In re Stiger

202 F. 791, 1913 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1819
CourtDistrict Court, D. New Jersey
DecidedJanuary 27, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 202 F. 791 (In re Stiger) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering District Court, D. New Jersey primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Stiger, 202 F. 791, 1913 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1819 (D.N.J. 1913).

Opinion

REELSTAB, District Judge.

The question presented on this review is whether the occurrences between such company and the bankrupt on or about the 19th day of January, 1911, amounted to an assignment of bankrupt’s book accounts then existing and subsequently created.

The referee found:

“That at the time of the sale of the merchandise by the petitioner to the bankrupt, the bankrupt, in consideration thereof assigned to the petitioner by a parol assignment operating in prsasenti his merchandise accounts then in existence and afterwards to be created, subject'to a prior, similar assignment to his bank, as security for the payment of such merchandise.”

He predicated such finding “upon the facts in the case and the following authorities: Union Trust Co. v. Bulkeley (C. C. A. 6th Cir.) 18 Am. Bankr. Rep. 35, 150 Fed. 510 [80 C. C. A. 328]; Tomlinson v. Bank of Lexington (C. C. A. 4th Cir.) 16 Am. Bankr. Rep. 632, 145 Fed. 824 [76 C. C. A. 400]; Williams v. Ingersoll, 89 N. Y. 508.”

The petitioner does not contend as pledgee of such accounts, and in its brief it asserts that:

“They are not attempting to enforce the transaction as an equitable lien, which fails for want of a delivery as a pledge. We are enforcing an actual •assignment of certain dioses in action.”

The bankrupt, a manufacturer of buttons, was adjudicated a bankrupt in involuntary proceedings instituted against him, on the 8th day [793]*793of June, 1911. In the petition presented to the referee claiming such book accounts or the proceeds, the petitioner based its right thereto upon a written agreement and accompanying assignment, bearing date the 17th day of February, 1911. After the filing of the trustee’s answer to such petition, and on the day set for the taking of the testimony on the issues raised thereby, the petitioner sought and obtained permission to amend its petition; the petition as amended asserts that the assignment was made, not on the 17th day of February, 1911, the date of said written agreement and assignment, but on or about the 19th day of January, as already mentioned.

It is conceded that, if the petitioner’s right to such book accounts depends upon the documents bearing such later date, it is not entitled thereto, as the consideration for such assignment, i. e., the sale and delivery of certain merchandise, took place several weeks prior thereto; and the agreement and assignment, assuming for present purposes that they cover a past transaction, were given to pay, or to secure the payment, of an antecedent debt, and therefore are invalid by the operation of the Bankruptcy Act. These documents, however, are said to be but confirmatory of the oral agreement previously entered into, and to put the same into legal form.

At the ancient common law, assignments, of things in action founded on personal covenants, were not recognized, and were not enforceable by the assignee either in his name or that of the assignor. The reason for this was that such an assignment destroyed the privity of contract then necessary to maintain an action at law. This theory was repudiated, however, at an early day by the Court of Chancery, which enforced such assignments in favor of the assignee. In more modern times the equitable rights of the assignee were recognized in courts of law, and he was permitted to enforce such assignments in an action at law, using the name of the assignor as plaintiff. By statute, the right to recover in cases of assigned choses in action in a court of law, in the name of the assignee, has been much enlarged. As a result of these changes many assignments which in former times were cognizable only in a court of equity are now enforceable at law. 3 Pomeroy’s Eq. Jur. (3d Ed.) c. 8. In Sullivan v. Visconti, 68 N. J. Law, 543, 548, 53 Atl. 598, thefe is a concise, yet comprehensive, discussion by Justice (now Mr. Justice) Pitney, of the history of assignments of choses in action under the statute of New Jersey, and antecedent thereto, the laws of which state must furnish the test of the petitioner’s rights in this case. Hiscock v. Varick Bank of New York, 206 U. S. 28, 27 Sup. Ct. 681, 51 L. Ed. 945; Loveland on Bank. (4th Ed.) § 441. By section 19 of the act entitled “An act to regulate the practice of courts of law (Rev. 1903, 3 Comp. St. N. J. 4056):

“All choses in action arising on contract shall be assignable at law, and the assignee may sue thereon in his own name; but in such action there shall be allowed all set offs, discounts and defenses, not only against the plaintiff, but against the assignor before notice of such assignment shall be given to the defendant.”

While the right to assign such choses in action is here given in comprehensive terms, and includes moneys to grow due on existing con[794]*794tracts (Sullivan v. Visconti, supra), it does not make assignments of a part of a chose in action or of contingent interests and expectancies which have no present actual or potential existence, but rest in mere possibility only, enforceable in an action at law. Sternberg & Co. v. L. V. R. Co., 78 N. J. Law, 277, 73 Atl. 39. This is the general rule laid down by the United States courts. Mandeville v. Welch, 18 U. S. 277, 5 L. Ed. 87; Mitchell v. Winslow, 17 Fed. Cas. 527. But both such kinds of assignment are clearly cognizable in a court of equity. In both legal and equitable assignments, however, it is essential that the parties contemplate an assignment; and, while at law the mere agreement to assign is unenforceable, in equity such enforcement may be had as between the parties and others having notice thereof, upon the fundamental principle that equity will regard that as done which it was agreed should be performed — not merely what the chancellor may conclude should have been done, but what he finds the parties agreed to do, and which, through neglect or intervening causes dehors the agreement, was not done. Such agreement may be implied as well as expressed, but in case of an alleged assignment of a chose in action which, it is said, arises by implication, the implication must necessarily and exclusively point to an assignment, and not to a mere designation of a fund or assets out of which a payment is to' be made. One who sells property has a right to dictate the terms upon which he will part with it. He may sell it on the credit of the debtor. He may insist upon security. If he insists that it was sold on thq last-mentioned terms, and he fails to establish an actual transfer of the chose in action said to constitute the security, before he can obtain it or the proceeds thereof, on the ground of equitable assignment, he must show either an express agreement to so assign, or that the circumstances attending such sale necessarily imply a present intention to transfer, directly applying to the chose in question. Failing to do either, he will not be entitled to a decree to turn over to him such chose or its proceeds, but only a judgment for the amount of his claim, such as is pronounced in an action at law.

[1] Where enforcement of an agreement to assign is sought, it is essential that there was a purpose to presently transfer all that the assignor had or was to obtain in the funds or accounts which are the subject of the transaction.

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Bluebook (online)
202 F. 791, 1913 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 1819, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-stiger-njd-1913.