Robinson v. Clement
Robinson v. Clement
Opinion of the Court
Opinion of the court by
In this case Andrew L. Robinson, the plaintiff, complained of Converse Clement, the defendant, and said that, on the 24th day of December, 1874, he recovered a judgment in the Vanderburgh Circuit Court against the defendant for three thousand and five hundred dollars, with costs of suit; that afterwards, on the 26th day of the same month, the defendant began certain proceedings in bankruptcy in the District Court of the United States for the district of Indiana, at Evansville, by means whereof, he was, on the same day, adjudged to be bankrupt; that on the 4th day of Feb
The defendant demurred to the complaint, and his demurrer was sustained.
The plaintiff refusing to plead further, final judgment was rendered against him upon demurrer.
Only one question is, therefore, presented, and that is, Did the court err in sustaining a demurrer to the complaint?
The appellee urges two objections to the sufficiency of the complaint:
First. That, if the appellant was entitled to an execution on his judgment, he could have procured the issuance of such an execution by a proper application to the clerk without the necessity of filing such a complaint, and that this proceeding was both unnecessary and unauthorized.
Second. That the facts alleged showed the condition upon which the $85.64 was paid to the deputy clerk of the United States District Court to have been an utterly impracticable, and hence a void, condition, thereby rendering the payment an absolute one, and conferring upon the appellant a right of action against the deputy clerk instead of the appellee.
In the first place, we think the facts averred in the complaint made a case upon which it was proper to take the opinion of the court before attempting to proceed further, and in which an execution should only be issued, if at all, by order of the court rendering the judgment, inasmuch as proceedings upon the judgment had been suspended by operation of law. In the next place, we can not argue that the facts averred showed an absolute payment to the deputy clerk for the use of the appellant. The question is a novel one, and not free from difficulty, but we feel constrained to construe, and accordingly do construe, the so-cálled payment to have been a mere deposit with the deputy clerk upon a condition which he was not at liberty to disregard, and not in any proper sense a payment either to the deputy clerk or the appellant.
As to the effect which results from the failure of a bankrupt
The rule thus stated by Blumenstiel is well supported by the weight of authority, and appears to us to be decisive of the case in hearing in favor of the appellant.
There are cases apparently conflicting with this rule, but so far as our attention has been called to them they are based upon a condition of facts different from those presented in this case.
Reason and justice concur in support of the doctrine that a creditor ought not to be bound by an agreement of composition which the debtor has failed to perform on his part.
Reiman v. Friedlander, 12 Blackford, 562 ; National Bank v. Porter, 122 Mass. 308; Deford v. Hewlett, 7 Central Law Journal, 149, and 49 Maryland, 51.
Upon the facts stated in the complaint, we think the appellant is entitled to execution on his judgment for the unsecured balance due upon it.
The judgment is reversed, with costs, and the cause remanded for further proceedings.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.