Kettenbach v. Walker

186 P. 912, 32 Idaho 544, 1919 Ida. LEXIS 89
CourtIdaho Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 6, 1919
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 186 P. 912 (Kettenbach v. Walker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Idaho Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Kettenbach v. Walker, 186 P. 912, 32 Idaho 544, 1919 Ida. LEXIS 89 (Idaho 1919).

Opinion

BUDGE, J.

This is an action by a trustee in bankruptcy to have a chattel mortgage decreed null and void and to recover the property or the sum- of $1,800, its alleged reasonable value, from the chattel mortgagees and the sheriff of Nez Perce county, who had taken possession of and sold the property under a notice and sale foreclosure. Judgment was entered in accordance with the prayer of the complaint. . This appeal is from the judgment.

This action was begun in the second judicial district in Nez Perce county and was tried by and submitted to the Honorable Edgar CU Steele, judge of said district, on December 8, 1916. On March 7, 1917, House Bill No. 13, chap. 21, Sess. Laws 1917, p. 50, creating, the tenth judicial district and placing Nez Perce county therein, went into effect. Honorable Wallace N. Seales was appointed judge of the latter district and qualified and entered upon the duties of his office in April, 1917. On August 3, 1917, Judge Steele rendered the decision in the case and entered his decree and judgment. It is contended that the judgment is illegal and void for want of jurisdiction, for the reason that Nez Perce county, in which the action was pending, was no longer in Judge Steele’s district at the time of the rendition thereof. In support of this contention, reliance is placed chiefly upon see. 4 of thé act creating the tenth judicial district, which section reads as follows: .

“See. 4. All actions and proceedings pending in the District Court for Idaho, Lewis and Nez Perce Counties shall be continued, tried and determined in the Tenth Judicial District and by the judge thereof as if commenced therein.”

The validity of the judgment, however, cannot be determined solely by reference to the foregoing statute.

[547]*547Article 5, see. 12, of the constitution of Idaho, provides:

“Sec. 12.....A Judge of any District-Court may hold a District Court in any county at the request of the Judge of the District Court thereof, and upon the request of the Governor it shall be his duty to do so; ... . ”

C. S., sec. 6492, is to the same effect.

The record is silent as to whether Judge Steele was requested, either by Judge Scales or the Governor, to hold court, and in doing so continue in charge of the ease and finally dispose of it. This court has recently had a similar question before it, in Application of Allen, 31 Ida. 295, 170 Pac. 921. At page 300 in the Idaho Report we said:

“In the case of State v. Holmes, 12 Wash. 169, 40 Pac. 735, 41 Pac. 887, it was held that where neither the constitution nor the statutes make provision for spreading upon the record the fact that the visiting judge had been called to hold court either by the Governor or by the judges in the county where the term of court is held, ‘it follows that the superior courts, being courts of general jurisdiction, it will be presumed that the court in each instance acted within its jurisdiction in the absence of an affirmative showing to the contrary, ’ and in our opinion this affirmative showing must appear in the record.”

State v. Lottridge, 29 Ida. 53, 155 Pac. 487, also quoted from with approval in the Allen case, and other cases reviewed in the foregoing opinion, are in point so far as the principle involved is concerned.

There can be no question but that a district judge from one district may preside in another district under certain circumstances. This is apparent from a reading of the constitutional provision above quoted. The presumption is that a court of general jurisdiction has acted wdthin its jurisdiction. This presumption embraces anothér presumption, which, in the absence of any affirmative showing in the record to the contrary, is controlling, and that is that since an appropriate invitation either from the judge of the district or from the Governor would have conferred the requisite authority, such invitation had been extended. (People v. Ah Lee Doon, 97 Cal. 171, 31 Pac. 933; Application of Allen, supra.) We, [548]*548therefore, hold that the judgment appealed from is not void for want of jurisdiction.

This brings us to a consideration of the question whether the judgment can be sustained upon the merits. It will be remembered that this is an action by the trustee in bankruptcy to have a chattel mortgage declared void and to recover for the bankrupt’s estate either the property covered by the mortgage or its alleged value, the mortgagee having taken possession of the property under the terms of the mortgage and having sold it under a notice and sale foreclosure. The property in question consists of a stock of goods, wares, merchandise and fixtures, which was sold by appellant G. F. Walker to Geo. 0. Berreman, the bankrupt, the former taking a chattel mortgage from the latter on May 24, 1912, to secure the balance of $1,000 due upon the purchase price. This mortgage was later assigned to G. F. Walker and M. M. Parks, partners doing business as Walker & Parks. The mortgage was not recorded until January 28, 1915. The mortgagee took possession of the property under the terms of the mortgage September 8, 1915, and a petition in bankruptcy was filed September 13, 1915, and on the same day the petitioner was adjudged a bankrupt.

The following provisions of the chattel mortgage are pertinent :

“All the tools and stock of goods now and that may be bought from time to time and kept in stock in the harness store andishop, and the said G. 0. Berreman agrees to keep and have on hand at least enough goods to invoice at cost price $1,000, — said tools and stock to be kept in the Village of Peck, Nez Perce Co., Idaho.

“On failure to pay any sum secured hereby 'when due, .... or if mortgagee or any holder hereof shall feel insecure then mortgagee or any holder hereof may take possession of said mortgaged property and foreclose this mortgage.....”

The evidence «shows that the mortgagor was permitted to and did sell goods out of the stock in the ordinary course of trade without applying the proceeds upon the payment of [549]*549the mortgage debt, and further shows that prior to the time the mortgagee took possession, he was advised by the mortgagor that the latter would be unable any longer to keep the stock up to the agreed invoice at cost price of $1,000.

While it has been held that where a chattel mortgagor is permitted to retain possession of a stock of goods and dispose of it in the ordinary course of trade, without applying the proceeds to a payment of the mortgage debt, such mortgage is void as to attaching creditors of the mortgagor (Lewiston National Bank v. Martin, 2 Ida. 734, 23 Pac. 920), it has also been held that where a mortgagee takes possession of the property with the consent of the mortgagor before rights of creditors attach, the mortgagee is exempt from the application of the above rule, and if the chattel mortgage is valid between the parties, the possession of such mortgagee is valid and may be maintained and the property sold under the provisions of such mortgage (First National Bank of St. Anthony v. Steers, 9 Ida. 519, 108 Am. St. 174, 75 Pac. 225; Ryan v. Rogers, 14 Ida. 309, 94 Pac. 427; Neustadter Bros. v. Doust, 13 Ida. 617, 92 Pac. 978; Martin v. Holloway, 16 Ida. 513, 102 Pac. 3, 25 L. R. A., N. S., 110), and this would be equally true as to after-acquired property covered by the terms of the mortgage. (Dover Lumber Co. v. Case et al., 31 Ida. 276, at 285, 170 Pac. 108;

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Bluebook (online)
186 P. 912, 32 Idaho 544, 1919 Ida. LEXIS 89, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/kettenbach-v-walker-idaho-1919.