Lebowitz v. Bowery Savings Bank

155 Misc. 567, 281 N.Y.S. 176, 1935 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1288
CourtCity of New York Municipal Court
DecidedMay 21, 1935
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 155 Misc. 567 (Lebowitz v. Bowery Savings Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering City of New York Municipal Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Lebowitz v. Bowery Savings Bank, 155 Misc. 567, 281 N.Y.S. 176, 1935 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1288 (N.Y. Super. Ct. 1935).

Opinion

Lewis, David C., J.

On the 30th day of October, 1934, Solomon Stern, one of the defendants above named, duly entered a judgment against Fannie Stern (née Fannie Lebowitz), the assignor of this plaintiff.

On December 20, 1934, he instituted supplementary proceedings upon said judgment, and on said day a third party order was duly issued out of the City Court directed to the Bowery Savings Bank, and containing the standard injunctive provisions.

Apparently because of the difference in the name of the depositor (Fannie Stern — not Lebowitz), and through other inadvertence, a substantial portion of the bank account was withdrawn.

Repeated motions were made by the judgment creditor in the course of the third party proceedings, and ultimately on the 19th day of March, 1935, upon due notice to the judgment debtor, an order was entered as follows:

“ Ordered that The Bowery Savings Bank of 130 Bowery, New York City, pay over to Solomon Stern, the judgment creditor herein out of the debt owed by it to Fanny Stern, nee Fanny Lebowitz, the judgment debtor herein, pursuant to section 792 of the Civil Practice Act, the sum of Sixty two ($62) dollars, with interest thereon from the 30th day of October, 1934, up to the date of such payment, not exceeding, however, the amount of the debt owed by The Bowery Savings Bank to Fanny Stern, nee Fanny Lebowitz, amounting to the sum of Seventy five ($75.00) dollars, subject, however, to the stay hereinafter set forth, and it is further
Ordered that the clerk of this Court docket this order as a judgment and that the same be enforceable as such, subject, however, to the stay hereinafter set forth, and it is further
“ Ordered that compliance with the aforegoing orders shall in all respects be stayed pending the determination of the action instituted against The Bowery Savings Bank, in the Municipal Court of the City of New York, Borough of Manhattan, Second District, [569]*569entitled ‘ Benjamin Lebowitz, as assignee of Fannie Lebowitz, Plaintiff, against Bowery Savings Bank, Defendant.’ ”

It is claimed that on January 11, 1935, the said Fannie Stern (née Lebowitz) assigned the said Bowery Savings Bank account to her uncle, Benjamin Lebowitz, the plaintiff herein; and that Benjamin Lebowitz demanded the said account from the bank.

It might be added that the judgment creditor has sought to examine Fannie Lebowitz on this alleged assignment; that a subpoena was duly served, but she refused to recognize the same; that an order to punish her for contempt was duly served and she again defaulted; and has been found in contempt. This record does not suggest her good faith, nor does the evidentiary matter presented to the court create an inference that the assignee is free of a guilty conscience.

On the 1st day of February, 1935, upon the refusal of the bank to pay, this action was commenced. And on the 22d day of April, 1935, Solomon Stem, the said judgment creditor, was made a party to this present action.

The plaintiff rests his right to recover on the assignment, and the defendants set up the foregoing facts by way of defense.

The plaintiff claims this court must rule that a judgment debtor may deliberately transfer his bank account to a near relative (after the diligent judgment creditor has promptly instituted supplementary proceedings via the statutory third party order on the bank), and thereby put the bank account beyond the reach of the judgment creditor; and that notwithstanding the pending third party proceeding and the restraining order, that the bank depositary of the judgment debtor must then pay the account to the assignee.

The statement of the proposition sounds alarm and shocks the conscience.

The supplementary proceedings were instituted before the alleged assignment ever came into being and continued alive after the assignment; they never lapsed. Supplementary proceedings are not conclusively deemed ended until the entry of a proper order, and the restraining mandate is not without significance.

The injunctive order was not abandoned and made nugatory by the closing of the examination. Section 802 of the Civil Practice Act specifically indicates the manner in which proceedings supplementary to the execution may be discontinued or dismissed. * * * [headnote].

These orders in supplementary proceedings are not perfunctory; they are solemn directions-of the court; they mean what they say. They cannot be ignored or treated casually. They must be obeyed. Willful disobedience will not be condoned or winked at or accepted [570]*570as a matter of course. The notion is too prevalent that these orders may, with impunity, be consigned to the waste basket.” (Ace Mail Advertising, Inc., v. Newgold, 150 Misc. 320, at p. 322.)

“ The case just adverted to is not controlling in this proceeding. Here the chamberlain was enjoined from paying out the money by orders which recite that it appeared to the satisfaction of the justices who issued them that the chamberlain had in his possession personal property of defendant exceeding ten dollars in value.” (Matter of Rothschild v. Gould, 84 App. Div. 196, at p. 198.)

And in the instant case not only do we have the ordinary injunctive provisions of a third party order, but in addition the mandate of the City Court directing payment, all of which are sought to be rendered abortive by the acts and derelictions of the judgment debtor.

The plaintiff insists that through this post-judgment assignment he secured a transfer of the unincumbered legal title to the deposit out of the judgment debtor into himself; that the judgment creditor’s lien upon or claim to the deposit was thereby nullified; that after this assignment the judgment debtor owned nothing; that the City Court was, therefore, powerless to direct payment to the judgment creditor, and that now the judgment creditor can collect nothing.

The plaintiff must imagine that old Dame Justice suffers from a fickle heart and a weak will to try and woo her with such pleas. This court abruptly rejects such a proposal. It will not be wedded to such a false bride.

Indeed, the plaintiff does not even specifically pose as an innocent bona fide assignee for value. Yet he demands that this court accord to him greater rights and privileges than were he a bona fide holder of the judgment debtor’s check drawn on this bank. The plaintiff overlooks the fact that by the supplementary proceedings this vigilant judgment creditor seemed a hen upon the bank account; that upon the appointment of a receiver, the receiver would become vested with the property possessed by the judgment debtor as of the time of the commencement of the supplementary proceedings. (Collins v. Connelly, 125 Misc. 871, at p. 875; Civ. Prac. Act, § 810.)

And is it not the law of this State that this bona fide hen duly obtained by the judgment creditor is to be treated at least on a parity with the subsequent suspicious assignment of the plaintiff, and that the hen, being prior in time to the assignment, must prevail?

In Muir v. Schenck

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Bluebook (online)
155 Misc. 567, 281 N.Y.S. 176, 1935 N.Y. Misc. LEXIS 1288, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/lebowitz-v-bowery-savings-bank-nynyccityct-1935.