Williams Cooperage Co. v. Bollinger

99 S.W. 812, 122 Mo. App. 450, 1907 Mo. App. LEXIS 34
CourtMissouri Court of Appeals
DecidedFebruary 5, 1907
StatusPublished

This text of 99 S.W. 812 (Williams Cooperage Co. v. Bollinger) 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
Williams Cooperage Co. v. Bollinger, 99 S.W. 812, 122 Mo. App. 450, 1907 Mo. App. LEXIS 34 (Mo. Ct. App. 1907).

Opinion

BLAND, P. J.

Omitting caption and signatures, the petition is as follows:

“Plaintiff states that it is a corporation duly organised and existing under and by virtue of the laws of the State of Missouri, and that the defendant, Alex. Martin, is the duly elected, qualified and acting constable of Wayne township, Bollinger county, Missouri.
“Plaintiff for its cause of action states that on or about the-day of April, 1904, it is informed and so states the facts to be that the above named defendant, B. H. Bollinger, instituted some kind of legal proceedings against this plaintiff before one M. E. Helton, a justice of the peace within and for said Wayne township, Bollinger county, Missouri, the object and general nature of which said.suit was to recover damages from this plaintiff for certain alleged injuries theretofore said to have been received by said Bollinger; that after-[452]*452wards, to-wit: on the seventh day of May, A. D. 1904, a summons was issued by the said justice of the peace commanding the said'constable of Wayne township to summons the H. D. Williams Cooperage Company to appear before him on the thirtieth day of May, 1904, to answer the claim of said Bollinger; plaintiff further states that said summons was placed in the hands of the above defendant, Alex. Martin, constable as aforesaid, to be served upon the plaintiff in this case, being the defendant in that case; but plaintiff alleges that the said constable did not serve the said summons upon this plaintiff, as the law directs, that is to say, said summons was not served on the president or other chief officer of the plaintiff, nor was, it left at any business office of the plaintiff in said township, or in any other township in said county, with any person having charge thereof at the time; •but on the contrary the plaintiff alleges the fact to be that said Alex. Martin, constable as aforesaid, delivered a copy of said summons to one John A. Harrold, a day laborer, in the employ of the plaintiff as a day laborer, and who was not then and there an officer of the plaintiff company, and who did not then and there have charge of any business office of the plaintiff; plaintiff further states that afterward and before the thirtieth day of May, 1904, the day set for the trial of the pretended cause of action, said constable made the following return upon said summons issued as aforesaid, to-wit: ‘I hereby certify that I served the within writ in the county of Bollinger on the twentieth day of May, 1904, by delivering a copy of the within writ on John Harrold, foreman of their stave factory in Wayne township, Bollinger county, Missouri,, and I, C. A. Cobin, deputy constable for Wayne township, county and State aforesaid, hereby certify that I served the within summons by delivering a copy of the within writ to John Harrold, an agent of said defendant, H. D. Williams Cooperage Company, at their usual business office of [453]*453said defendant, the said John Harrold being then and there in charge of said office, the president or chief officer being absent from the county of Bollinger and could not be found in said'county.’
“Plaintiff.further states that afterwards, to-wit: on the thirtieth day of May, A. D. 1904, said, pretended cause of action came on to be heard before the said M. F. Helton, who thereupon rendered judgment for the plaintiff, B. H. Bollinger, in that case, and a-co-defendant herein, for the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars, together with the costs and against this plaintiff, which said judgment is in words and figures as follows, to-wit: ‘Summons returned this twenty-first day of May, 1904, the case being called at 10 o^clock and the parties not appearing, case continued until 1 o’clock p. m. And now to-wit, on this thirtieth day’ of May, comes plaintiff and asks to amend his statement, heretofore filed, by inserting and interlining, which he is by the court permitted to do. Now comes plaintiff and defendant being called comes not but makes default herein. Whereupon plaintiff introduced evidence to sustain the allegations on his part, it is ordered by the justice that judgment be rendered in favor of plaintiff for the amount above named.’
“Plaintiff further states that said judgment was rendered by said justice of the peace without said justice then and there having jurisdiction of the person of the plaintiff, H. D. Williams Cooperage Company, and said Cooperage-Company did not then and there appear to said case, but plaintiff states that said judgment and all proceedings thereunder appear regular upon their face; that pursuant to the said pretended judgment, the said justice of the peace afterwards, to-wit, on the-day of June, .1904, issued an execution in favor of said B. H. Bollinger and against this plaintiff for the sum of one hundred and fifty dollars and the costs, and placed said execution in the hands of the above named defend[454]*454ant, Alex. Martin, wbo then and there illegally went beyond the confines of his jurisdiction, that is to say, outside of the limits of the said township of Wayne, and into Liberty township No. 1, of said Bollinger county, and of which township one Wiley Devault is constable, and then and there unlawfully levied said illegal execution upon four hundred thousand white-oak staves, the property of this plaintiff, and which are of the reasonable value of five thousand dollars, and by his notice duly posted on said property threatening to sell the same on the twenty-eighth day of July, 1904, to satisfy said illegal judgment of one hundred and fifty dollars and costs. Plaintiff further states that said constable, Alex. Martin, further by virtue of said illegal execution as aforesaid, unlawfully levied upon one stave factory, the property of the plaintiff and of the value of four hundred and fifty dollars; plaintiff further states that it owns large tracts of timber lands in said Bollinger county, Missouri, and other real property and that said pretended and illegal judgment upon a transcript being filed in the office of the clerk of the circuit court of said county would cast a cloud upon plaintiff’s title to all of said land and subject the same to levy and pretended sale, and would compel the plaintiff to institute a multiplicity of suits to remove said cloud. That the defendant B. H. Bollinger is insolvent and unable to respond in damages herein and that the constable, Alex. Martin, is insolvent and he and his bondsmen would be unable to respond in damages, the amount of his bond being only the sum of two thousand dollars, should he be permitted to sell said property levied on as aforesaid.
“Wherefore, the premises considered, the plaintiff prays that said judgment so rendered as aforesaid' be by the court declared null, void and of no effect and that the defendants be further restrained from trying to collect said void judgment.
[455]*455“And plaintiff for another and' further cause of action herein and for a second count to this petition states: That on the — day of July, 1904, plaintiff was, is now and for a long time prior thereto was a corporation duly organized under the laws of the- State of Missouri, and as such was on the — day of July, 1904, the owner of and lawfully entitled to the possession of certain goods and chattels of the value of five thousand dollars, and described as follows, to-wit: Pour hundred thousand white-oak staves now situated on plaintiff’s mill yard located on part of the east half of lot No.

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

Related

St. Louis, Iron Mountain & Southern Railway Co. v. Reynolds
89 Mo. 146 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1886)
Straub v. Simpson
74 Mo. App. 230 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1898)
Rogers v. Mercantile Adjuster Publishing Co.
93 S.W. 328 (Missouri Court of Appeals, 1906)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
99 S.W. 812, 122 Mo. App. 450, 1907 Mo. App. LEXIS 34, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-cooperage-co-v-bollinger-moctapp-1907.