Petring v. Chrisler

90 Mo. 649
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedOctober 15, 1886
StatusPublished
Cited by21 cases

This text of 90 Mo. 649 (Petring v. Chrisler) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Petring v. Chrisler, 90 Mo. 649 (Mo. 1886).

Opinion

Rat, J.—

In April, 1881, plaintiff began this suit against defendants, John and A. J. Chrisler, by petition in the ordinary form, for actions on account, with affidavit and bond for attachment against the property in controversy, which consists of a certain stock of dry' goods and merchandise. The attachment writ was thereafter levied by the sheriff upon the said stock of goods whilst the same was in the possession of the Herr Dry Goods Company. Said Herr Dry Goods Company gave the sheriff a forthcoming bond, as provided in section 421, Revised Statutes, and retained the possession, and by permission of the court filed its interplea in the cause, claiming the property under a chattel mortgage, exe[653]*653cuted by tbe said Chrislers, and acknowledged and recorded in December, 1878, conveying to C. H. Herr & Company the said stock of goods, and other described property, to secure the payment of a certain note therein specified.

It was stipulated, on the trial, that the interpleader,, the Herr Dry Groods Company, was the successor to, and had duly acquired the rights of the said C. H. Herr & Company, the mortgagee in said mortgage. The defendants,, 0 ohn and A. J. Chrisler, filed no answer and judgment was taken by default against them. The trial of the interplea, before the court, sitting as a jury, resulted in a finding and judgment in favor of the interpleader, from which the plaintiff has appealed. The mortgage further contained a provision purporting to convey property tO‘ be thereafter acquired, viz. : “ all goods and property that may be placed in the store thereafter, at Chesapeake, by purchase or otherwise,” and was otherwise valid and operative on its face. The mortgageor, it is true, was-authorized by the terms of the mortgage to sell the goods in the usual course of trade, but he was also thereby required to account for and pay over the proceeds of sales to the mortgagees. Prior to the institution of the attachment suit by plaintiff, the said Chrislers, father and son, delivered to the interpleader the possession of the goods in controversy under the following agreement:

“Chesapeake, Mo., March 22, 1881.

“We, John and Andrew J. Chrisler, composing the-firm of J ohn Chrisler & Son, of Chesapeake, Mo., have this day delivered full and entire possession of all our stock of merchandise, embracing dry goods, notions, groceries, hardware, clothing, hats, caps, drugs and medicines, store fixtures, show cases, scales of all kinds, and everything in our possession and in our store at Chesapeake, Mo., to W. C. Hornbeck, for Messrs. Chas. H. Herr & Co., of Springfield, Mo. This delivery is made under the provisions of a mortgage, executed by us to said Chas. [654]*654H. Herr & Co., dated December 12, 1878, and recorded in office of the recorder, at Mt. Yernon, Mo., December 19, 1878. This delivery also embraces the books and all .unpaid accounts due the firm of Chrisler & Son.

(Signed) John Chrisler,

Andrew Chrisler.”

This, we think, brings the case within the operation of the rule, heretofore declared by this court, in Greely v. Reading, 74 Mo. 309, and by the St. Louis court of appeals, in Nash v. Norment, 5 Mo. App. 545. The doctrine of these cases is, that where the mortgagee, in good faith, takes actual possession of the goods prior to the .levy of the attachment, for the purpose of securing the ■payment of his debt, and continues to hold the actual •possession up to the time of the levy, he will be protected, and will, in that event, hold the goods as against the subsequent attaching creditor, and that, under this •state of facts, it is immaterial that the mortgage contains stipulations which render it void, except as between the parties.

Treating of this subject, Mr. Jones, in his work on ■Chattel Mortgages, says: “Delivery of possession under a mortgage, before rights have been acquired by others, will cure any invalidity there may be in the instrument, whether arising from an insufficient execution of it, the omission to record it, or from its containing .a provision which makes it void, except as between the parties.” Sec. 178. In this case, the debt secured by the mortgage was due and unpaid, and as the possession was delivered under said agreement some time prior to the levy of the attachment by plaintiff, the .trial court, ■evidently, as appears from its ruling upon declarations of law asked by the parties, tried and determined the •case in favor of the interpleader, in harmony with the rule supported by these authorities. Some effort is made to distinguish this case, and to take it out of the r Te ■announced in those cases, but not, as we apprehend, ..^on [655]*655any solid grounds. The execution of said agreement, of March 22, 1881, and the delivery of the possession was, we think, entirely voluntary on the part of said Chrislefs, father and son, and whether or not they, or either of them, supposed the sheriff could take the possession under the mortgage is not, we think, material or important. Nor do we perceive why the stipulation in said •agreement, that such delivery was made under the provisions of the mortgage, should, under the facts and circumstances, vary, modify or affect the rule. The theory as to this of plaintiff’s counsel is, if we understand him, that the mortgage was fraudulent per se and void on its face (and we may observe the trial court so declared in the first declaration given at his instance), and that the mortgage had been so treated by the parties to it as to amount to actual fraud upon other creditors, and hence, a delivery of possession thereunder would be a mere continuation of the fraud, and, “ therefore, ineffectual to remove or cure the vice existing in the mortgage by reason of such fraudulent and void provision. To avoid misconception, we may call attention to Wright v. Bircher, 72 Mo. 179 ; France v. Thomas, 86 Mo. 80, and Frank v. Playter, 73 Mo. 672, where similar mortgages, with like provisions as to* after acquired property, or •chattels not in esse at the date of the mortgage, were before this court.

A full discussion of this question and exhaustive review of the authorities were there had. It is, we think, sufficient in this case, to say that we adhere to the rule .announced in those cases, which makes such mortgages inoperative to pass the legal title to property not in esse at the date of the mortgage, but does not go to the length now claimed, or make them fraudulent per se, or absolutely void without regard to the intention of the parties. Whether the mortgage became fraudulent, in fact, as to other creditors, by reason of the conduct of the mortgagees, in permitting or encouraging the mort[656]*656gageor, after breach in the condition of the mortgage, to continue to sell without requiring the proceeds of the sales to be turned over on the mortgage was, we think, a question to be determined upon competent extrinsic evidence in that behalf. Bullene v. Barrett, 87 Mo. 188. The extrinsic evidence, if any, in support of this alleged fraudulent conduct of the parties was, we think, properly submitted in the declarations of law, numbered two and three, given at plaintiff’s instance, and which are as follows:

“2. That if it appears from the evidence that said C. H. Herr & Go. permitted said mortgageors to remain in.

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Bluebook (online)
90 Mo. 649, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/petring-v-chrisler-mo-1886.