Carter v. Flegle
Carter v. Flegle
Opinion of the Court
Opinion op the Court by
— Reversing.
£ £ For a general order of attachment against the property of these defendants, and that they be required to answer and disclose any money, dioses in action, legal or equitable interest or other property owned by them, or in which they have any interest whatsoever, and that said attachment be sustained, and so much of said property as may be necessary be subjected to the payment of the amount due these plaintiffs as above set forth, and the'cost of this action, and they finally pray for all legal and proper relief. ’ ’
Some time later M. L. Flegle, wife of C. E. Flegle, was by amended petition made a party defendant, it being alleged that she was holding and claiming property, both real and personal, which in fact was purchased by and belonged to her husband, >0. E. Flegle, for the purpose of defeating the collection of debts against the husband, including this execution. To the amended petition was attached a number of interrogatories which she answered under oath. She and her husband also filed a joint answer traversing the material averments of the petition, and especially those which charged fraud and collusion between the two to cover up his property and defeat the collection of the debts owing by the husband.
The plaintiffs then entered a written motion to transfer the action to the ordinary docket for a trial by jury of the issues of fact, and also to require the defendants, •M. L. Flegle and E. C. Flegle, to appear in open court for oral examination concerning the ownership of the property held by M. L. Flegle. Both these motions, were overruled by the court, and now form one of the principal
Where the common law issue is the chief one in the case and its determination conclusive of the rights of the parties the chancellor can not refuse a trial of such issue by a jury. This being a purely equitable action, we do not think the trial court erred in refusing an issue out of chancery.
Appellants next insist that the court erred in failing to sustain their motion to compel appellees to come into court and submit to an oral examination touching their ownership and interest in the several properties attached, under section 220, Civil Code. .Under that Code provision a court may or may not require a party or garnishee to appear and give oral testimony at its discretion, but it is not obliged to do so. If there is not some very urgent reason why such an examination should be had an examination by deposition will suffice. The court may, however, in any such case where the facts have not been fully and fairly disclosed by defendants, require an oral examination in open court.
The third and chief insistence of the appellants is that the facts do not warrant or support the decree of the chancellor, and this seems to be well founded.
The defendants, C. E. and Jake Flegle, claim no property .subject to execution, but defendant M. L. Flegle, ■wife of 'C!. E. Flegle, claims to own a home in Clinton, an interest in a farm nearby, twenty shares of the stock of the Star Milling Co., an automobile and other property sufficient to satisfy the execution which was returned “No property found,” all of which she has acquired since her husband failed in business at Arlington and the obligation sued on was contracted. She has never been in business. She inherited nothing. 'When the defendants
■ In attempting to account for her .ownership of the attached property Mrs. Flegle also claims that about the time she and her husband moved from Arlington to Clinton her brother gave her a span of mules which she sold for $375.00, which sum, with the insurance money and other funds, she invested in the Ringo Mill.
Her brother, whom she says gave her the mules, had no other property. The evidence also clearly shows that defendant, C. E. Flegle, purchased the mules from one Davis some years before the alleged gift of them to Mrs. Flegle by her brother; that Flegle gave $300.00 for the mules and told Davis he wanted them to use at the Flegle Bros, mill in Arlington, and that one Hotchkiss would drive the mules. He paid for them by check either in the name of C. E. Flegle or his name and that of Jake Flegle. All this, tends strongly to prove that the mules were in fact the property of the husband, C. E. Flegle, and not M. L. Flegfe. It does not .stand .to reason that a brother with no other property of consequence would give his sister a pair of mules when he might have used them or converted them into cash, The circumstances are suspicious.
!She had no income or means of earning money but she acquired all the property. He had a fair monthly salary and was an active business man, but accumulated nothing in his own namfe, though he managed to gather property for his ¡wife, who had ho -capital to begin with. A court cannoi shut its eyes to such glaring fraud no matter how skillfully managed or operated.
C. E. Flegie is the real owner of the -twenty shares of stock in the Star Milling Co., as well as the automobile and the equity in the home in Clinton and other property mentioned in the petition, subject to the lien of Mrs. Flegie for the amount of the insurance money with interest and such other liens as existed at the time of the commlencement of this action, and this property is subject
Judgment reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.