In re General Assignment of Henry Thoesen & Bro.

62 A.D. 87, 70 N.Y.S. 924

This text of 62 A.D. 87 (In re General Assignment of Henry Thoesen & Bro.) 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 General Assignment of Henry Thoesen & Bro., 62 A.D. 87, 70 N.Y.S. 924 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1901).

Opinion

Hatch, J. :

The motion resulting in the order appealed from was brought on under the General Assignment Act (Laws of 1877, chap..466, §§ 11, 12, as amd. by Laws of 1878, chap. 318) by a citation issued on the petition of C. F. Rohmann, Son & Co., creditors of said assignor in the sum of about $25,000. The assignment was made in October, 1893, and the assignee accepted the trust and qualified and [89]*89entered upon the discharge of the same. In the schedules of liabili-' ties filed the claim of the petitioners is set forth at $24,734.10.

The assignee advertised for claims in 1895 and the petitioners duly presented to him their said claim, properly verified, and such claim remains undisputed and wholly unpaid. More than a year has elapsed since the making of the assignment, but the assignee has never accounted under the Assignment Act. The opposition to the motion is based upon the following facts : It appears that in April, 1894, the firm of H. B. Claflin Company, as creditors of the said Henry Thoesen, instituted an action against the administratrix of Thoesen and the said assignee, to set aside the assignment made by the said Thoesen for the benefit of creditors, on the ground of fraud, in which action it was adjudged and decreed that such assignment was fraudulent and void as against the plaintiff therein, and that the same be vacated and set aside as to said plaintiff; and one Daniels, who had theretofore been appointed a temporary receiver, was in and by said judgment made the permanent receiver of all the goods, chattels and estate held or owned by the said assignor. It was therein further adjudged and decreed that the defendant Solomon, as such assignee, render an account before a referee thereby appointed for that purpose, of all the goods, chattels and credits which had come to his hands by virtue of the assignment or otherwise, which were of the said assignor at the date of the assignment, and that the said referee take and state such account; and that the receiver, out of the funds in his possession as such, pay to the plaintiff, the II. B. Claflin Company, or its attorneys, the amount of its debt and claim established thereby, with costs, and that, after making such payments the receiver retain the residue and balance of the property of the assigned estate,, if any, until the further order of the court.

It further appears that in January, 1900, one Charles L. Koehler instituted an action against the said administratrix of the assignor and the said Solomon, as such assignee, to set aside the said assignment as fraudulent and void. This action was brought under the provisions of the Personal Property Law (Laws of 1897, chap. 417, § 7), and, as appears by the title of the action, for the benefit of said Koehler individually and on behalf of all other creditors of the estate of the assignor, Henry Thoesen, deceased, whose claims exceed the sum of [90]*90$100. That action was also prosecuted to judgment, and. it was therein adjudged and decreed that the assignment was fraudulent and void as against the plaintiff and that “ the said general assignment be and the same is hereby wholly vacated, annulled and set aside as to this plaintiff.” The receivership of the reeei ver appointed in the Claflin action was extended to that action, and the assignee was ordered and directed to account before Daniel Clark Briggs, Esq., the referee appointed in and by the judgment in the Claflin action, of and concerning the goods, chattels, credits and estate of the said assignor in his hands by virtue of "the assignment, and that said referee take and state said account, and the receiver was directed to pay to the attorneys for the plaintiff the sum of $161.65, the amount of the costs of the action, to be taxed, and the further sum of $1,000 for an extra allowance to the said plaintiff’s attorney out of the moneys in his hands as such receiver. In pursuance of such last-mentioned judgment the said assignee made an accounting before the referee, and it appears from his report that, after the rendition of the judgment in the Koehler c.ase, four separate actions were brought to set aside the assignment as fraudulent and void, in each one of which judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff, setting the assignment aside as to such plaintiff only. It also appears from such report that the assignee did receive and collect of the assigned estate the sum of $91,928.53 ; that he had expended for and on account of the said estate the sum of $73,173.20, and that, pursuant to the decrees entered in the actions aforesaid, he did pay to the receiver the sum of $18,755.33, making in all the sum of $91,928.53, and that the said Claflin Company had been duly paid the amount of its judgment by the receiver, and the referee reported that the accounts so made and rendered by the said assignee were in all respects correct and that an order should be entered discharging the said assignee and canceling his .bond as such.

On the 28tli day of December, 1900, upon notice to the receiver and to the attorney for the said Charles L. Koehler, the plaintiff in the action, the report of the referee so made was confirmed and the accounts of said assignee approved.

The petitioners, respondents herein, have never attacked the assignment nor taken any position in hostility to it; they were not made parties to or joined in the said Koehler action, took no part in [91]*91the proceedings thereunder, had no notice thereof, nor were they ever requested to join in or take part in any such proceedings, yet the claim is made by the appellant that, because that suit was brought nominally for the benefit of all creditors whose claims exceed $100 the respondents are precluded by the accounting before the referee in that action. The Special Term decided that the action instituted by Koehler was not binding upon the petitioning creditors, and directed that the assignee should make an account of his proceedings as such assignee pursuant to the assignment laws of the State, and from the order so made and entered this appeal is taken.

As we understand the points made by the appellant in his brief and argument, it is not contended that the judgments or proceedings in any of the actions brought to set aside the assignment operate as a bar to this proceeding, except the judgment and proceedings taken and had in the action of Koehler. Manifestly no other ground would be tenable, for the reason that it appears that in each of the other actions the assignment was adjudged fraudulent and void and set aside as to the plaintiff in the particular action only, and in none of them was any accounting had. It is urged, however, that in the Koehler action the assignee has made a full accounting and turned over to the receiver duly appointed by a court of competent jurisdiction all the property and assets of the assigned estate, and the rule is invoked that, where an equitable action is brought to set aside an assignment for the benefit of creditors, and a decree has been entered in such action, the estate becomes vested in the court in which the receiver was appointed and an accounting by such assignee in said action is conclusive upon the creditors, and any subsequent proceedings instituted by any creditor having reference to said estate will be-enjoined. In the first place, the rule as thus stated by the appellant is defective as it leaves out of consideration an important factor, viz., that the equitable action must be brought for the benefit of all the persons interested in the assigned estate.

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62 A.D. 87, 70 N.Y.S. 924, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-general-assignment-of-henry-thoesen-bro-nyappdiv-1901.