Oldham v. Robinson

40 Ky. 329, 1 B. Mon. 329, 1841 Ky. LEXIS 47
CourtCourt of Appeals of Kentucky
DecidedMay 26, 1841
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 40 Ky. 329 (Oldham v. Robinson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Kentucky primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oldham v. Robinson, 40 Ky. 329, 1 B. Mon. 329, 1841 Ky. LEXIS 47 (Ky. Ct. App. 1841).

Opinion

Judge Ewing

delivered the Opinion of the Court.

To recover a debt of $478 15 cents, charged to be owing to him by Asa B. Smith, a resident of the state of [330]*330Missouri, Robinson filed his bill in chancery, in the Circuit Court of Madison County, Ky. against Smith and Oldham, the latter of whom was also, at the time and still is, a resident and citizen of Missouri, but upon whom personal process was served in Madison, and who is alleged to be indebted to Smith a much larger amount than is set up by Robinson against Smith. The object of the bill was to obtain a decree against Oldham, the debtor of Smith, for an amount sufficient to satisfy his, Robinson’s, debt against Smith.

Answer of OldJiam. Amended bill. Oldham’sanswer to amended bill contesting the jurisdiction'of the Court, &e. Decree of the Circuit C’t ■ for complainant.

[330]*330Oldham answered the bill, admitting that he had purchased land in Missouri of Asa B. and Merrel Smith, and had executed his two notes to them jointly, for $1600, one note for two thirds thereof, payable on the 1st January, 1838, the other for the residue, payable on the 1st January, 1839; but alleging that A. B. Smith had assigned his half of the notes to Merrel Smith, before the commencement of the complainant’s suit, or the service of process upon him, in Madison.

The complainant filed his amended bill, making Merrel Smith a party, and alleged in substance that the assignment had been made after the commencement of his suit, by Asa B. to Merrel Smith, his son, who was underage, or had just arrived at age, fraudulently and without consideration, with a view to defeat his equity, and hinder and delay the creditors of Asa B. Smith, and the notes were held in trust by the son for the benefit of the father.

These facts were charged to be confined to the personal knowledge of the father and son, and not susceptible of proof, in Kentucky, as required by the statute of February 15th, 1838, Stat. Law, 202, to entitle the complainant to take the bill for confessed. And Oldham is alleged to be a non-resident and owns a tract of land in the county, which he prays may be subjected to his demand against Asa B. Smith.

Oldham answered the amendment, controverting the jurisdiction of the Court, and alleging that Merrel Smith, as assignee, had sued him, in Missouri, on the note which first fell due, and recovered a judgment, and he exhibits a copy of the record,' from which it appears thatjudg[331]*331ment had been recovered, but the prior institution and pendency of the complainant’s attachment was not pleaded or relied on or attempted to be set up.

The courts of Ky. have jurisdiction in favor of a resident creditor on bill filed against a no n-r e s i d e n t debtor and his debtor, tho’ the last be a nonresident also, if process be here served on him and he have effects in this country on whi ch the decree may operate. The debtor of compl’t. might have sued his debtor if found hero, and the creditor (complainant) will be substituted by the Chancellor to the rights of his debtor. Our courts have jurisdiction to try incidentally an alleged fraud in the assignment of notes & demands for money attached by the Chancellor to satisfy a resident creditor’s demand against a non-resident, tho' the assignment may have been made in another state.

[331]*331On the hearing, the Circuit Court decreed that Oldham should pay to the complainant $523 57 cents, and the costs, in satisfaction of the complainant’s demand, including interest, on or before the next term of the Court, and should be entitled to a credit for the amount on the notes of the Smiths, or either of them, and the money not being paid, at the next term of the Court decreed a sale of so much of Oldham’s land as would pay it. From this decree Oldham has appealed to this Court.

Though Oldham and Á. B. Smith were both residents of Missouri at the institution of the suit, and continued to- reside there, as Oldham, the debtor of Smith, was found here, and process personally served on him here, the Court had unquestionable jurisdiction of the case as to him and his immediate creditors under our statute. The statute authorizing this proceeding does not require that the debtor of the non-resident debtor shall reside here; it only requires that he “shall be within this state:” Acts 1836-7, 103,

Smith might have sued Oldham, had he found him here, and the complainant, the creditor of Smith, by right of substitution may exercise, and was intended by the statute to be indulged in the exercise of the same privilege. Residence in another state is not a privilege that will exempt any one from being sued here, if he be found in this state, and occupies a condition that, lays him liable to a suit. The complainant’s means of making his debt may be rendered more precarious and uncertain, when the debtor of his non-resident debtor is also a nonresident, but his right to try, ought not thereby to be impaired, nor was it, by the statute, intended to be withheld from him.

But a question of more difficulty occurs, and that is, whether the Court in Madison could draw in question and exercise jurisdiction over the assignment of the notes and other transactions between the two Smiths, all of which took place in Missouri, and between residents and citizens of that state, and determine upon the fraud [332]*332charged, and the secret trust terms upon which these notes were held by young Smith. If the Court here cannot exercise jurisdiction, then might their decree be disregarded in Missouri as a nullity, and Oldham be made liable to a double payment of the same debt, first under the coercive power of the Court here, and then under a judgment of the Courts in Missouri.

The effects of no n-r es id ent debtors will be subjected by the Chancellor to the satisfaction of his debts, in the hands of others — who will be prote'ctedagainst the debtor thereafter.

It has been well settled by this Court, as well as by other tribunals, that the effects of a non-resident, found in the state, as well as debts due to him by individuals here, may be attached and subjected to the payment of debts due by the non-resident, to the attaching creditor here, in a proceeding under our statute regulating proceedings against non-resident debtors. The effects as well as the debts are subject to the control of the Court, as things within its jurisdiction, and held or owing by individuals here, who maybe subjected to the coercive action of the Court. Under the operation of such laws great wrong and injustice may be done to the non-resident debtor, whose rights may be adjudicated upon and his effects or debts wrested from him, without notice, or just claim. Yet this proceeding has long been indulged in here and elsewhere, and the adjudication of the Court sustained in other states and nations,, where it has been made to act on the thing or debt within the jurisdiction and control of the Court making it, so far as to protect the holder of the effects from subsequent liability, or the debtor who has been made to pay the debt, and has paid it to

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Related

Crawford, Receivers v. Ruby
275 S.W. 517 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky (pre-1976), 1925)
Broughton v. Saylor
110 S.W. 866 (Court of Appeals of Kentucky, 1908)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
40 Ky. 329, 1 B. Mon. 329, 1841 Ky. LEXIS 47, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oldham-v-robinson-kyctapp-1841.