Wooldridge v. F. Rickert & Co.
Wooldridge v. F. Rickert & Co.
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Plaintiff, appellee herein, brought suit in the Eourth District Court, parish of Orleans, to recover from defendants, appellants, the sum of eleven hundred and twenty-five dollars and sixty cents, being an amount which had been received by defendants from the Teutonia Insurance Company, under process of garnishment in an attachment suit of Rickert & Co. vs. Howard & Patterson, absent and non-residents defendants therein. Howard & Patterson, the defendants
That subsequent to said adjudication, the legal effect of which was to immediately dissolve said attachment and to make the civil sheriff, having the control of the funds seized, the simple bailee of the assignee, the said sheriff illegally, and in violation of the law as above, and of the rights of the creditors of said bankrupts, and without the consent or authorization of the said assignee, paid to said Rickert & Co., who illegally received and retained the said sum of $1125 60, which sum said assignee is entitled to recover. He prayed for judgment in solido against the defendants for said sum, with legal interest from 19th April, 1875.
(Plaintiff in his brief states that he has abandoned this suit as against "Waggaman, sheriff).
The defendants excepted to plaintiff’s action, on the grounds: that the plaintiff had not been regularly appointed assignee of the bankrupts; that the Court is without jurisdiction to entertain this action in behalf of assignee appointed in the courts of any other State, and because the assignee had never been duly authorized in the Court in which said bankruptcy proceedings are pending to institute this action. On trial of this exception a duly certified copy of the order appointing I. J.
While the absence of leading counsel is, under the Act of the General Assembly, approved January 29th, 1858, a peremptory cause for continuance where such counsel may be absent in attendance on the session of the Legislature, and although the motion made by defendants for a continuance on these grounds was overruled, and the trial of the case proceeded with, the record contains no bill of exceptions taken to this ruling, and we cannot notice it. The fact appears that other counsel of the defendant being present, the trial by jury, which had been prayed for, was waived, and by consent the trial of the case was proceeded with. While the cause of continuance is peremptory, it may be waived, and in this case the consent to proceed with the trial, without filing a bill of exceptions, was a clear and unambiguous waiver and submission by the defendants.
We think the court a qua was correct in its rulings on the exceptions of defendants.
1st. Section 5049 of the bankrupt law of 1867 declares: “A copy, duly certified by the clerk of the court, under the seal thereof, of the assignment, shall be conclusive evidence of the title of the assignee to take, hold, sue for and recover the property of the bankrupt.”
“ A copy of an assignment, under the seal of the court, if duly certified, is sufficient to show the assignee’s right to sue, although the original assignment is not signed either by the judge or the register.” Bump on Bankruptcy, p. 487; 4 B. R. 724: 36 Md. 32; 16 Minn. 68.
2d. “ An assignee under the bankrupt law of the United States may sue in his own name in the State courts to enforce the rights of property vested in him by the assignment in bankruptcy, and the Courts of the United States have not exclusive jurisdiction of such actions.” Bump, p. 308; U. S. Bankrupt law, § 4972; 101 Mass. 109; 2 Dillon, 504.
3d. “ In a suit instituted by the assignee it is not necessary to prove all the steps in the proceedings in bankruptcy, for copy of the assignment is conclusive evidence of the assignee’s title.” Bump, 483.
“If judgment is entered in the attachment suit, even after the commencement of proceedings in bankruptcy, the subsequent discharge of the defendant will not relieve the receiptor from liability.” Bump, 8th ed„ 499, 807, 824, 502, 469, 824, 823, 828.
The provisions of the law are fully applicable to this case, and the record discloses that the facts herein bring it strictly within the law, and the liability of the defendant's are fixed as claimed by plaintiff.
The judgment of the lower court is affirmed with costs.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.