Lampkin v. Peoples' National Bank

71 S.W. 715, 98 Mo. App. 239, 1902 Mo. App. LEXIS 256
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedDecember 1, 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 71 S.W. 715 (Lampkin v. Peoples' National Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lampkin v. Peoples' National Bank, 71 S.W. 715, 98 Mo. App. 239, 1902 Mo. App. LEXIS 256 (Mo. Ct. App. 1902).

Opinions

ELLISON, J.

Plaintiff is trustee in bankruptcy in charge of the estate of Daniel McNair and J. Louis McNair, who were partners as retail merchants. They owed the defendant $1,200 and paid that debt and defendant received the money at a time when said Mc-Nairs were insolvent, and (it is charged) the defendant had reasonable cause to believe that it was intended by McNairs to give it a preference over other creditors, contrary to the intent and purpose of the bankrupt law. Within a few days after this payment was made the McNairs were adjudged bankrupts by the Federal district court for the Western district of Missouri. Plaintiff instituted this action against defendant to recover the sum so paid to it on the ground that the payment by McNairs and the receipt of the payment by defendant was contrary to the provisions of the bankrupt law. The trial court sustained a demurrer to the evidence and plaintiff has appealed.

In order to avoid the payment to defendant it is not necessary that its officers should have known, or even believed, that a preference was intended by the McNairs. It is sufficient if they had reasonable cause to believe such preference was intended. Pepperdine v. Bank, 84 Mo. App. 234; Merchants Bank v. Cook, 95 U. S. 342; Dutcher v. Wright, 97 U. S. 553; Toof v. Martin, 13 Wall. 40. When that is established the trustee has a right to the judgment of the court avoiding the payment and adjudging that he recover the money paid. Landis [241]*241v. McDonald, 88 Mo. App. 335. In this casp there was evidence having a tendency to support the charge that defendant had reasonable cause to believe a preference was intended and, therefore, the trial court must have sustained a demurrer on the ground which we now proceed to consider.

It appears that on the 30th of December, 1899, the McNairs being merchants, as has already been stated, sold their stock of goods to, one • Shryack for $1,500, which sum the latter paid to them on that day; and that thereupon the McNairs took $1,200 of said sum and paid to defendant the debt aforesaid which is the subject of this controversy. It further appears that in the August following this, plaintiff, with knowledge of all the facts now shown, brought suit against Shryack for the value of the merchandise so purchased by him on the ground that it was a fraudulent sale for the purpose of defrauding creditors, Shryack participating in the fraud. That afterwards plaintiff compromised and settled said action by accepting $407.50 “in full satisfaction of the entire claim and amount in controversy in said cause, ’ ’ and dismissing the suit. Defendant states in its answer, “that by bringing said action and accepting said money, plaintiff elected to and did renounce and avoid said sale, and can not assert the validity thereof, and recover the purchase price for said goods and fixtures paid therefor by the said Shryack at said sale, and a portion of which was afterwards paid to this defendant as before stated.” The question is, did plaintiff by bringing said action and accepting the sum mentioned in satisfaction thereof preclude himself from maintaining the present action1? We think he did not. Plaintiff attacked the sale to Shryack on the general principle which invalidates a fraudulent transaction; in this instance conceived and carried out by the parties in fraud of the creditors of the McNairs. In the present action he attacks the legality of the payment to defendant and [242]*242receipt of the money by defendant, on the arbitrary right given him by the statute of bankruptcy. There is no inconsistency in affirming the right to follow both remedies. He sought to recover the value of the goods in the one instance for the reason that they had been fraudulently received from his debtor, thereby attempting to deprive him of his right, as a creditor, to make his debt out of them. In the other instance, he seeks to recover the money paid out by the bankrupt which the bankrupt law declares to be unauthorized. “A party can not ask the aid of the law upon inconsistent and contradictory grounds; but if co-existent remedies are consistent with each other, he may adopt all or select any one which he thinks best suited to the end sought, and only the satisfaction of the claim in one case constitutes a bar in the other.” Bradner v. Williams, 178 Ill. 420. And so it was held that there was no inconsistency in an action against a guardian for conversion of funds and an action again’st one who received the funds, and, hence either action did not constitute an election to renounce the other. Easton v. Somerville, 111 Iowa 164. It was held in this court that the fact that a depositor in an insolvent bank had proved up his claim before the bank’s assignee; did not preclude him from pursuing his statutory remedy against an offending officer in receiving deposits knowing the bank to be insolvent. Eads v. Orcutt, 79 Mo. App. 511. And so a plaintiff at the same time he proceeds against a sheriff for an escape, may take out a fi. fa. against the property of the defendant; the remedies not being deemed inconsistent. Jackson v. Bartlett, 8 Johns. 361; see, also, Canadian Ty. Co. v. McGuire, 119 Mich. 533; Clark v. Hall, 54 Neb. 479; Vulcanite v. Caduc, 144 Mass. 85; Bank v. Birch, 130 N. Y. 221; Bundy v. Monticello, 84 Ind. 119.

But it is insisted by the defendant that the goods, the value .of which plaintiff recovered against Shryack, and the money which the, McNairs received for them were one and the same thing; and that when the Me[243]*243Nairs paid to defendant $1,200 which, was received for the goods it was bnt the representative of the goods, and this suit for the $1,200 is but another suit for the goods, the value of which has already been recovered (or,' which is the same thing, compromised) in the Shryack suit. We regard the argument as unsound. The goods, and the money they brought at the sale, are not one and the same thing. For, as between the McNairs and Shryack the sale of the goods was valid and the goods became Shryack’s, while the money became McNairs’. They exchanged separate properties; each becoming the owner of separate properties. Shryack’s money became the property of the McNairs, and the McNairs’ goods became the property of Shryack. This case is different in its fundamental facts from that class of cases in equity where a certain article of property, or amount of money, may be followed through various mutations and ownerships; and wherever found — in whatever changed aspect, or in whomsoever’s hands — may be made to stand for whatever it was liable to stand for originally. The conclusion asserted by the defendant that both the goods in the hands of the vendee and the money in the hands of the vendor can not be recovered by plaintiff is not founded on any good reason. When there is a fraudulent sale of property participated in by both vendor and vendee, the sale is nevertheless valid, except as it may affect the rights of third parties and it is avoided only in the interest of such parties. The property becomes the vendee ’s and the purchase money becomes the vendor’s. The property is liable to be taken for the creditor’s debt because of the fraud. The fraudulent character of the sale prevented its being put out of the creditor’s reach. But the purchase money in the hands of the vendor debtor may also be subjected to the creditor’s claim because it is the debtor’s property. Suppose B. is a debtor and owns a tract of land which he sells to C. with intent to defraud his creditors, C. participating in the fraud. The land in C’s. hands may be [244]

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Bluebook (online)
71 S.W. 715, 98 Mo. App. 239, 1902 Mo. App. LEXIS 256, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lampkin-v-peoples-national-bank-moctapp-1902.