Potvin v. Denny Hotel Co.

79 P. 940, 37 Wash. 323, 1905 Wash. LEXIS 728
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 4, 1905
DocketNo. 4422
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 79 P. 940 (Potvin v. Denny Hotel Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Potvin v. Denny Hotel Co., 79 P. 940, 37 Wash. 323, 1905 Wash. LEXIS 728 (Wash. 1905).

Opinion

Root, J.

This case was once before appealed to this court, and the opinion handed down therein may be found in 26 Wash. 309, 66 Pac. 376. Reference is now made to that opinion for a more complete statement of the facts involved. At that time the trial court, having sustained a demurrer to appellant’s complaint, and he having elected not to amend, and a judgment of dismissal having been rendered, an appeal was taken from said judgment. Appellant’s action is based upon a partially unsatisfied judgment, obtained in foreclosing a contractor’s lien against the Denny Hotel Company and its former property, the Denny Hotel.

In his complaint appellant prayed that the conveyance of certain real and personal property (finishing material), from the Denny Hotel Company to A. A. Denny, be adjudged fraudulent, as having been made for the purpose of hindering, delaying, and preventing the collection of claims due appellant, and other creditors, from the hotel company; and that said A. A. Denny be required to pay into court, for the use and benefit of plaintiff and other creditors, the difference between the value of said real estate and the amount bid therefor, to wit, $82,670; and that he also be required to pay into court, for the use of plaintiff, the value of said personal property, to wit, $25,-000. In the decision of this court, when the case was here before (26 Wash.), the appellant was held not entitled to have the conveyance of the real estate decreed fraudulent, or to recover anything on account thereof; but it was held that, in so far as the personal property was concerned, the complaint stated a cause of action. Among other things, the court said:

“If, as alleged, appellant has a lien upon it prior in time to the transfer, he has a right to have the lien foreclosed, and the property sold in satisfaction thereof. . . [325]*325If the transfer was made, as averred in the complaint, without consideration, it is voidable at the suit of a crediter, for an insolvent corporation has no right to give away its property to the prejudice of its creditors.”

The case being remanded to the superior court, an answer was interposed by respondents, wherein they denied appellant’s possession and right of lien, and all the' allegations of fraud; and set up that, in another proceeding, wherein appellant was one of the plaintiffs, certain other creditors of the Denny Hotel Company had been restrained from selling said finishing material, by execution on judgments against said hotel company, upon the ground that the said material was to be used in good faith for the completion of said building, and was subject to the lien of said appellant. It was alleged that appellant had sought the confirmation of the sale of the real estate, when purchased as aforesaid by A. A. Denny, and had received a portion of the proceeds. And it was alleged that said appellant was estopped from maintaining that said material was not subject to the lien, which he established against the property, and from asserting that the execution sale did not convey both real estate and building material

At the conclusion of the trial, the court decided in favor of respondents — finding that the building of the hotel was abandoned on account of financial embarrassment; that, the hotel corporation had quit and abandoned the business for which it Avas incorporated; that the real estate; including said hotel building, at the time of the sheriff’s sale; was worth $100,000; that A. A. Denny was president of, and a stockholder in, said hotel company; that appellant, as contractor, had obtained a judgment of $186,386.78, with interest from the 6th of March, 1896, and that the amount so found due was declared a valid lien upon the real estate; that, when the construction work [326]*326ceased, there was in the building a large amount of lumber, mill work, etc., which had been principally furnished by Huttig Brothers Manufacturing Company; that the hotel company was indebted in an amount exceeding $400,000, and was hopelessly insolvent; tbat, prior to tbe commencement of tbe action, an alias execution on appellant’s judgment was issued, and returned wholly unsatisfied and nulla bonaj that appellant had caused the hotel company’s real estate to be sold on special execution, A. A. Denny being the purchaser, for the benefit of himself and two other creditors of the hotel company; that A. A. Denny was a creditor of the hotel company in a sum exceeding $20,000; that said Denny and Dexter Horton & Co. had, for value, become the owners of the judgment of one Wickersham, theretofore obtained against said hotel company; that said hotel company had deeded its property to A. A. Denny, to satisfy his claims against it; that appellant re>ceived $1,000 from the proceeds of the sale of the real estate, and never objected to the confirmation of the sale of said property; that, after the execution sale of said hotel real estate, Huttig Brothers Manufacturing Company, upon execution on the judgment held against appellant for the purchase price of the lumber, furnishings, etc., hereinbefore mentioned, sold the same, bidding it in and, with Denny and Dexter Horton & Co., using it in the completion of the hotel building.

Tbe court made conclusions substantially as follows: That the execution sale of the real estate was valid and binding upon the appellant, and that no redemption bad ever been made; that- the execution sale upon the judgment of Huttig Brothers Manufacturing Company, of the lumber and loose material about the building, was valid, and transferred the property therein to said company; that [327]*327the plaintiff was not entitled to recover against the respondents, or any of them. Judgment and decree of dismissal was made and entered upon said findings and conclusions. From said judgment and decree, this appeal is taken.

Exceptions were taken to part of the findings, and to all of the. conclusions. There is hut little controversy over the facts. The findings of the trial court, we think, are fairly sustained. Appellant contends that the sale of the real estate did not transfer or affect the lumber, mill work, and furnishings unused in and about the hotel building; that he, at said time, had possession of said material, and that it was personal property; that said material was subsequently taken wrongfully by said A. A. Denny, and, by him and associates, used in the completion of said hotel building. He claims that the sale of the lumber, mill work, etc., by Huttig Brothers Manufacturing Company, was hot pleaded so as to be available as a defense. He also contends that, if said defense were justifiable under the answers, it is nevertheless insufficient, for the reason that the judgment was obtained April 11, 1892, and the sale did not occur until April 9, 1898, or more than five years after its rendition, and at a time when it was dormant and incapable of supporting an execution. He also claims that, at the time of this sale, the title to this said lumber, mill work, etc., was not in him, but that it was in the Denny Hotel Company; and that, consequently, no title passed to Huttig Brothers Manufacturing Company by reason of said sale. At said sale the material brought only $1,699.25. Appellant claims that it. was worth $25,000. He maintains that the execution sale of the real estate, upon the judgment held by himself against the Denny Hotel Company, did not convey the lumber, mill work, etc., [328]*328for the reason that said material was not a part of the building at that time, and did not constitute a portion of the real estate.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
79 P. 940, 37 Wash. 323, 1905 Wash. LEXIS 728, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/potvin-v-denny-hotel-co-wash-1905.