Rice v. Dudley

34 Mo. App. 383, 1889 Mo. App. LEXIS 95
Missouri Court of Appeals·Decided March 4, 1889·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

Smith, P. J.

Rice obtained a judgment against Carter in the circuit court of Daviess county on which an execution issued, and Dudley was summoned as a garnishee thereon.

Dudley answered the interrogatories which were propounded to him, stating that he had in his hands belonging to Carter the sum of $860.75 and that Ashbrook and others were claiming the amount as assignees of Carter and that Rice disputed the validity of the assignments.

The circuit court made an order on Ashbrook and the other claimants to appear and sustain their respective claims to the said fund in the hands of Dudley, the garnishee, under the provisions of section 2541, Revised Statutes. Ashbrook subsequently filed his claim pursuant to the requirements of said order wherein he set forth that he claimed $336.25 out of the fund in the custody of the court — the fund having been paid into the court by the garnishee — under a certain written order, directed to Dudley and signed by Carter for that sum, which had been presented to Dudley and refused.

There were no further pleadings filed in the case.

At the trial the said order under which Ashbrook claimed said sum of money was introduced in evidence and was as follows :

[387] “ March 25, 1886.

“To Boyd Dudley:

You will please pay to William Ashbrook. three hundred and thirty-six and twenty-five one-hundreths ■dollars out of any money in your hands arising from the loan made through you of the Lombard Investment Company, or from any other source.

“(signed) Henry Carter.”

The testimony showed the three hundred dollar note due by Carter to Ashbrook had been placed in the hands of Callison, an attorney, for collection with authority to take the necessary steps to collect the same. The whole matter was confided to him. While he had this note in his hands for collection he took the order on Dudley, which was to be in full payment of the note, and the order was taken and presented to Dudley before the garnishment.

There was further testimony tending to prove that Carter, through Dudley, procured from the Lombard Investment Company a loan of two thousand dollars on a mortgage on his farm. And that the money was borrowed to pay his debts to various persons ; that he owed Ashbrook a three-hundred dollar note and interest, and that after he learned the money borrowed on the mortgage was in the hands of Dudley, he gave to Callison the order, already hereinbefore set forth, to pay the Ashbrook debt.

This was in substance all the evidence which is material to the consideration of the questions arising in the case.

The claimant Ashbrook asked no instructions.

The plaintiff Rice asked these instructions all of which were refused.

“ The court declares the law to be : 1. That under the pleadings and proof, the finding and judgment must be for Plaintiff as against claimant.

[388] “2. That the drawing of the order offered in evidence by Henry Carter in favor of William Ashbrook did not operate as an assignment of the sum for which drawn from said Carter to Ashbrook, or give him any lien upon it.

“ 3. That the attempted assignment by said Carter of the part of the funds in the hands of garnishee Dudley, to William Ashbrook, was void, as it is shown not to have been with said Dudley’s consent.

“4. That the relation between Dudley, garnishee, and Henry Carter, defendant, was that of debtor and creditor, and that the order drawn upon said Dudley by said Carter in favor of Ashbrook for a part of the debt due Carter from said Dudley was void as said order was not accepted by said Dudley, or consented to by him. ,

“ 5. The order drawn by Carter upon Dudley, in favor of Ashbrook did not, before acceptance, take effect as a legal or equitable assignment of the funds in the hands of said Dudley for which said order was drawn, so as to defeat the garnishment of said fund by plaintiff, and as it appears from the evidence that said order was not accepted by said Dudley, the finding and judgment must be for plaintiff.

“ 6. That there was no consideration for the order drawn by Carter in favor of Ashbrook on Dudley.

“7. That it. does not appear from the evidence that at the time said order was drawn there were any funds in the hands of Boyd Dudley belonging to Carter, or at that time said Dudley was indebted to said Carter, or that there was any intention then at the time to make a present, irrevocable transfer of any debt or fund in the hands of said Dudley by said Carter to said claimant Ashbrook, or of an assent of said claimant Ashbrook to receive same, or that there was any consideration for such attempted transfer, and the finding must therefore be for plaintiff.’*

[389] The court found the issues for the claimant Ash-brook.

Judgment was accordingly for him, and, after unsuccessful motions to set aside the finding and in arrest of the judgment, the plaintiff took his appeal to this court.

The case was submitted to the court without the intervention of a jury.

The facts upon which the finding and judgment are based are incontrovertible here. This court has only the power to review the law declared by the trial court. Hamilton v. Boggess, 63 Mo. 233.

I. The principal questions in this case involve the propriety of the action of the circuit court in refusing plaintiff’s instructions. The deduction of the circuit court from the evidence undoubtedly was that the order of Carter on Dudley in favor of Ashbrook was accepted by him through his attorney Callison as an extinguishment of the note. This assumption of facts by the circuit court it seems to us is justified by the evidence. We infer that the» circuit court followed the rule laid down by Judge Ryland in Appleton v. Kennon, 19 Mo. 637, which is that “ the parties must intend at the time, that the receipt of the note of such third person shall be payment — shall extinguish the debt, or it will be a conditional payment when the note is paid and which has been approved in the later cases in this state. Leabo v. Goode, 67 Mo. 126; Wills v. Robinson, 80 Mo. 47; Sturtevant Bank v. Peterson, 21 Mo. App. 512.

II. It does not clearly appear by the evidence whose agent Dudley was, but we infer that he was that of the investment company.

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Rice v. Dudley, 34 Mo. App. 383, 1889 Mo. App. LEXIS 95 (Mo. Ct. App. 1889).

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