Chipman v. Peabody
Chipman v. Peabody
Opinion of the Court
This case comes before us upon demurrer to the plaintiff’s bill. It appears from the bill that Dudley Hall and Dudley C. Hall were partners, under the name of Dudley Hall and Company. We infer that both were inhabitants of this Commonwealth. They filed a voluntary petition in insolvency in the Court of Insolvency for the County of Middlesex, in this Commonwealth, and were duly adjudged insolvent debtors, and the plaintiff and one Haskins were appointed assignees of the joint and separate estates of said partners, and we infer that an assignment of their joint and separate estates was duly made to them pursuant to Pub. Sts. c. 157, §§ 44, 46. Haskins has since died, and the plaintiff is now the sole assignee. On December 17, 1890, Dudley C. Hall, then being insolvent, conveyed by a deed of mortgage to Frank E. Peabody, one of the defendants, about twenty-eight thousand acres of timber land situated in the county of Aroostook, in the State of Maine. This mortgage was made to secure a pre-existing indebtedness of the firm of Dudley Hall and Company to the firm of Kidder, Peabody, and Company, in which Frank E. Peabody was a partner with the other defendants, and Kidder, Peabody, and Company had, when the mortgage was made, reasonable cause to believe that said Dudley C. Hall and said Dudley Hall and Company were insolvent, and that the conveyance was made in fraud of
The bill then alleges as follows: “ The plaintiff, as assignee of the joint and separate estates of Dudley Hall and Dudley C. Hall under the deed of assignment from the judge of the Court of Insolvency for the County of Middlesex, in this Commonwealth, has no standing in the courts of the State of Maine, and cannot maintain an action either at law or in equity to test the validity of the conveyance from said Dudley C. Hall to the defendant, Frank E. Peabody, nor can the plaintiff as assignee of the individual estate of Dudley C. Hall, under the deed of assignment
We cannot take judicial notice of the statutes of Maine, and do not here undertake to construe them. We merely state the effect of them as alleged in the bill. The assignment by the Court of Insolvency in Massachusetts would not of its own force convey to the assignees appointed by that court the title to the land of Dudley C. Hall situated in Maine, unless the laws of Maine gave it such an effect, and the bill must be taken to allege that this assignment did not convey to them the title to this land. Eddy v. Winchester, 60 N. H. 63. Osborn v. Adams, 18 Pick. 245. Taylor v. Columbian Ins. Co. 14 Allen, 353.
The contention is that it is the object of our statutes relating to insolvency to vest in the assignee all the property of the debtor within and without the Commonwealth, not specifically excepted, and that, although the assignment may not of its own force operate to convey real property situated without the Commonwealth, yet the debtor can be compelled, under Pub. Sts. c. 157, § 74, to execute to the assignee conveyances of any part of his estate, real or personal, although it is situate without the Commonwealth. See Pub. Sts. c. 15.7, §§ 46, 70, 75, 93, 96, 98; St. 1886, c. 322. We assume, without deciding it, that it is the intention of our statutes to reach the real property of the debtor without the Commonwealth if it can be done, and that this may sometimes be done by means of a conveyance executed by him, and that the remedy provided by § 75 is not exclusive, but that a court of equity may compel such a conveyance. We understand, however, that by force of the insolvency proceedings in Maine, the title to this land, whatever it was, held by Dudley C. Hall at the time of filing the petition against him, vested in the assignees appointed there. It happens that the same persons were appointed assignees in Massachusetts and in Maine, but they might have been different persons. Dudley C. Hall is not a party to the present suit, and the plaintiff does not seek any conveyance from him. The plaintiff, as assignee in
Whatever may be the general rule in bankruptcy or insolvency proceedings as to foreign lands, we think that when there are two bankruptcies or two insolvencies of the same person in different jurisdictions, the title of the assignee to the land of the debtor situated in one jurisdiction must be determined by the law of the place where the land is situated. As by the law of Maine this mortgage is good against the plaintiff as assignee in Maine, we are of opinion that it cannot be avoided by him as assignee in Massachusetts. See Chipman v. Manufacturers' National Bank, 156 Mass. 147; Batcheller v. National Bank of the Republic, 157 Mass. 33. Bill dismissed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- George W. Chipman v. Francis H. Peabody & others
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- Published