Noyes v. Tootle

48 S.W. 1031, 2 Indian Terr. 144, 1899 Indian Terr. LEXIS 94
CourtCourt Of Appeals Of Indian Territory
DecidedJanuary 12, 1899
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 48 S.W. 1031 (Noyes v. Tootle) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court Of Appeals Of Indian Territory primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Noyes v. Tootle, 48 S.W. 1031, 2 Indian Terr. 144, 1899 Indian Terr. LEXIS 94 (Conn. 1899).

Opinion

Townsend, J.

The appellants, in the arrangement of their brief, have not clearly apprehended, or have failed to fully comply with, the requirements of rule 10 of this court. The portion of the rule not complied with is as follows : ‘ ‘2. This brief shall contain, in order here stated. (1) A concise abstract, or statement of the case, presenting succinctly the questions involved, in the manner in which they are raised. (2) A specification of the errors relied upon, in law cases, shall set out separately and particularly each error asserted and intended to be urged. * * * When the error alleged is to the charge of the court, the specification shall set out the part referred to, totidem ver-bis, whether it be in instructions given or in instructions refused. ” ‘ ‘It is generally said that the assignment of errors in the appellate court is just as essential as the declaration or complaint in the lower court. • It is jurisdictional, and cannot be dispensed with by agreement of the parties. * * =i= The failure to file an assignment of errors must consequently entail an affirmance of the judgment or decree or a dismissal of the appeal. ” 2 Enc. Pl. & Prac. pp 922-924. Bui the “appellants earnestly contend that the first instruction given by the court, ” which is copied, ‘ ‘tended to mislead the jury” (page 3, appellants’ brief); and further on, on page 5, they “further complain and contend that the court erred in giving the instruction designated as No. 2,” which is not copied. On page 8 they “further contend that the court erred by giving instruction No. 4, ” which is copied; and on page 9 they “insist that the court erred in giving the following instruction,” and then copy part of an instruction given by the court to the jury, instructing them that they are the sole judges of the credibility of the witnesses, etc.; and on page 13 they ‘ ‘contend that the court erred in refusing to give the following instructions, asked [151]*151ior by the Interpleaders,” which are copied. The foregoing are found in the original brief of appellants in the supplemental brief filed by the appellants they say, “The attention of the court is directed to the following instructions, given by the trial court at the request of the appellees herein,” which are copied, and said to be on page 53 of transcript, but upon examination of transcript are found on page 56. It is a definition of a partnership given by the court, and from the argument made by appellants in their brief they evidently intended to assign as error the giving of said instructions. They also again copy the fourth instruction of the court, of which they complained in their original brief, and they also copy on page 8 the instruction ashed by appellants and refused by the court, which was copied on page 13 of the original brief. Hence, we infer that the five assignments of error are intended to be stated in the original brief, and an additional one in their supplemental brief, making six in all; but none of them are numbered, and they are found by an examination of the original and supplemental briefs of the appellants and the transcript of the record. It would materially have lessened the labor of this court, and would better inform the opposite counsel of the points to be relied upon, had the rule of this court been complied with by appellants’ counsel.

The appellants have cited numerous authorities to the effect that the following quotation from Jones on Chattel Mortgages is good law: “Any mortgage interposes an obstacle in the way of the legal remedies of other creditors, and may to that extent be said to hinder and delay them; but this fact is not of itself sufficient to render the mortgage void, in the absence of an intent to so hinder and delay the mortgagor’s creditors. Moreover, a mortgage is not invalidated by the further fact that the creditor knows, when he takes a mortgage, that his debtor is in failing circumstances, and that the intended effect of giving the security will be to [152]*152delay other creditors in collecting debts due to them.” Jones, Chat. Mortg. § 356. This will not be disputed, and ibis also well settled that when a party averred, “by way of avoiding a deed of trust, that it was made to hinder, delay, and defraud creditors, and was therefore null and void, the onus probandi was upon him,” and ‘-that fraud is not to be presumed, but it must be established by proof.” Hempstead vs Johnston, 18 Ark. 124. “A sale of goods in good faith to pay a preferred debt, and without any intention to delay other creditors, is not fraudulent. A debtor may prefer one creditor to all others. ” Sparks vs Mack, 31 Ark. 666. A creditor has a right to collect his debt, and has a right to have the same secured by chattel mortgage, though the effect may be known to him to be to hinder and delay other creditors; and Mr. Jones in the same section (356) says: “A mortgage given by an insolvent debtor with intent to prefer a creditor is not invalid, unless some statute takes away his right to prefer, although such preference by mortgage may operate to delay and hinder other creditors. If made in good faith to secure a creditor , and not at all to delay and hinder other creditors, it is lawful,” — citing a large number of authorities in support of this proposition. An examination of the authorities shows that it is established by the great weight of authority that if the effort of the creditor is in good faith to collect or secure his debt, and he takes property at a fair price, he is doing what he • has a lawful right to do. and his security is good, notwithstanding it may hinder and delay other creditors in the collection of their debts; and if that was all there was in this case, it should be reversed.

deu'of proof1- Reference. Right of ere-ditor to ob-talu.

But Mr. Jones says further, in section 356: “If a mortgage is given by an insolvent debtor, not to protect and prefer an honest creditor, but rather to aid and assist the debtor in defeating other creditors by covering up his property, it will be held fraudulent. ” In Shelley vs Boothe, 73 [153]*153Mo. 74, it is said: “It is no objection to the validity of a conveyance by a debtor to Ms creditor that it operates to hinder and delay other creditors, that it was made with the intent on the part of the debtor that it should so operate, and that the creditor receiving it was aware of that intent, provided he received it with the honest purpose of securing his debt. But if he acted from a desire to aid the debtor in defeating other creditors, or in covering up his property, or in giving him a secret interest therein, or locking it up in anyway for the debtor’s own use and benefit, the conveyance will be held fraudulent and void.” Cobbey, Chat. Mortg. §769, says: “A mortgage executed with the fraudulent intent to delay creditors, and accepted by the mortgagee with a knowledge of such fraudulent intent, he participating therein, is void as against creditors. The rule is well established that where a mortgagee of personal property is conniving with the mortgagor to defraud the latter’s creditors, and, in furtherance of the unlawful plan, advances money and takes a mortgage, said mortgagee has no equity, as against such creditors, to be protected for the amount so advanced. A fraudulent intent upon the part of the mortgagor alone to defeat other creditors does not invalidate a mortgage given for a just debt. To avoid such a mortgage, both the mortgagor and mortgagee must participate in the fraudulent intent.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
48 S.W. 1031, 2 Indian Terr. 144, 1899 Indian Terr. LEXIS 94, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/noyes-v-tootle-ctappindterr-1899.