Hatfield v. Cummings

50 N.E. 817, 152 Ind. 280, 1898 Ind. LEXIS 263
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedJune 10, 1898
DocketNo. 18,354
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 50 N.E. 817 (Hatfield v. Cummings) 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
Hatfield v. Cummings, 50 N.E. 817, 152 Ind. 280, 1898 Ind. LEXIS 263 (Ind. 1898).

Opinions

McCabe, J.

The appellee, as receiver, sued to collect a note, and to foreclose a mortgage given by appellants to said association to secure the payment of said note. The issues made were tried by the court, resulting in a special finding of facts, on which the court stated conclusions of law leading to judgment in favor of the plaintiff.

The assignment of errors calls in question the sufficiency of the complaint, the action of the court in overruling appellants’ demurrer thereto; in overruling appellants’ motion in [282]*282arrest of judgment; in overruling appellant James M. Hatfield’s demurrer to the second paragraph of appellee’s reply to the joint answer of said Hatfield and the Huntington City Building, Loan, etc., Company; in overruling the demurrer of Thursy J. Hatfield to the second paragraph of reply to the second paragraph of her separate answer; in its conclusions of law; and in overruling appellants’ motion for a new trial.

This is the second time this case has been in this court. Hatfield v. Cummings, Rec., 142 Ind. 350. After the return of the cause to the Huntington Circuit Court, the venue was changed to the "Wabash Circuit Court. On the former appeal the judgment was reversed because the complaint failed sufficiently to allege that the receiver had been authorized to sue. The cause was remanded with leave to amend the complaint; and the principal objection to the complaint now is that the amendment did not obviate the defect pointed out on the former appeal. The allegation in the amended complaint as to the authority of the receiver to sue is “that said Luther Cummings was duly appointed and qualified as receiver of said association, and, among other things, was then and there, by said court, duly empowered, ordered, and directed to collect by suit, if necessary, all the claims due said association.” This made the complaint sufficient in that respect. Hatfield v. Cummings, Rec., 140 Ind. 547; Hatfield v. Cummings, Rec., 142 Ind. 350.

Another objection to the complaint is that it does not show that the association is in debt, or that any claims have been allowed, or judgments rendered, making the foreclosure of the mortgage for the collection of the note sued on necessary. A number of cases are cited where stockholders of insolvent banking corporations, and the like, were sued by a receiver to collect the stock subscribed, and in some instances beyond the amount of such stock; and in such cases it was held that the receiver’s complaint was bad, because it failed to show that the payment of the debts and liabilities of the insolvent concern made it necessary to force such collections. But this [283]*283is a very different sort of a case. The receiver here was appointed under the statute because of the expiration of the charter of the corporation, and not because it was insolvent. It is rather a flimsy and unconscionable excuse for the maker of a note and mortgage for borrowed money to give, — why it should not be paid, — that the lender does not need it to pay debts with. There was no error in holding the complaint good.

Both James M. Hatfield and Thursy J. Hatfield are appellants, and have joined in the assignment of error on the separate demurrer of said James M. and the separate demurrer of Thursy J. to certain replies. Neither of these appellants were interested in, or injured by, the ruling on each other’s separate demurrers to such replies. It is well established that a ruling not available as to all parties complaining of it, cannot be successfully assigned as error jointly by them. Earhart v. Farmers Creamery, 148 Ind. 79, and cases there cited. Therefore, we need not further notice the sufficiency of said replies.

It is next objected that the finding of facts does not show an order of court authorizing the receiver to sue. The special finding upon this point states that “the court then and there, upon said hearing, appointed Luther Cummings, the plaintiff herein, as such receiver of and for said Lime City Building, Loan and Savings Association, and empowered, ordered, and directed said receiver to take charge of its books, papers, and property, and to collect all claims due to said association by suit or otherwise.” Hnder the authority of the cases cited above, the finding of the receiver’s authority is sufficient.

The conclusion of law objected to by appellant.is the first, which is as follows: “That the defendants Hatfield, being members and stockholders in the said Lime City Building, Loan and Savings Association at the time the order appointing the plaintiff receiver of said association was entered, and at the time of rendering final judgment in said action so commenced and prosecuted by said Harvey C. Black, are bound [284]*284thereby as if they had each been, and continued until its final determination to be, parties defendant in that suit.” This conclusion of law has reference to the facts found under the issues upon the answer of appellants assailing the validity of the appointment of appellee as receiver in the suit of Black against the Lime City Building, etc., Association, and appellee’s replies to said answer. All the facts are found about that litigation, in which it is shown that the same objections are urged to the validity of the appointment in this case that were put in issue and adjudicated in that case, adjudging that the appointment so made was valid, and upheld by the judgment of the court. And that judgment was affirmed on appeal to this court in Lime City, etc., Assn. v. Black, 136 Ind. 544.

It is true, the finding shows that, though the Hatfields were parties to that cause, yet they were dropped out of the case by a dismissal as to them before the final judgment. But the finding shows that they were at all times, during that litigation and adjudication resulting in the appointment of a receiver for such association, both stockholders in said association and members thereof.

An eminent author says: “For instance, a stockholder in a corporation against which a judgment has been recovered, and out of whose estate the execution issued thereon has been satisfied, is so far a privy in law that he may bring error to reverse it, but for that very reason he cannot attack the judgment collaterally for any defect such as an irregularity in the service of process.” 1 Black on Judg., section 260; Freeman on Judg., (2nd ed.) section 177. So it has been held by this court in two cases that: “Whether the action of the court in appointing a receiver was according to law, we need not decide. If the appointment was erroneous, it was not void, and cannot, in a collateral proceeding, be assailed, even by the parties thereto, and certainly not by strangers in the attitude of appellant.” Pressley v. Lamb, 105 Ind. 171, 190; Cook v. Citizens Nat. Bank, 73 Ind. 256.

Kerr on Bee., page 166, says: “It is immaterial that the [285]*285order appointing a receiver may have been improper or erroneous. It is not competent for any one to interfere with the possession of a receiver on the ground that the order appointing him ought not to have been made. It is enough that it be a subsisting order.” This authority is cited and quoted with approval in both of the cases first above cited, and in Smith v. Harris, 135 Ind. 621.

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Bluebook (online)
50 N.E. 817, 152 Ind. 280, 1898 Ind. LEXIS 263, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hatfield-v-cummings-ind-1898.