Whittaker v. Bacon

65 S.W.2d 1083, 17 Tenn. App. 97, 1933 Tenn. App. LEXIS 48
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedApril 28, 1933
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 65 S.W.2d 1083 (Whittaker v. Bacon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Whittaker v. Bacon, 65 S.W.2d 1083, 17 Tenn. App. 97, 1933 Tenn. App. LEXIS 48 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1933).

Opinion

SENTER, J.

This is a replevin suit brought by the complainant, S. F. Whittaker, against Wm. J. Bacon, Sheriff of Shelby County, and one Henry Hearts, defendants, to recover possession of an aero-plane. The bill was dismissed as to the sheriff, and the litigation is now between complainant and the defendant Hearts.

The complainant, in his bill, predicates his claim and right to the possession of the aeroplane by virtue of the purchase of the same by him at a sale by the trustee in bankruptcy of the Arrow Airways, Inc. The defendant claimed the right to possession by virtue of a judgment and order of sale in the circuit court of Shelby county in the case of Henry Hearts v. Southern Aviation & Transport Company. The aeroplane belonged to the Southern Aviation & Transport Company. On May 6, 1980, Hearts sued that company for damages in the circuit court of Shelby county, and on November 22, 1930, he obtained a writ of attachment in that suit and had it levied on said aeroplane as the property of the Southern Aviation & Transport Company.

On August 9, 1930, the Southern Aviation & Transport Company filed its application in the office of the secretary of state of the state of Tennessee for an amendment to its charter, changing its corporate name from “Southern Aviation & Transport Company” to “Arrow Airways, Inc.” This amendment to the charter was never completed by registration of same in the register’s office of Shelby county, Tenn., the county in which the corporation had its principal place of business.

On January 28, 1931, a voluntary petition in bankruptcy was filed by the Arrow Airways, Inc. The petition was signed and verified by its president, F. E. Bruce, who was also the president of the Southern Aviation & Transport Company. In the voluntary petition in bankruptcy, the aeroplane involved was scheduled as an asset of the Arrow Airways, Inc., but the claim of Henry Hearts was not scheduled as a liability. However, on February 10, 1931, the bankrupt filed a petition in said bankruptcy proceeding, seeking to amend its schedule so as to list as a liability the claim of Henry Hearts for damages sued for in the circuit court case, but it does not appear that any order was ever entered allowing the schedule to be so amended; No legal-notice of the bankruptcy proceeding was given *99 to Henry Hearts, and be did not enter any' appearance in the bankruptcy proceeding.

Upon the filing of the petition by the Arrow Airways, Inc., it was adjudged a bankrupt by the United States District Court for the Western Section of the Western Division of Tennessee, in Memphis.

The Southern Aviation & Transport Company, nor the Arrow Airways, Inc., made no defense to the damage suit brought by Hearts against the Southern Aviation & Transport Company; nor was the trustee in bankruptcy of the Arrow Airways, Inc., made a party to that suit.

On June 9, 1931, a writ of inquiry was ordered in the circuit court case, and a verdict and judgment was entered in favor of Hearts against the Southern Aviation & Transport Company, in the sum of $1,400; and on June 19, 1931, the attachment levied on the aeroplane on November 22, 1930, was sustained, and an order of sale was entered directing the sheriff to sell said aeroplane to satisfy said judgment. It does not appear that complainant had any notice of that suit, and we find nothing in the record to support the finding by the chancellor that complainant had actual notice of that suit and was present in the court room with his attorney when these proceedings were had.

Pursuant to the order of sale, the sheriff proceeded to advertise the aeroplane for sale, for August 26, 1931; whereupon, on August 19, 1931, S. F. Whittaker, the complainant herein, filed a replevin suit against the sheriff to recover possession of said aeroplane, and obtained possession of the aeroplane on that date. However, that bill was voluntarily dismissed by the complainant on September 5, 1931, and the aeroplane restored to the possession of the sheriff by decree of the court in that cause, and the sheriff again advertised it for sale for September 19, 1931; whereupon the complainant filed the present bill against the present defendant, and again obtained possession of said aeroplane under the replevin writ in the second suit, on September 14, 1931.

At the hearing of this cause, the chancellor found the issues in favor of the defendant, and fixed the value of the aeroplane at $2,000, and decreed a dismissal of complainant’s bill, and that complainant return the aeroplane in question to the defendant Wm. J. Bacon, sheriff of Shelby county, and further decreed that, upon his failure so to return the same within five davs from the date of the entry of the decree, that Wm. J. Bacon, sheriff, have and recover of and from the complainant, S. F.- Whittaker, and Mrs. M. K. Briaars, the surety-on his replevin bond, the sum of $2,000, the value of said aeroplane, with interest thereon from the date of its seizure, amounting to $85, amounting in all to the sum of $2.085. and further decreed that “said defendant Wm. J. Bacon, Sheriff, will also have and recover of and from the said S. F. Whittaker, and Mrs. M. K. *100 Briggs, surety on the replevin bond, all damages for the wrongful seizure and detention of said aeroplane; and for the purpose of ascertaining such damages, the cause is now referred to the Clerk and Master to ascertain and report from the proof on file and such further proof as the respective parties may offer, the amount of damages suffered by the defendant, ¥m. J. Bacon, Sheriff, by reason of the wrongful suing out of a writ of replevin in this cause, and of the wrongful seizure and detention of said aeroplane. . . .”

Pursuant to the above order of reference, the master made his report, and in which report the master seemed to have confined the inquiry to the question of the difference in the value of the aero-plane at the time it was replevined, and its value at the time of the reference, “i. e., the difference, if any, in its value, at the time it was replevined, and its value at the present time, which difference, if any (and if said present vaue is less than said value when re-plevined), represents the damages recoverable by the defendant (the Sheriff for the benefit of defendant, Hearts) against complainant and the surety on his replevin bond — a situation which presents for determination two questions, (1) What was the value of said aero-plane at the time it was replevined? (2) What is the value of said aeroplane at the resent time?”

The master then proceeds to report that the value of the aeroplane at the time it was replevined had been fixed by the chancellor at $2,000; and fixed the value of the aeroplane at the time of the report at $500, reporting that the aeroplane had therefore depreciated in value since it was replevined by complainant $1,500, and reported “that the defendants had been damaged, by the unlawful replevin of said aeroplane, in said sum of $1,500.00, and that they are entitled to recover judgment against complainant, and surety on his replevin bond, damages to the said sum of $1,500.00.”

It appears that the surety on complainant’s replevin bond, Mrs. W. K. Briggs, filed exceptions with the master to the report. 'Her exceptions to the report were sustained by the master, and from this action of the master in sustaining Mrs. Briggs’ exceptions to his report, the defendants appealed to the chancellor.

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Fischer v. Pauline Oil & Gas Co.
309 U.S. 294 (Supreme Court, 1940)

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Bluebook (online)
65 S.W.2d 1083, 17 Tenn. App. 97, 1933 Tenn. App. LEXIS 48, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/whittaker-v-bacon-tennctapp-1933.