In re Dimock

4 A.D. 301, 39 N.Y.S. 501

This text of 4 A.D. 301 (In re Dimock) 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
In re Dimock, 4 A.D. 301, 39 N.Y.S. 501 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1896).

Opinion

Landon, J.:

The county judge dismissed the petitioner’s application upon the merits, holding, in effect

1. 'That the petitioner was not, at the time of presenting his petition, a resident of the county of Ulster. (Code Civ. Proc. § 2150.)

2. That he did not annex to his petition the consents, to his discharge, of his creditors having debts owing them in good faith, [304]*304amounting to not less than two-thirds of ¿11 the debts owing by him. to creditors in this country. (§ 2152.)

3. That it did not appear that he was indebted to the consenting creditors in a sum which amounted to two-thirds of all his debts.

That the petitioner was not a resident of Ulster county at the time he presented .his petition, but was a resident of Elizabeth, N. J., we thinlc was abundantly established by the evidence. Indeed, the only foundation for his claim of a residence in Ulster county was the fact that for several years, during a considerable .portion of the summer' months, and sometimes during a portion of the spring and aiitumn months, he temporarily inhabited a club house or “ cabin,” as he himself sometimes styled it, in a solitary region of the Catskill Mountains situated in Ulster county. He and four associates owned the club house and a considerable parcel of the wilderness about it. It seems to have been a retreat that suited the petitioner’s notions, and perhaps his needs of rest, recreation, recuperation and enjoyment.

But the evidence satisfactorily shows that during the ten years next preceding the time of presenting hi» application, and at the time of presenting it, his actual domicile and home residence was in Elizabeth, N. J. It was there — first in a house on Anna street, and later' in another on Broad street, both houses being ample and comfortable mansions — that he and his wife and family, with their servants, lived and had their home. "Whenever, wherever and however absent,, the petitioner had the intention of returning there. It is difficult to regard seriously the proposition that his actual residence was in his mountain retreat. That was simply a sojourning place, between which and his residence he flitted in favorable seasons. He presented his petition October 2, 1893, and it is pressed upon us that, immediately preceding and up to that date, his stay in. the' mountains had been nearly continuous for about three months. That, fact does not strike us with much force, in view of his apparent stay there for the purposes of this case, and the absence of his intention to abandon his- home in Elizabeth.

The learned counsel for the petitioner presents an able and el'ab- • orate argument' to the effect that, for the purposes of insolvency proceedings, the residence. required by the Code as a condition of [305]*305the jurisdiction of the county judge does not necessarily imply the. place of the petitionér’s domicile.

In the case of The People v. Platt (117 N. Y. 167), which dealt with the meaning of residence ” as an essential to eligibility to-office, it was held that the idea'of domicile was embraced. It maybe that, under the statute, a Chinese merchant whose domicile is in Hong Kong, but whose business residence is in Hew York, could properly apply for a discharge in the latter place. (Matter of Wrigley, 4 Wend. 602; affd., 8 id. 134; de Meli v. de Meli, 120 N. Y. 485, 491; Hart v. Kip, 42 N. E. Rep. 712.)' Certainly the petitioner’s business residence was not in Ulster county. We think, in view of the petitioner’s residence and domicile in Hew Jersey, and of the kind and place of his sojourns in this State, that the county judge properly held that he was not a resident of the State or of Ulster county, within the meaning of sections 2149 and 2150 of the Code.

In the schedule annexed to his petition the petitioner claims that-the sums owing the consenting creditors aggregate $921,406.97, and that the sums owing to non-consenting creditors, including disputed claims and debts claimed to be barred by the Statute of Limitations, aggregate $416,452.06, thus showing consents as to more than two-thirds.

Among the consenting creditors are John B. Yale and John R. liegeman. The contesting creditors challenged the claims of these two alleged creditors, and the county judge in effect held that it did not satisfactorily appear that the petitioner was “justly and truly indebted” to them. (Code, § 2174.) Mr. Yale in his consent alleges that there is due him from the petitioner $333,815.62, being for “money loaned on security of stocks and bonds, and cash advanced at various tunes prior to May 15, 1884, for.purchases of shares of stocks and bonds and shares, with interest.” Mr. Liegeman in his consent alleges that there is due him from the petitioner $171,212.78, being for “ cash advanced at various times prior to May 15,1884, on pledge of 1,700 shares of Bankers and Merchants’ Telegraph Company stock, with interest at six per cent to October 10, 1884, less proceeds of sales of said shares,” with interest on balance to May 1, 1893; also that “said indebtedness arose from advance of cash, made or caused to be made by said deponent for the purchase and [306]*306parrying of 1,100 shares of Bankers and Merchants’ Telegraph stock for account of said Anthony W. ■ Dimock as per statement herewith.” The total of these two alleged debts is $505,028ill, and,-if disallowed, the requisite two-thirds would not be shown..t.c, have consented.

The evidence showed the following state of facts: Dimoclc & Co. were the promoters and'principal stockholders of the Bankers and Merchants’ Telegraph Company... The petitioner, was the ¡3resident of the company; Tale,, its secretary and treasurer, and Hegeman,. vice-president,. The nominal capital of the company was $3,000,000, but the amount of stock actually paid for and issued was much less, To induce purchases of this stock it was necessary to keep up its price, and create an apparently active market for it. • We quote from the brief of the petitioner’s counsel: “ It was, therefore, materially to his interest that the stock of the corporation should be enhanced in value, which would depend upon the demand for the stock by purchasers and investors. Every purchase and investment in the stock increased the demand for it, and consequently its value, or, at least, its market price, and every subscription to the stock of the company added to the cash in its treasury available- for the extension of Its lines and the improvement of its property.” i i,

. .Tale testified that: ‘TEvery thousand- shares bought, directly, by-, me, or caused to be bought by my brother or friends, amounted to a subscription to the-capital stock of $100,000 and over.”'

Dimo.ck asked both. Tale and Hegeman.to buy and sell it in the market and carry it-,, and promised to indemnify each of them against loss. -He placed 1,000 shares-of the stock-in Tale’s hands as his margin or security, to which Tale, could add in his -executory contracts'- t.o. buy or sell the additional shares each contract called for. Hegeman appears to have advanced whatever margin above the shares themselves that liis" contracts required.

- .Dimóck & Cods failure -in 1884 practically destroyed the market-value, of the . stock, and,-hence, Tale’s , and Hegeman’s. respective losses. Following his failure, Dimock & Go. made an. assignment, as partners and as individuals. In the. schedules -made under the assignment-neither of'these claims is mentioned. Mr, Tale-there appears .as a. creditor for $33,000.

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Related

People v. . Platt
22 N.E. 937 (New York Court of Appeals, 1889)
De Meli v. . De Meli
24 N.E. 946 (New York Court of Appeals, 1890)
Wadd v. . Hazelton
33 N.E. 143 (New York Court of Appeals, 1893)
Murray v. . Judson and Sands
9 N.Y. 73 (New York Court of Appeals, 1853)
In re Wrigley
4 Wend. 602 (New York Supreme Court, 1830)

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Bluebook (online)
4 A.D. 301, 39 N.Y.S. 501, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-dimock-nyappdiv-1896.