. Lyons to cut and put them in. The logs in issue here were cut in the winter of 1887 and 1888, and, when taken under the writ, were at or near Field station, so called, on the east side of the spur or side track of the Chicago & West Michigan Rail[108]*108way Company, in the township of Wilcox, in the county of Newaygo.

Lyons became unable to pay all his men in full, and, on March 6, 1888, William Clark and eighteen other men, who had been employed by Lyons in getting out these logs, filed their liens with the county clerk of Newaygo county, and on the same day each made an affidavit before Samuel M. Reed, a justice of the peace of said county, and thereby commenced under the statute nineteen different suits against the logs and Willard B. Lyons. The writs of attachment were put in the hands of the defendant, Runnels, sheriff of Newaygo county, who on the same day levied upon the logs and served a certified copy of each writ upon Lyons. He also returns in each case that on March 9, 1888, he—

“ Served at the city of Grand Rapids, Mich., a certified copy of within writ on Charles O. Comstock, as president of the Grand Rapids Chair Company, who is the owner of said goods and chattels described in within writ."

The justice’s docket shows in each case that the writ was returnable March 14, 1888, at 9 o’clock A. M., at his office in the township of Wilcox. After reciting the substance of the sheriff’s return as above, the docket pro. ceeds:

“ Case called at 9 o’clock A. M. Plaintiff appeared in person, and by A. Hanson, as his attorney, and filed a written declaration. Defendant appeared in person, and pleaded the general issue. Both parties announced themselves ready for trial, and proceeded to try the cause. After hearing the testimony, and after due deliberation, I, Samuel M. Reed, as justice, say that there is due the plaintiff, the sum of" (being in each case the amount due from Lyons to the plaintiff for labor performed in getting out the logs) “from said defendant; and that the same is due for work and labor performed by the plaintiff in skidding, cutting, hauling, loading, and chopping a certain lot of red and white oak saw-logs, as mentioned [109]*109in plaintiff’s declaration; and that the plaintiff has a lien upon said described property for said amount."

The judgment in each case was for the amount of labor so found, and $15.05 costs; $5 of such costs being for the attorney fee authorized by such act. Executions upon each of these judgments were issued and placed in the hands of said sheriff March 19, 1888. Levy was made on the logs under these executions.

The secretary of the plaintiff company demanded these logs of the sheriff, and upon his refusal to deliver them the plaintiff brought this action in replevin.

Eor the consideration of one dollar, “to him in hand paid," Lyman T. Kinney, on March 29, 1888, assigned his title in and ' claim to said logs to the plaintiff. It seems also that the company had acquired Gunsolus’ interest in the logs before the lien proceedings were instituted. The secretary of the chair company testified that Kinney had not been paid in full for the logs on March 6, 1888, when the lien proceedings were instituted, and Kinney testified that he was the owner of them on that day. No notice of the lien proceedings were given to Mr. Kinney.

It is urged, as the first and most serious objection to the judgments in these lien cases, that Kinney, being the owner of the logs at the time these suits were commenced, was entitled to notice of the proceedings, and aB he had none, either actual or constructive, .the' judgments, as far as the logs are concerned, are invalid and void for want of jurisdiction, and therefore, there being no valid lien upon- them, the plaintiff, at the time of the commencement of the replevin suit, being the owner of them, was entitled to the possession of them, and the verdict and judgment should have passed in its favor. To this the defendant replies that the Grand Kapids Chair Company was the owner of these logs, and that [110]*110notice was given such corporation by service upon its president.

I think, under the circumstances of this case, that Mr. Kinney was not entitled to notice. If the proper notice was given to the Grand Rapids Ohair Company it was sufficient. This plaintiff corporation was in reality the owner of these logs. It hired Gunsolus to put them in, and had acquired all his interest before the lien proceedings were commenced. It is true that Kinney reserved the title to them until they were paid for; but he was paid for them before this replevin suit was instituted, and no rights of his appear to ever have been jeopardized by the attachment and seizure of the logs under the attachment. The'Grand Rapids Ohair Company claimed that the logs were in transit to them at the time the sheriff seized them, and their secretary so testifies. They had notice of the proceedings, as there is no dispute but Comstock was the president of the corporation when service was made upon him. There can be no good reason for defeating these liens upon a mere technicality which injures no one. The title which Kinney had in these logs, if he had any that he could assert, was one depending on a contingency which did not happen, or rather held as a security against the happening of non-payment. As the matter stands Kinney has no concern, and never had, with these liens. The real party affected now, and at all times heretofore, by them is the plaintiff in this suit.

It is claimed, however, by plaintiff’s counsel that the return of the sheriff does not show the service of any process upon plaintiff. It shows a service on —

Charles O. Comstock, as president of the Grand Rapids Ohair Company, who is the owner of said goods and chattels described in within writ.”

It is argued that by the word “who” a service is shown [111]*111on Comstock personally, not on the company. We think the return sufficient. It shows that it was served upon him “as president, etc., and the word “who" can well be treated, as it was no doubt intended, as relating back to the chair company, and not to Comstock.

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Bluebook (online)
43 N.W. 1006, 77 Mich. 104, 1889 Mich. LEXIS 718, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/grand-rapids-chair-co-v-runnels-mich-1889.