Pierce v. Wilcox

40 Ind. 70
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1872
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 40 Ind. 70 (Pierce v. Wilcox) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pierce v. Wilcox, 40 Ind. 70 (Ind. 1872).

Opinion

Buskirk, J.

The only question presented for our decision is, whether the court erred in sustaining a demurrer to the first and second paragraphs of the answer. To properly understand the questions raised, and to make our opinion intelligible, it will be necessary to set out the substance of [71]*71the complaint. The amended complaint states that James Pierce, the appellant, on the 23d. day of September, 1858, executed a mortgage to Riley M. Wilcox, the appelleé, a copy of which was made a part of the complaint, conveying certain lands and sundry chattels therein described to secure the appellee on sundry notes made by appellant, as principal, and the appellee as surety, to the Ohio Insurance Company; that the appellant failed to pay said notes; that on the 3d day of May, i860, said Ohio Insurance Company obtained a judgment on said notes, in the Floyd Circuit Court, against the appellant as principal, and the appellee as surety; that on the 28th day of May, 1860, an execution was issued on said judgment, upon which the appellee was compelled to and did pay two thousand dollars; that on the nth dayof May, 1865, appellee assigned to one Mellett M, Wilcox his claim against the appellant for said sum of two thousand dollars, paid as aforesaid; that on the 10th of November, 1866, said Mellett M. Wilcox obtained judgment, in said Floyd Circuit Court, against appellant for the full amount of said claim so assigned to him by appellee; that before the commencement of this action said Mellett M. Wilcox assigned his said judgment to appellee; that the said Mellett M. Wilcox is made a defendant to answer to said assignment; that the said judgment belonged to the appellee and was wholly unpaid. The prayer of said complaint was for a judgment for two thousand five hundred dollars, for the foreclosure of said mortgage, the sale of the mortgaged property, and for all other proper relief.

The second paragraph of the complaint was, in substance, the same as the first.

Copies of the mortgage, notes, judgments, and assignments thereof were filed with the complaint.

The appellant answered as follows:

“ 1. The defendant, James Pierce, separately answers the plaintiff’s complaint herein, and says that, on the 13th day of January, A. D., 1869, a discharge in bankruptcy was duly granted to this defendant by the district court of the United [72]*72States within and for the district of Indiana, which said discharge in bankruptcy is in the words and figures as follows:

“‘District Court of the United States, district of Indiana.

“‘Whereas James Pierce has been duly adjudged a bankrupt, under the act of Congress establishing a uniform system of bankruptcy throughout the United States, and appears to have conformed to all requirements of law in that behalf; it is therefore ordered by the court that said James Pierce be forever discharged from all debts and claims which, by said act, are made provable against his estate, and which existed on the 18th of January, 1868, on which day the petition for adjudication was filed by him, excepting such debts, if any, as are by said act excepted from the operation of a discharge in bankruptcy.

“‘Given under my hand and the seal of the court, at Indianapolis, in the said district, this 13th day of January, A. D., 1869. David McDonald,
“‘Judge U. S. District Court of Indiana.
“‘Attest: J. D. Howland, Clerk.’
“Wherefore, the defendant, James Pierce, says that the plaintiff’s action is fully and completely barred, and he demands judgment that the plaintiff ought not to be permitted to maintain and prosecute his action herein against him, and for all other proper relief.
“ G. V. Howk & Son, Attorneys.

“ 2. The defendant, James Pierce, for further and second paragraph of his answer in this action, separately answers so much of the plaintiff’s complaint herein as seeks to recover from this defendant anything more than the value of the real estate and the roan horse, now living, hereinafter mentioned, and says that on the 13th day of January, 1869, a discharge in bankruptcy was duly granted to this defendant by the district court of the United States within and for the district of Indiana, which said discharge in bankruptcy is in the words and figures following, to wit:” Then follows a discharge, the same as the one above set out, which we omit, and the answer proceeds as follows:

[73]*73“And this defendant avers that long before his filing of his said petition of adjudication in bankruptcy, one of the two roan horses described in the mortgage sued on herein had departed this life, and that the spring wagon, the two road wagons, and the carriage, in said mortgage described, were utterly used up and worn out, so that nothing remained, or now remains, of the said articles of property, or either of them, in this defendant’s possession; that only one of the two roan horses, in said mortgage described, was living at the time of the filing by this defendant of his said petitioh In bankruptcy, or is living now; that the said living horse is now twenty-seven (27) years old, and was not, at the time of the. filing of his said petition, and is not now, worth any greater sum than twenty-five dollars; that the real estate described in said mortgage never was, and is not now, worth more than two hundred dollars; and that the plaintiff herein did not prove before the proper register in bankruptcy the debt for which he sues in this action, or any part thereof.

“Wherefore, the defendant, James Pierce, says that the plaintiff’s complaint herein, except as to said real estate and the said roan horse now living, is fully and completely barred, and he demands judgment accordingly, and for all other proper relief. G. V. Howie & Son, Attorneys.”

The appellee demurred separately to each paragraph of the answer, upon the ground that neither paragraph contained facts sufficient to constitute a defence to the action, and which demurrers were by the court sustained, and to this ruling proper exceptions were taken.

The appellant failing and declining to answer further herein, the court below ordered that appellee’s complaint be taken as confessed by said appellant. Finding of court below in favor of appellee, and against appellant, for two thousand dollars, and foreclosing said mortgage and judgment accordingly, that the real estate and personal property described in said mortgage be sold by the sheriff of said county, as other property is sold upon execution, to satisfy said mortgage debt and the costs of this action.

[74]*74The appellant has assigned for error the sustaining-of the demurrer to the first and second paragraphs of the answer.

The sole purpose of the complaint was to obtain a foreclosure of the mortgage and a sale of the mortgaged property. The mortgage embraced both real and personal property. The banlrruptcy of the defendant was pleaded in bar of the foreclosure of the mortgage. Was this a defence ? The question is to be determined by the bankrupt law.

The thirty-fourth section of the bankrupt law of 1867 is as follows:

“Sec. 34.

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Bluebook (online)
40 Ind. 70, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pierce-v-wilcox-ind-1872.