Hasseld v. Seyfort

5 N.E. 675, 105 Ind. 534, 1886 Ind. LEXIS 480
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 9, 1886
DocketNo. 12,018
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 5 N.E. 675 (Hasseld v. Seyfort) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hasseld v. Seyfort, 5 N.E. 675, 105 Ind. 534, 1886 Ind. LEXIS 480 (Ind. 1886).

Opinion

Zollars, J. —

We take from appellee’s brief the following summary of the facts in the case, which is substantially correct: “On the 24th day of December, 1883, John Kayser, by deed, that day recorded in Greene county, Indiana, made a voluntary assignment, under the statute of Indiana, of all his property to appellee, in trust for the benefit of all his creditors. The appellee, on that day, duly qualified as trustee and took possession of the property specifically described in the deed of assignment. Learning from the assignor that in the adjoining county of Clay there were certain articles of personal property — the same here in controversy — which were not specifically described in the schedule accompanying the deed, through, it appears, oversight and misapprehension, the trustee demanded of the assignor that they be delivered into his possession as part of the assigned estate, and they were so delivered and taken into full possession by the trustee on the next day after the assignment, to wit, December 25th, 1883, and on the 28th of the same month inventoried [535]*535with the other assigned property as part of the assets in the hands of the trustee for the benefit of all the creditors. On December 27th, 1883, the appellants recovered judgments against the assignor before a justice of the peace, and on that day levied executions on the Clay county personal property, which had two days before come into the possession of the trustee as above recited. This action was then instituted by appellee before the justice to try his right to the property. It is assumed by both parties that at the date of assignment, the title to the property in dispute was vested in the assignor.”

Judgment was rendered for appellee in the circuit court, giving him the property in dispute, as against the claim of appellants under their executions.

In support of their motion for a new trial, and under the assigned error in the overruling of that motion, appellants insist that the judgment is not sustained by sufficient evidence, and is contrary to law.

Their contention is, that the so called Clay City property, consisting of boots and shoes, did not pass to the assignee, although it was surrendered to and taken possession of by him as a part of the assigned estate, for the benefit of all the creditors, because it is not described in the schedule which accompanied the indenture of assignment. They rest their contention upon the rule, that where general words are followed by a specific clause, the latter will restrict and limit their operation, and the instrument will be construed according to the specific clause; and also upon a class of cases in which it has been held, that in the application of this rule, general words of grant in deeds of assignment will be limited by and restricted to the property described in the schedule, to which reference is made in the deed for a more specific description, and that no property will pass to the assignee except such as is described in such schedule.

These cases, undoubtedly, rule the law correctly, where the assignment is purely voluntary, without reference to, or un[536]*536affected by statutes, and where a different intent is not made to appear.

Whether the rule they lay down is applicable and controlling here, will depend upon the construction that shall be given to our statute, and the indenture of assignment executed by Kayser to appellee.

Section 2662, R. S. 1881, provides that any debtor in embarrassed or failing circumstances may make a general assignment of all his property, in trust for the benefit of his bona fide creditors; and that assignments for such purpose, except as provided for in the act, shall be deemed fraudulent and void.

Section 2663 is as follows: “All assignments under this, act shall be by indenture duly signed and acknowledged before some person duly authorized to take the acknowledgment of deeds, and shall, within ten days after the execution thereof, be filed with the recorder of the county in which the-assignor resides, whose duty it shall be to record the same as deeds are recorded. The indenture of assignment shall contain a full description of all real estate thus assigned, and be accompanied by a schedule containing a particular enumeration and description of all the personal property assigned; and the assignor shall make oath, * * * that said indenture and schedule contain a statement of all the property, rights,, and credits belonging to him, or of which he has any knowledge, and that he has not directly or indirectly transferred or reserved any sum of money or article of property for his own use or the benefit of any other person, and has not acknowledged a debt or confessed a judgment to any person or persons for a sum greater than was justly owing to such person or persons, or with the intention of delaying or defrauding his creditors. No assignment under this act shall convey to the assignee any interest in the property so assigned until such assignment is recorded as provided for in this section.”

Section 2664 provides that within fifteen days after the execution of the assignment, the trustee shall file a copy of [537]*537the assignment and schedule in the office of the clerk, and shall, before entering upon the execution of the trust, make oath that the property assigned has been actually delivered into his possession for the uses declared in the assignment, and of the probable value of the property so assigned, etc.

Section 2666 provides that for the neglect of such duties, the court may remove the trustee and appoint another.

Section 2667 provides that the trustee shall, within thirty days after entering upon the duties of his trust, make and file, under oath, a full and complete inventory of all the property, real and personal, the rights, credits, interests, profits and collaterals which shall have come to his hands, or of which he may have obtained knowledge as belonging to the assignor. It is further made his duty, whenever any property not mentioned in said inventory comes to his hands, or when he obtains satisfactory information of the existence of such property, to file an additional inventory of the same, under like regulations, etc.

Section 2676 provides that if the trustee or a creditor shall satisfy the court that the assignor has fraudulently withheld, or has fraudulently transferred any part of his property, such court, or the judge thereof in vacation, may order the arrest of the assignor, and the person to whom such fraudulent transfer is believed to have been made, etc., have him or them brought before the court, and subject such property as has been fraudulently withheld or transferred, to the operation of the general trust.

An examination of the statute, of which the above sections are a part, makes it apparent that its purpose is to carry into the trust all of the assignor’s property, and that where a person takes advantage of its provisions and makes an assignment for the benefit of his creditors, he thereby places his property in the custody of the court, to be disposed of by the assignee under the direction and control of the court. Grubbs v. Morris, 103 Ind. 166. By the indenture of assignment, and the proceedings under it, the title to the prop[538]*538erty passes to the trustee for the purpose of the trust, and only for that purpose, because the court may remove the trustee named in the indenture of assignment and appoint another in his stead.

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Bluebook (online)
5 N.E. 675, 105 Ind. 534, 1886 Ind. LEXIS 480, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hasseld-v-seyfort-ind-1886.