Tapee v. Varley-Wolter Co.

171 S.W. 19, 184 Mo. App. 470, 1914 Mo. App. LEXIS 581
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedNovember 23, 1914
StatusPublished
Cited by4 cases

This text of 171 S.W. 19 (Tapee v. Varley-Wolter Co.) 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
Tapee v. Varley-Wolter Co., 171 S.W. 19, 184 Mo. App. 470, 1914 Mo. App. LEXIS 581 (Mo. Ct. App. 1914).

Opinion

JOHNSON, J.

Plaintiff, a produce dealer in St. Joseph, brought suit by attachment in a justice court against the Y arley-W olter s Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota, and had the First National Bank of St. Joseph summoned as garnishee. Afterward on motion of plaintiff the Market State Bank of Minneapolis was joined as a defendant. The ground of attachment was the nonresidence of the defendants. An attempt was made to obtain constructive service on the original defendant but at the trial in the justice court that defendant was dismissed and a judgment was rendered “that plaintiff recover from the Market State Bank of Minneapolis the sum of forty-five dollars so found as aforesaid, together with costs of this suit, and that plaintiff have execution therefor and that said execution be a special execution on the property attached in this cause.” The garnishee had answered “we have $577.32 paid to us on account of draft received from the Market State Bank of Minneapolis, drawn by Yarley-Wolter Co. which is claimed by above-mentioned Market State Bank as belonging to them.” After the filing of this answer the Market State Bank appeared and filed an interplea in the justice court claiming title to the money held by the garnishee. In the judgment to which we have referred the justice found against the defendant bank on its interplea and as shown rendered personal judgment against it as a defendant for the full amount of plaintiff’s demand. Afterward and [473]*473in proper time an affidavit for appeal was filed in which the affiant who was the agent of the appellant made oath that “defendant’s, application for an appeal from the merits is not made for vexation and delay,” etc.

The appellant was not mentioned by name in this affidavit nor referred to as interpleader, and this omission is the subject of an objection to the jurisdiction of the court over the cause which shall receive our attention in its proper place. The cause was tried in the circuit court without the aid of a jury and judgment was rendered against both defendants for $50.21, and its was further adjudged “that the sum of $577.32 was and is in the hands of the First National Bank of Buchanan county as garnishee of the above defendants, the money and property of said defendants and it is ordered and adjudged that the said . . . garnishee pay to the clerk of this court or the sheriff of this county the said sum of $50.21, the amount of said judgment together with the costs • herein, ” etc. Just when or in what manner the original defendant was brought back into the case is not made clear, nor is it a fact of any consequence in the view we have of the case. The Market State Bank alone appealed 'from this judgment and we have no concern with the question of whether or not the judgment is valid as to the original defendant.

The controversy before us grew out of the sale of a carload of potatoes by the Varley-Wolter Company to plaintiff through the agency of a broker in St. Joseph. The sale was made at $1.30 per bushel delivered on track at St. Joseph and on March 28, 1912, the car containing 530 bushels, of the gross value of $689, was shipped by the vendor at Minneapolis and consigned to its own order at St. Joseph with directions in the bill of lading to notify plaintiff and to “allow inspection.” A draft was drawn by the vendor on plaintiff for $689, and with bill of lading attached, was sold to the Market State Bank for $601, the sum that [474]*474would be due the vendor after the payment at St. Joseph of the freight charges which were estimated at $88. The vendor had an account with the Market State Bank and the proceeds of the sale of the draft, to-wit, $601 was credited to its checking account. The bank purchased the draft in the usual course of business and without the knowledge of any defect or deficiency in the goods described in the attached bill of lading. It appears it was customary for the bank in such transactions to buy drafts outright from its customers for the full amount of the proceeds less the freight charges and afterward to charge the exchange and collection expenses to the customer’s account. After purchasing the draft and bill of lading, the Market State Bank forwarded them to the First National Bank at St. Joseph with instructions to collect the draft and to pay the freight charges on the car out of its proceeds. In other words the collecting bank was authorized to accept the amount of the freight bill paid by plaintiff as a payment upon the draft.

The draft and bill of lading were at the St. Joseph bank on the arrival of the car. After being allowed to inspect the contents of the car plaintiff paid the draft in full, obtained the attached bill of lading and then received the property from the carrier. After removing it to his place of business he presented a claim to the vendor for damages growing out of an alleged shortgage, and of the rotten condition of some of the potatoes. The vendor rejected the claim on the grounds that it was not well founded in fact; that the title to the property had passed to the Market State Bank before the acceptance and payment of the draft by plaintiff and that the vendor had no interest in the money attached in the hands of the garnishee.

In support of the point that the circuit court acquired no jurisdiction over the cause counsel for plaintiff say in their brief: ‘ The justice having rendered judgment against appellant as interpleader and there [475]*475being no appeal by appellant as interpleader from that judgment, the judgment of said justice against it as interpleader still remains in full force and effect.” [Citing Fischer v. Anslyn, 30 Mo. App. 316; Urton v. Sherlock, 61 Mo. 257; Gray v. Dryden, 79 Mo. 106; Roberts v. Shepherd, 96 Mo. App. 698.] These are cases holding, in substance, that a judgment rendered against two or more defendants in a justice court becomes a finality against one of such defendants who fails' to appeal whether or not an appeal be taken by the remaining defendants. That rule has no application to the point raised by plaintiff which, in substance, is that the circuit court acquired no jurisdiction of the issues raised by the interplea of the appellant, since the affidavit failed to describe appellant as an interpleader. The only requirements of the statute relating to affidavits for appeal in justice courts (Sec. 7570, Rev. Stat. 1909) are that “the party applying therefor, or some person for him, will make affidavit that the application for an appeal is not made for vexation or delay but because ‘he believes the appellant is injured by the judgment of the justice, and stating whether such appeal is -from the merits or from an order or judgment taxing costs.”

It appears that the appellant was compelled in the justice court to take the dual role of defendant and interpleader, the latter voluntarily and the former by compulsion. Plaintiff had appellant joined as defendant and succeeded in procuring a personal judgment against it as the sole defendant. Certainly appellant had a right to appeal from that judgment and was accurately described in the affidavit as the defendant. The appeal from that judgment on the merits conferred complete jurisdiction upon the circuit court over the whole case including the issues raised by the interplea.

In rendering personal judgment against appellant on the facts stated, the learned trial court must have [476]

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
171 S.W. 19, 184 Mo. App. 470, 1914 Mo. App. LEXIS 581, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/tapee-v-varley-wolter-co-moctapp-1914.