Ward v. Proctor
Ward v. Proctor
Opinion of the Court
Both parties claiming title from the same person, and both by operation of law, and not by grant from the owner the question is, whether the demandant obtained the better title, in virtue of the attachment and levy, or the tenants, under the assignment made to them in the course of the proceedings in insolvency. On a comparison of dates, it appears that judgment was entered in favor of the demandant’s grantor on the 1st of April 1843 ; but no seizure on execution was made,
The insolvent law, St. 1838, c. 163, § 5, does in terms declare, that all attachments shall be dissolved by the assignment of the debtor’s property. But there is a clause in § 25, saving from the repealing provision all rights which have accrued to any person, by virtue of the provisions of law so repealed. It has been already decided, as the true exposition of these enactments, that all attachments made after the law went into operation were dissolved, though made before the assignment; but that attachments, made before the act went into operation, conferred rights which were preserved by the saving clause, and that the attachments so made were not dissolved. Kilborn v. Lyman, 6 Met. 299. But by St. 1842, c. 71, with one exception, the operation of the insolvent law was suspended so long as the bankrupt law of the United States should continue in force. The bankrupt law was subsequently repealed, such repeal to take effect from and after the 3d of March 1843; so that at that time the insolvent law went into active operation again, without further legislative act, as if it had not been suspended. Now the demandant contends, that inasmuch as his attachment was made whilst the insolvent law was suspended, the saving clause operates to preserve his attachment after the revival of the law, in the same manner ás it operated to save attachments made before it originally went into operation. But the court are of opinion that this is not a just application of the saving clause of the insolvent law. The present case is not within the letter of the act, and we think there is no such aningy as to bring it within the principle and spirit of the act.
The court are therefore of opinion, that although the attachment, under which the demandant claims, was made whilst the insolvent law of 1838 was suspended, and during the existence and operation of the bankrupt law of the United States, it was not continued in force so as to preserve the attachment after that suspension ceased ; that the attachment was dissolved by the proceedings on the insolvent act, which were commenced before the service of the execution; and that the tenants, as assignees under those proceedings, have the better title.
Judgment for the tenants.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Joshua H. Ward v. John W. Proctor & another
- Status
- Published