Long v. Gump

144 F. 824, 15 Ohio F. Dec. 379, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 3900
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedApril 10, 1906
DocketNo. 1,504
StatusPublished

This text of 144 F. 824 (Long v. Gump) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Long v. Gump, 144 F. 824, 15 Ohio F. Dec. 379, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 3900 (6th Cir. 1906).

Opinion

LURTON, Circuit Judge.

The Sheets Printing & Manufacturing Compan}'', a manufacturing corporation of the state of Ohio, was duly adjudicated an involuntary bankrupt, and the plaintiff in error, B. F. Long, • appointed trustee. In due course the trustee filed his petition in the court below asking that he be authorized to sell the property of the bankrupt, consisting of certain realty, machinery, tools, etc., free from liens or adverse claims of any kind. This petition stated that the appellee, A. W. Gump, “claims some interest or lien upon one Potter Sales Book Press, one Harris Rotary Sales Book Press and attachments, one Sheridan Paper Cutter and one Stitching Machine,” for which an order of sale was asked," and prayed that Gump be required to come in and assert his claim, or be forever barred. Gump accepted this invitation and voluntarily came in and set up certain promissory notes made by the bankrupt and secured by chattel mortgage upon the machines mentioned in the trustee’s petition, and that these notes and mortgages had been duly assigned to [825]*825him. He asked that his answers be filed as cross-pelitiohs, and that his mortgage liens be enforced and proceeds of sale of the mortgaged chattels be first applied to the payment of his said claims. Subsequently the bankrupt’s property was ordered to be sold -free from all liens, and by agreement it was ordered that the liens claimed by Gump upon the specific machinery described iti his two mortgages should be transferred to the fund arising from the sale of the specific property. The claims and liens asserted by Gump are: First, a note for •'¡>.‘>1:5.75 made by the bankrupt to the Harris Press Company, and secured by a chattel mortgage upon the Rotary Sales Press and certain appurtenances referred to in the trustee’s petition. Second, six promissory notes ■ made by the bankrupt corporation to the Potter Printing Press Company, each for $875 and secured by a chattel mortgage upon the Potter Sales .Book Press referred to in the trustee’s petition. These mortgages were duly executed and recorded according to the law of Ohio, and both the notes and mortgages Gump averred had been duly assigned to him for a full consideration and were due and unsatisfied. The trustee answered Gump’s petition and denied any indebtedness, or that he had a lien upon the machinery referred to. The real defense relied upon is that there has been a novation whereby the bankrupt’s original debt: upon the notes mentioned has been satisfied by the acceptance of the obligation of another corporation, styled the “Sheets Sales Book Company,” and that Gump accepted the promise of the Sheets Sales Book Company to pay the debt asserted against the Sheets Printing & Manufacturing Company, and accepted a mortgage made by said Sheets Sales Book Company upon the same machinery and certain additional chattels in full satisfaction and payment of the notes and mortgages he now asserts against the bankrupt corporation.

The referee, in respect to this defense of novation, found upon all of the evidence:

(1) That the notes asserted by Gump had been duly executed to the. respective payees therein named for the price of certain machinery, and that chattel mortgages had been duly executed by the said bankrupt upon the specific machinery so purchased to secure the payment of the purchase money notes.

(2) That on November 25, 1903, Gump borrowed the money and purchased the notes sd made and took an assignment of each of said notes and of the two mortgages mentioned.

(3) That A. W. Gump and certain other persons, shareholders in the said Sheets Printing & Manufacturing Company, organized a new corporation styled the “Sheets Sales Book- Company”; that on November 25, 1903, the Sheets Printing & Manufacturing Company, the bankrupt, and hereafter referred to as the bankrupt, sold and transferred to this new corporation, in consideration of $12,000 paid-up preferred stock, certain machinery, tools, and equipment, including the specific chattels covered by the two mortgages so previously assigned to Gump.

(4) That on December 3, 1903, the Sheets Sales Book Company, of which-the petitioner A. W. Gump was secretary and treasurer, [826]*826executed a chattel mortgage to said A. W. Gump conveying to him the same chattels included in the mortgages of the bankrupt and in addition certain other chattels, being the stitching machine, stereotyping machinery, etc., mentioned in the trustee’s petition as chattels upon which Gump claimed some lien. This mortgage recites that the conveyance is made “for the purpose of securing four certain promissory notes of even date therewith, one for $1,335.68 and three for $1,500.00 each, being a total of $5,.835.68.”

(5) The affidavit annexed to this instrument required by the Ohio law to secure its registration was made by A. W. Gump and recites that he has a valid claim against the within named mortgagor, the Sheets Sales Book Company, aggregating $5,835.68, and that said claim is just and unpaid and the mortgage given to secure same.

(6) The referee also reports that in fact no notes were ever executed by said Sheets Sales Book Company.

(7) Next in order of time was the appointment of a receiver by a state court for the bankrupt corporation. This appointment was made upon an application made by Gump and others on December 29, 1903.

(8) January 3, 1904, Gump filed with the township clerk the assignments of the chattel mortgages made to him by the Potter Printing Press Company and the Harris Automatic Press Company. At the same time he filed the chattel mortgage given him by the Sheets Sales Book Company. The referee further reports and finds that:

“After having filed the assignment and his new chattel mortgage, Mr. Gump took from the files of the township clerk the chattel mortgages that had been assigned to him leaving on the files the assignments to him.'’

These transactions all took place at the same visit of Gump to the office of the clerk. “The clerk thereupon without any instructions from Gump marked on his record the chattel mortgages taken from the files by Mr. Gump, canceled. These chattel mortgages were kept from the files for a week or ten days and were then returned by Mr. Gump to the clerk, who was then told by Mr. Gump that he had taken’ them off for temporary purpose only, whereupon the clerk erased from his record the words or letters he had written indicating that they were canceled.” He further finds that no one was misled or prejudiced by the withdrawal of said mortgages.

(9) In respect to the purpose of Gump the referee found as follows:

“I further find from the evidence that the chattel mortgages taken from the files by A. W. Gump were so taken for temporary purposes only, and at the time they were taken the Sheets Printing & Manufacturing Company was in the hands of a receiver by the consideration of the court of common pleas of Richland county, Ohio. I further find from the evidence that the chattel mortgage executed by the Sheets Sales Book Company, in favor of A. W. Gump, and by him filed with the township clerk, was given for the purpose' of better protecting the interests of said Gump and was so received by him and was not intended by the parties as a payment of the notes and mortgages that has been assigned to said Gump.”

It was therefore ordered that the proceeds arising from the sale of the chattels described in the mortgages made by the bankrupt be [827]

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Bluebook (online)
144 F. 824, 15 Ohio F. Dec. 379, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 3900, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/long-v-gump-ca6-1906.