West v. Baker

510 P.2d 731, 109 Ariz. 415, 13 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 504, 1973 Ariz. LEXIS 364
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedJune 8, 1973
Docket11055-PR
StatusPublished
Cited by10 cases

This text of 510 P.2d 731 (West v. Baker) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
West v. Baker, 510 P.2d 731, 109 Ariz. 415, 13 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 504, 1973 Ariz. LEXIS 364 (Ark. 1973).

Opinion

STRUCKMEYER, Justice.

This is an appeal from a judgment on garnishment entered in the Superior Court of Pima County, Arizona. The Court of Appeals dismissed the appeal. We accepted review. Opinion of the Court of Appeals, 18 Ariz.App. 151, 500 P.2d 1139 (1972), vacated and judgment of the Superior Court reversed.

In 1967, appellant, Mary West, a single woman residing in Texas, purchased certain real property located in Texas from the Aritex Land Company, Inc., an Arizona corporation. She gave her installment note for $747,254.06, and executed certain instruments securing the indebtedness. The note provides:

“This note is due and payable as follows, to wit:
In annual principal installments of $50,000.00 or more, plus accrued interest on the balance, commencing March 1, 1968, and annually thereafter on the same date until March 1, 1977, when the entire remaining balance of principal, if any, plus accrued interest, shall be due.”

Aritex endorsed on the back of the note by partial assignment the first $370,000.00 of the principal and interest to Chelmont State Bank, now the Bank of El Paso in Texas, transferred the security to it, and instructed West to make payments to the bank on the note as they became due until its debt to the bank was satisfied. The endorsement provides:

“FOR VALUE RECEIVED, the undersigned hereby sells, transfers and assigns to CHELMONT STATE BANK, the within Note, together with the Vendor’s Lien and Deed of Trust Lien on the property securing same, and as endorser, guarantees the payment of the within note at maturity, or on demand at any time after maturity, waiving demand, protest and notice of non-payment thereof. This assignment is limited to the first $326t686t99 $370,000.00 (IB) of principal asd plus interest paid on such amount. (IB)
ARITEX LAND CO., INC.
ATTEST:
Frances Baker Secretary By Irving L. Baker_ Irving L. Baker, President”

Thereafter, by separate instrument Aritex transferred its remaining interest in the note to the Chaparral Cattle Company, a Texas corporation.

The Bakers, appellees herein, brought this suit in Pima County, Arizona, against Aritex and the Chaparral Cattle Company, asserting an indebtedness by Aritex and that the transfer, Aritex to Chaparral, was in fraud of creditors. On February 27, 1969, the Superior Court found that the transfer was fraudulent and void as to appellees, and entered a judgment for $100,000.00 together with interest against Aritex. On September 26, 1970, appellees caused to be issued out of the same action a writ of garnishment duly served on West. At the time the garnishment was served, no installment was due on the note until March 1, 1971. Pending trial on the tender of issue in garnishment, a payment on the West note became due and payment was made by West of the installment on principal and interest to the Bank of El Paso.

On July 7, 1971, the Superior Court found that the West note was not a nego *417 tiable instrument at the time the writ of garnishment was served and, having jurisdiction over both West and Aritex, but not over the El Paso bank, entered a judgment, the pertinent parts to this appeal being:

“1. Plaintiffs [appellees here] are awarded judgment against Garnishee, Mary West, in the amount of $106,849.66 with interest at six percent (6%) from February 8, 1971, until paid. This amount shall be paid as follows:
B. The amounts as they become due pursuant to the promissory note dated March 1, 1967, executed by Mary West which exceed the amounts then due the Bank of El Paso shall be paid to Plaintiff until such time as this judgment is satisfied.
H' H» 'K
3. Aritex Land Company, Inc. and Mary West are ordered to, within five days, deliver a copy of this judgment to the Bank of El Paso with instructions to attach the copy to the promissory note dated March 1, 1967, executed by Mary West, payable to Aritex.”

In considering the problem presented by this appeal, it may be first observed that under Arizona law, garnishment reaches installments on a contract which mature after the service of the writ, Weir v. Galbraith, 92 Ariz. 279, 287-288, 376 P.2d 396, 401-102 (1962). Under Texas decisions, the maker of a note may be garnisheed where the instrument is not negotiable, see, 26 Tex.Jur., Garnishment, § 21, p. 691 (1961), and may not if the note is negotiable, see, Big Lake State Bank v. Morris’ Estate, 202 F.Supp. 115, 119 (N.D.Tex.1961). In any event we accept as a correct principle of law that the maker of a negotiable instrument can not be charged as garnishee except upon a showing which will clearly protect him against the holder, Manker ex rel. Ruyle v. Manker, 249 Ill. App. 161 (1928); Gunn v. Manthou, 138 Wash. 96, 99, 244 P. 133, 134 (1926), for the reason that the maker should not be exposed to the risk of double liability, cf. Weitzel v. Weitzel, 27 Ariz. 117, 230 P. 1106 (1924).

The question, therefore, to which we address ourselves on this appeal is whether Mary West, if she complies with the Superior Court’s order, is clearly protected against a possible future holder in due course of her note.

By the Uniform Commercial Code, as adopted both in Arizona, A.R.S. § 44-2524, subsec. C, and in Texas, Tex.Bus. & Com.Code, § 3.202(c) (1968), V.T.C.A., a partial assignment of a note destroys its negotiability.

“An indorsement is effective for negotiation only when it conveys the entire instrument or any unpaid residue. If it purports to be of less it operates only as a partial assignment.”

Consequently, the partial assignment by Aritex to the Bank of El Paso destroyed the note’s negotiability as long as the bank was the holder, and any transferees of the bank’s interest would not be holders in due course. But the situation is quite different after the bank has been paid and the partial assignment satisfied. In Texas, a judgment of fraudulent conveyance does not result in reinstatement of title in the grantor.

“A creditor’s judgment subjecting property fraudulently conveyed by his debtor to the payment of his debt does not have the effect of reinvesting title in the fraudulent vendor.” John Hancock Mut. Life Ins. Co. v. Morse, 132 Tex. 534, 539, 124 S.W.2d 330, 333 (Tex.Com.App.1939).

This is also true in Arizona. In First National Bank v. McDonough, 19 Ariz. 223, 229, 168 P. 635, 638 (1917), the court said in speaking of a fraudulent conveyance:

“The conveyance is good as between the parties to it.”

The Uniform Negotiable Instruments Act, § 32 (1896) recognized that where an instrument has been paid in part, it could be endorsed as to the residue. Under the Uniform Commercial Code, quoted supra,

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
510 P.2d 731, 109 Ariz. 415, 13 U.C.C. Rep. Serv. (West) 504, 1973 Ariz. LEXIS 364, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/west-v-baker-ariz-1973.