State ex rel. Fields v. Cryts

87 Mo. App. 440, 1901 Mo. App. LEXIS 427
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedMarch 4, 1901
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 87 Mo. App. 440 (State ex rel. Fields v. Cryts) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Missouri Court of Appeals primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
State ex rel. Fields v. Cryts, 87 Mo. App. 440, 1901 Mo. App. LEXIS 427 (Mo. Ct. App. 1901).

Opinion

BLAND, P. J.

C. C. Fields and brother owned and conducted a hardware store in the city of Dexter, in Stoddard county. The brother died and O. O. Fields administered on the partnership estate. As such administrator, about the nineteenth of July, 1894, he sold the entire stock of hardware to Francis & Eiddle for $1,598.89, on time, and took from them four promissory notes of $300 each, due in three, six, nine and twelve months, and one for $398.89 due in fifteen months from date. To secure these notes, Francis & Eiddle signed and acknowledged a chattel mortgage to Fields as administrator, oh all the merchandise in the store, which mortgage was duly recorded. Sometime after this, Francis sold out to Eiddle, Eid[444]*444die assumed the payment of the Fields debt, to which arrangement Fields assented. The balance due Fields at this time was $1,435. To secure this balance and to correct an error, or supposed error, in the first mortgage, Riddle on March 13, 1895, signed and acknowledged a chattel mortgage, to Fields as administrator, on all the stock of merchandise he then had on hand and all that he might thereafter acquire and kept in the store by Riddle for sale. It was agreed that Riddle should remain in possession, with right to sell the goods, and pay the proceeds over to Fields. Riddle gave Fields as an additional security when the purchase was first made, a deed of trust on his farm, estimated to be worth from $500 to $600 over and above a prior deed of trust on it. At the time of the execution of the second chattel mortgage and in consideration therefor, Fields extended the time of payment of the first two notes to become due for thirty days. This second mortgage was duly acknowledged and recorded. On April 15, 1895, by virtue of four executions against Francis & Riddle, issued by a justice of the peace and delivered to defendant John J. Cryts as constable, he (Cryts) levied on a considerable portion of the merchandise found in Riddle’s store and covered by the chattel mortgage. This property he duly advertised and sold at public auction under the several executions, realizing from the sale $378. The suit is on Cryts’s bond as constable, to recover of him and his sureties the value of the goods covered by Fields’s second chattel mortgage that were sold by Cryts as constable.

The answer is, first, a general denial, second, justification because the chattel mortgage is void as to other creditors, third, estoppel because Fields failed to make claim to property in due season. The only defense relied on at the trial, however, was the second, viz.: that the' mortgage was void as to creditors. The jury returned a verdict for plaintiff, and assessed his damages at $1,191.25.

[445]*445On this verdict a judgment was entered that plaintiff recover of Cryts and his sureties the penalty of the bond, $1,500, to be discharged on the payment of the damages assessed by the jury, $1,191.25. Subsequently, and pending a motion for new trial, the plaintiff remitted the sum of $181.20 and the judgment was, by order of the court, reduced to $1,010.05, and the motion for new trial was overruled. Defendants appealed.

Both chattel mortgages were fair and valid on their face. Before the sale by the constable, the respondent gave him verbal notice of his claim and forbade the sale. After the sale by the constable, respondent took possession of what goods were left in the store and sold them under his mortgage and realized by the sale $614.10. Eespondent testifies that the value of the goods on hand and sold by the constable, as near as he could keep count of them, was $900.

Appellants offered evidence tending to prove that respondent gave Eiddle permission to sell goods covered by the second mortgage and apply the proceeds to the payment of debts other than the one secured by the mortgage, and that Eiddle did pay some of such debts. Eespondent and Eiddle denied that any such arrangement was entered into between them, or that respondent ever consented to the application of the proceeds from the sale of the goods to the payment of any debt other than his own. Eor respondent, the court gave the following instructions:

“1. The court instructs the jury that this is a suit on the official bond of the defendant, John J. Cryts, by which the plaintiff seeks to recover from the defendants, as principal and sureties on said bond, the value of certain goods upon which the plaintiff claims he had a mortgage, and which, as plaintiff alleges, the defendant, Cryts sold under executions against Thomas A. Eiddle. Now, therefore, if you find from the evidence in this case, that the plaintiff had and held a bona fide [446]*446'debt against said Riddle, of about tbe sum mentioned in tbe mortgage bearing date of March 23, 1895, and offered in evidence in this cause, and to secure the payment of that debt said Riddle executed said chattel mortgage and that plaintiff received the same in good faith for the purpose of securing the payment of the debt in said mortgage described and for no other purpose, then and in that event the court instructs you that you should ascertain and find: first, the balance due the plaintiff on said debt; second, the value of the goods sold by defendant under said execution. But if the balance due and owing to the plaintiff should exceed the value of the goods sold by the defendant under said executions, then your verdict should be for the plaintiff for a sum equal to the value of the goods sold under said executions.
“2. The burden of proving fraud is upon the party who alleges it, and when the facts and circumstances in evidence are as consistent with honesty and fair dealing as with dishonesty, the jury should find for honesty and fair dealing.
“3. If the jury should find from the evidence, that the chattel mortgage offered in evidence was executed by Thomas A. Riddle for the purpose of hindering, delaying or defrauding his creditors, that fact alone will not prevent the plaintiff from recovering in this case. In order to defeat the recovery of the plaintiff in this case, you must believe and find from the evidence that plaintiff accepted said chattel mortgage for the purpose and with the intent of hindering, delaying or defrauding the creditors of Thomas A. Riddle. But, if there was any collateral agreement outside of the mortgage that Riddle could sell the mortgaged goods and apply the proceeds to any purpose other than paying the mortgage debt, then such agreement, if made, rendered the mortgage fraudulent and void, no matter what the purpose or intentions of the parties were.
“4. If you find the chattel mortgage of March 23, 1895, [447]*447to be a valid mortgage, under the instructions given you, then the plaintiff had the right to sell the property covered by said mortgage to pay the debt secured by it, and if the defendant sold any part of such property under executions against Kiddle after the execution and record of such mortgage, then he is liable on his bond to plaintiff for the value of said property, unless such value should exceed the balance due and owing to plaintiff in the mortgage debt and in that event defendant is liable for only such sum as would equal the balance due and owing plaintiff.
“5. The court instructs you that the chattel mortgage offered in evidence and bearing date July 24, 1894, given by Erancis & Riddle to C. C.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Eisenhart v. Schreimann
889 S.W.2d 887 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1994)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
87 Mo. App. 440, 1901 Mo. App. LEXIS 427, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/state-ex-rel-fields-v-cryts-moctapp-1901.