Holton v. Robinson

59 A.D. 45, 69 N.Y.S. 33

This text of 59 A.D. 45 (Holton v. Robinson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Holton v. Robinson, 59 A.D. 45, 69 N.Y.S. 33 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1901).

Opinion

Woodward, J.:

Ernest H. Holton recovered a judgment against the defendant in January, 1899, in an- action brought in the Supreme Court, and the -judgment roll was filed in the office of the clerk of New York county, The judgment debtor was examined on February 13, 1899, and no property was discovered. On the 29th day of December, 1899, an order- was made appointing a receiver of the property of the judg-' ment debtor, and directing that the plaintiff recover thirty dollars costs of the proceedings, ten dollars costs of the motion and twenty-seven dollars and fifty cents disbusements, out of the funds that caine into the hands of the receiver. The receiver so appointed filed such order in the office of the clerk of the county of Westchester and began an action to set aside a transfer of personal property by the judgment debtor to his sister on the ground that such transfer was fraudulent as against creditors. The defendant Robinson did not appear in the said action, but made default, the defendant Boyd, his sister, only appearing and answering by a general denial by her husband as attorney. On the action coming on for trial the attention of the court was called to the fact that both of the defendants had been subpoenaed as witnesses, and that neither of them was present, whereupon the court held them to be in default. To relieve such default Mr. Boyd, in open court, made the admission in behalf of the defendant Elizabeth J. Boyd, “ that there has been no-change of .the possession of the property described in the bill of sale since the delivery of the bill of sale to her, and that the property [47]*47has remained in the possession of the defendant Robinson, and that the business has been conducted as before under the name of Benjamin Robinson,” thus raising a presumption of fraud as against the creditors of Robinson (2 R. S. [9th ed.] 1886, § 5), which there has been no evidence to overcome. Thereafter the point was raised that to vest title in the receiver his order of appointment should have been filed and recorded in the office of the clerk of the county of New York, where the judgment roll in the action had been filed, and the court, taking this view of the question, dismissed the complaint. Immediately after the dismissal of the action the attorney for the judgment creditor, who also acted as attorney for the receiver, issued a second execution to the sheriff of the county of Westchester, to whom the judgment, amounting to $415.51, was paid in full. Subsequent to the dismissal of the complaint in the action to set aside the transfer of property to defendant’s sister, the order appointing the receiver was filed and recorded in the county of New York, where the judgment roll was filed, and a copy of the' order was served upon the defendant personally, together with a written demand for the possession of the property of the defendant, or enough thereof to pay the costs and disbursements, aggregating sixty-seven dollars and fifty cents, which demand the defendant refused. On October 11, 1900, the receiver applied to the court for .an' order fixing the amount of his fees, and directing the payment to him by the judgment debtor of the said amount and the costs, etc., awarded to the judgment creditor, or the delivery to him of the personal property of the defendant, as to which the fraudulent transfer, had been made. This application was granted, resulting in the order of October 20, 1900, directing the defendant to pay to the receiver fifty dollars in fees, sixty-seven dollars and fifty cents costs awarded the judgment creditor in supplementary proceedings and ten dollars costs of motion, making an aggregate of one hundred and twenty-seven dollars, or to deliver the said property or so much thereof as should be necessary to make the payment. The judgment debtor failed to obey this order within the time mentioned, and -on the 17th day of November, 1900, an order punishing the defendant for contempt issued out of the court. The appeal is from these two . orders.

[48]*48Thé appellant, who, in common with the respondent, appears to have overlooked the amendment to section 3320 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which went into effect on the 1st day of September, 1899, urges that the allowance of fifty, dollars to the receiver was unauthorized and erroneous. It will appear, however, from a perusal of the Code as it stands to-day (assuming, of course, that the Legislature has not exercised its prerogative of making changes),1 that the court has a discretionary power to award a sum not exceeding $100 to a receiver under the circumstances existing in the matter now before üs, and this point is, therefore, without force.

The appellant also urges that the petitioner was never in fact róceiver, because his appointment as receiver did not become complete until after the payment of the judgment in full to the sheriff ; that the appointment of the receiver in the order of December 29, 1899, did not become complete until the filing' and recording of the order in the office of the county clerk of the' county wherein the judgment roll in the action was filed, and until he qualified and filed a proper bond. It is true that section 2467 of the Code of Civil Procedure, to which our attention is directed, provides that “ An order appointing a receiver, or extending a receivership, must be filed in.the office of the clerk of the county, wherein the judgment-roll in the action is filed; ” but this provision is to be read and construed in connection with other sections of the Code. Section 2468 provides that^ the property of the judgment debtor is. vested in a receiver, who has duly qualified, from the time of filing the order appointing him, or extending his receivership, as the case may be,” subject to the exception (Subd. 2) that “ where the judgment debtor, at the time when the order is filed, resides in another county of the State, his personal property is vested in the receiver only from the time when a copy of the order, certified by the clerk in whose office it is recorded, is filed with the clerk of the county where he resides.” It is conceded that at the time of bringing the action to set aside the transfer of the defendant’s personal property to his sister, the order appointing the receiver was not filed with the clerk of the county in which the judgment roll was docketed, but •the original order was filed in Westchester county, which appears to be the residence of the defendant. This was, however, subsequently changed; the original order was filed in New York county, and a [49]*49■certified copy was deposited in the office of the clerk of Westchester county. In the meantime, however, the defendant caused the judgment, in aid of which the receiver was appointed, to be paid in full. When the order appointing the receiver was finally filed in the manner pointed out by the Code, the judgment, which forms the foundation of the proceeding, had been paid, and the question arises whether the court thus lost jurisdiction of the matter, so that the defendant may refuse to obey the order. The judgment against the defendant was in existence when the court appointed the receiver, its officer, to. take charge of the property in "behalf of creditors. The admission of the defendant Elizabeth J. Boyd, coupled with the default of this defendant, concedes that the transfer of the property was fraudulent as against creditors, and the court had already, in the exercise of its powers, surcharged the existing judgment with the expenditures made necessary in an effort to collect the same.

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Bluebook (online)
59 A.D. 45, 69 N.Y.S. 33, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/holton-v-robinson-nyappdiv-1901.