Nelson Distilling Co. v. Hubbard

53 Mo. App. 23, 1893 Mo. App. LEXIS 8
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedJanuary 31, 1893
StatusPublished
Cited by12 cases

This text of 53 Mo. App. 23 (Nelson Distilling Co. v. Hubbard) 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
Nelson Distilling Co. v. Hubbard, 53 Mo. App. 23, 1893 Mo. App. LEXIS 8 (Mo. Ct. App. 1893).

Opinion

Bond, J.

— An attachment suit was brought by the Nelson Distilling Company, appellant, against defendants, Hubbard, and Schultz. The writ of attachment was levied upon a kiln of about one hundred and sixty-five thousand brick, as the property of defendants. This property was sold by the sheriff under the order of the judge of the court wherein the said attachment suit Aras pending. Thereafter William 0. Parker, the respondent herein, filed an interplea in said cause, reciting the issuance and levy of said attachment on the aforesaid property, and alleging that the value thereof was $1,500; that the sheriff had sold the same under the order of the judge of said court, and now holds the proceeds thereof; that, at the time of the seizure and sale, said kiln of bricks was the property of said interpleader under a contract between him and defendants, Hubbard and Schultz, by which he was to be paid “for burning them a kiln of brick,” certain prices for certain services, and that said brick kiln “was to be and remain in the possession of said W. C. Parker until he was fully paid according to the terms of the contract;” and, further, “that he duly performed all of the conditions of said contract on his part, and burned and made a kiln of brick containing one hundred and sixty-eight thousand brick, and that the amount justly due claimant on said contract is the [25]*25sum of $1,006.50, less $68 received on said contract, for ■which amount together with $100 damage he asks judgment.” To this interplea appellant, the Nelson Distilling Company, filed a general denial, and for further answer thereto alleged that such contract, if made between said interpleader and defendants, Hubbard and Schultz, was fraudulent, and made to hinder, delay or defraud the creditors of the said defendants. There was evidence tending to prove the contract set forth in respondent’s interplea, and also tending to sustain the • defense and charge' of fraud set up in the answer of the Nelson Distilling Company. After the giving and refusing of instructions the cause was submitted to a jury, who returned the following verdict, to-wit: “We, the jury, find the issues for the inter-pleader, Parker.” Thereupon the court rendered judgment, to-wit: “It is, therefore, ordered by the court that the possession of the said property above described be delivered to the said W. C. Parker, the interpleader herein, and that he recover from the plaintiff in attachment, the Nelson Distilling Company, the costs and charges herein expended, and that process issue therefor.”

From this judgment an appeal was taken, and the questions now before us for review are confined to alleged errors in the giving and refusing of instructions, and in the admission and exclusion of testimony, and such as arise upon the record proper. As to errors alleged for the refusal of the nine instructions asked by the appellant, and the giving of others of the court’s own motion, we are satisfied that no reversible error was committed. The pivotal points in the case were possession and fraud, and these were fully covered in the instructions, taken as a whole. On the point of possession the court gave at. appellant’s request the following : “The court instructs you that, even if you should [26]*26believe that Hubbard and Schultz were largely indebted to Parker, the interpleader, at the time of the levy of the attachment, for labor upon the brick in controversy, still you should find for the plaintiff, unless you further believe he, the said Parker, was the owner, or had the exclusive right of possession and was in the actual and exclusive possession of the said brick kiln at the time of the attachment."

As to the charge of fraud, the court gave of its own motion the following: “If you believe the contract entered into between Hubbard and Schultz, on the one hand, and Parker on the other, was a bad faith transaction on the part of Parker, or, if you believe said contract was entered into with a design to defeat or to hinder or to delay the creditors in their collections, and that said Parker participated therein, or if you believe the claim of Parker is a cover of the property of Hubbard and Schultz, or to withdraw it from the reach of creditors, then in any such case you will find for the Nelson Distilling Company."

“If you believe that the brick kiln levied upon by the sheriff was the property of Hubbard and Schultz, and the interpleader, Parker, did not have and hold possession of the same under a good faith transaction to pay for making and burning the same, then your verdict should be for the Nelson Distilling Company."

The foregoing instructions embody in substance all that was contained in the nine instructions of appellant, which the court declined to give, and the first clause of the one above given contained an error in plaintiff’s favor by ignoring the question of fraud or bad intent on defendants’ part, and directing the jury to find for plaintiff if they “believed the contract entered into between Hubbard and Schultz on the one hand, and Parker on the other, was a bad faith transaction on the part of Parker" alone.

[27]*27As to the points made in appellant’s brief on the exclusion of testimony, only two errors are alleged: First. That the court erred in permitting the question, “who was in possession of that brick kiln at the time it' was seized by the sheriff?” to be answered against appellant’s objection to the form of the question as “asking for a conclusion at law.” As to this point it is sufficient to say that, if there was any technical informality in the question, appellant cannot complain thereof, for it put the same question in a leading form to its witness, the sheriff: “Was no one in possession of that brick kiln?” And it has been held that the reception of such evidence under these circumstances is not prejudicial error. Taylor v. Penquite, 35 Mo. App. 389, 402. Second. Appellant alleges that the court improperly permitted parol evidence of transactions between defendants and the interpleader which were embraced in a subsequent written contract between them. On this point, the ruling of the trial court that witness Schultz might, on behalf of the interpleader, testify as to whát was embraced in their subsequent contract, because fraud was charged, is clearly erroneous. Some latitude of inquiry is allowable to the party alleging fraud, but there is no reason for relaxing the rule excluding parol, evidence of writings on behalf of a party charged with fraud, while he is under direct examination and might testify contrary to the terms of the absent writing. The only theory on which such evidence could be allowed is to detect, not to obscure, fraud. Notwithstanding the error in the reason given by the trial court for the admission of this evidence, it was admissible upon the ground that counsel for appellant, before making objection to the parol testimony of Schultz, had, upon their cross-examination of the interpleader himself, brought out the terms both of the original agreement [28]*28between him and Hubbard and Schultz, as well as th© terms of their subsequent contract in writing.

The only question left for review upon this record arises upon the face of the record proper, and is whether or not the judgment rendered by the trial •court (above quoted) was the proper judgment to have been given under the facts, and the procedure adopted in this case.

It is the settled law of this state that a statutory interplea (Revised Statutes, 1889, sec. 572) is a quasi action of replevin grafted upon a suit by attachment. Burgert v. Borchert, 59 Mo. 80;

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
53 Mo. App. 23, 1893 Mo. App. LEXIS 8, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nelson-distilling-co-v-hubbard-moctapp-1893.