Young v. Evans-Snyder-Buel Commission Co.

59 S.W. 113, 158 Mo. 395, 1900 Mo. LEXIS 91
CourtSupreme Court of Missouri
DecidedNovember 12, 1900
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 59 S.W. 113 (Young v. Evans-Snyder-Buel Commission Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Young v. Evans-Snyder-Buel Commission Co., 59 S.W. 113, 158 Mo. 395, 1900 Mo. LEXIS 91 (Mo. 1900).

Opinion

BRACE, P. J.

On the eleventh day of November, [398]*3981895, Nat. Skinner, a resident of the Indian Territory, being the owner and in possession of 879 head of steer cattle, three years old and np, branded S. on the right side, in said territory, executed two chattel mortgages of that date, by one of which, he conveyed said cattle to A. PI. Pierce to secure the payment of a note of the said Skinner of that date for the sum of $14,338, payable nine months after date, given to said Pierce in part payment of the purchase price for said cattle, and by the other he conveyed said cattle, subject to the Pierce mortgage, to H. M. Pollard, in trust, to secure the payment of a note of said Skinner of that date to the defendant in the sum of $5,254.17 payable 180 days after date for $5,000 cash advanced to him by defendant at that date. On November 12, 1895, these two chattel mortgages were recorded in the proper office of the district of the Territory in which Skinner resided, and by the terms thereof the cattle when ready for market were to be shipped to the defendant, by it sold, and the proceeds after deducting commissions, applied to the payment of said promissiory notes and interest. By section 31 an act of Congress, approved May 2, 1890 (U. S. Stat. at Large, 51st Cong., 1889-91, vol. 26, p. 94), certain general laws of the State of Arkansas as published in 1884 in the volume known as “Mansfield’s Digest of the Statutes of Arkansas,” were extended over and put in force in the Indian Territory, among which, were the recording acts of said State. It is conceded that neither of these two chattel mortgages was acknowledged in accordance with the requirements of those acts, so as to entitle them to record, the first or Pierce mortgage having no formal acknowledgment to it, and the formal acknowledgment to the second mortgage having in fact been taken by a Missouri notary in the office of the defendant, which was in the State of Kansas, about twenty feet over the boundary line between the two States.

Afterwards on the twenty-eighth of February, 1896, the [399]*399said Skinner executed a third chattel mortgage by which he conveyed the said cattle, with others, to the plaintiff Odus G. Young, trustee, to secure the payment of his note of that date, for the sum of $8,010.25, payable on'the first day of October, 1896, to said Young, trustee, and by him taken as “additional and collateral security,” for the payment of several past due notes held by him for his co-plaintiffs, The First National Bank of Albany, New York, Mechanic’s National Bank of New Bedford, Massachusetts, and Third National Bank of St. Louis, Missouri. This chattel mortgage was properly acknowledged and duly recorded in the Territory. Afterwards 722 head of these cattle, in pursuance of the terms of the first two mortgages, were shipped by Skinner to the defendant, by it sold, for the net sum of $15,232.66, and the proceeds applied to the payment of the debts secured by those mortgages, paying the 'Pierce mortgage note, of which defendant had become the holder, in full, and the other mortgage of defendant, in part.

Thereupon the plaintiffs instituted this suit in the Jackson Circuit Court to recover damages for the conversion of these and other cattle also shipped to and disposed of by defendant, and included in their said mortgage of February 28, 1896.

In the circuit court the plaintiffs obtained judgment for $702.12 on account of cattle other than the 722 head aforesaid, but were denied judgment for said sum of $15,232.66 on account of said 722 head, on the issue as to which,' the plaintiffs asked and the court refused to give the following declarations of law:

“2. The court declares to the court, sitting as a jury, that the mortgage read in evidence by defendant, executed by Nat. Skinner to A. H. Pierce, dated November 11, 1895, to secure the sum of $14,338, evidenced by note due nine months after that date, was and is not acknowledged according to the [400]*400laws in force in the Indian Territory at the time of the execution of said mortgage, and the recording of said mortgage was. and is therefore null and void, and the court sitting as a jury, is instructed that said mortgage, not having been recorded as required by law, did not at any time become a lien on the property therein described in favor of the holder thereof, and said mortgage was and is void as to this plaintiff.
“3. The court declares to the court, sitting as a jury, that if you find from the evidence that the mortgage executed by Nat. Skinner to defendant, dated November 11, 1895, to secure the payment of $5,254.11, was acknowledged by said Skinner within the territorial limits of the State of Kansas, by a notary public, acting under the laws of the State of Missouri, then said acknowledgment was and is void, and said instrument was not entitled under said acknowledgment to be recorded, and the recording was in such case null and void, and in that case said chattel mortgage did not create a lien on the property therein described in favor of the said defendant, but in that case said mortgage was and is void, as to this plaintiff.”

Thereupon the court declared the law upon that issue as follows:

“That neither the mortgage executed by Skinner to Pierce, nor the mortgage from Skinner to defendant, was acknowledged as required by law, and therefore the record thereof was not valid, and imparted notice to no one of their existence, and created no lien upon the cattle as against subsequent purchasers or mortgagees; but having taken the cattle, subject to specific liens as to amount mentioned in their respective mortgages, being the amounts of the debts mentioned, in the Pierce mortgage and the defendant’s mortgage respectively, which were valid and binding upon the parties thereto, plaintiff can not recover in this action,”

And found the issue for the defendant.

[401]*401The plaintiffs excepted to this ruling, appealed, and assign the same for error, contending that under the statutes of Arkansas in force in the Indian Territory, as aforesaid, as construed by the Supreme Court of said State, and as shown by said statute and the decisions of said court given in evidence on the trial, the court ought to have held that the defendant’s two chattel mortgages were void and conveyed no title to defendants as against the plaintiff’s chattel mortgage, and should have accordingly rendered judgment in their favor for said sum of $15,232.60.

The Arkansas statute, directly in question and read in evidence by the plaintiffs, is as follows:

“Section 4742. — All mortgages, whether for real or personal estate, shall be proved or acknowledged in the same manner that deeds for the conveyance of real estate are now required by law to be proved or acknowledged, and when so proved or acknowledged, shall be recorded — if for lands, in the county or counties in which the lands lie, and if for personal property, in the county in which the mortgagor resides.” [Revised Statutes, Arkansas, chap. 101, sec. 1, as amended by act March 1, 1877.]
“Section 4743. — Every mortgage, whether for real or personal property, shall be a lien on the mortgaged property from the time the same is filed in the recorder’s office for record, and not before; which filing shall be notice to all persons of the existence of such mortgage.” [Mansfield’s Digest, 1884, chap. 110, pp. 935 and 936.]

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Bluebook (online)
59 S.W. 113, 158 Mo. 395, 1900 Mo. LEXIS 91, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/young-v-evans-snyder-buel-commission-co-mo-1900.