Grand Rapids Brewing Co. v. Pettis
Grand Rapids Brewing Co. v. Pettis
Opinion of the Court
The defendant is under-sheriff of Kent county. He executed a writ of fieri facias issued to collect a judgment for costs in favor of Lena Liebler and against Isaac W. Carrel by seizing certain chattels found in the possession of said Carrel and used by him in conducting his business of keeping a hotel and a bar therein for the sale of liquors. The household furniture of Carrel was not seized. The seizure was made on Saturday.' On the following Monday the judgment debtor claimed the right to some of the chattels as exempt from execution and defendant set aside, upon his demand, liquors and cigars of the value of $250, and also furniture used in conducting the hotel, not the private household furniture of Carrel, of the same value. Plaintiff, claiming to own the chattels used by the judgment debtor in conducting the hotel, took those not set out as exempt by a writ of replevin. The replevin suit coming on to be tried, a verdict and judgment for the value of the chattels taken in the replevin suit was rendered for defendant. Plaintiff moved for a new trial, which was denied.
Testimony on the part of plaintiff tended to prove that on April 27, 1908, Isaac W. Carrel occupied and had occupied from May 1, 1906, a certain hotel at Caledonia, Kent county, in which he kept a bar or saloon. The hotel was the property of plaintiff, and Carrel was its tenant. Carrel owned the hotel furnishings and the stock of liquors and cigars. Notice to quit or pay the rent, which was $1,200 a year, had been given to Carrel, March 9, 1908. There was a conference at which the sum due and owing from Carrel to plaintiff was agreed to be $1,500. Four instruments, dated April 27, 1908, were executed.
“ Said parties of the first part hereby agree to keep the said property insured for the benefit of the said party of the second part in the sum of fifteen hundred dollars; the loss upon which said insurance, if any, shall be payable to the said Grand Rapids Brewing Company. It is further agreed and understood that said party of the first part shall have the privilege of paying the sum of more than thirty dollars per month to be credited to them upon this contract; and it is further agreed that upon the fulfillment of this contract and payment of the sum of fifteen hundred dollars, together with interest thereon, the said Grand Rapids Brewing- Company, the said party of the second part, will also deed and convey over to the said party of the first part certain premises in the village of Dorr, county of Allegan, which have been heretofore deeded by the said parties of the first part to the said Grand Rapids Brewing Company.”
It appeared from plaintiff’s books of account, and from the testimony of plaintiff’s witnesses, that prior to January, 1904, Carrel and his brother had carried on a hotel business at Dorr, in Allegan county, upon premises owned by them in common; that plaintiff advanced to Carrel to purchase the interest and property of his brother at Dorr
A demurrer'in the Herp Case was overruled April 29,
For defendant, testimony was produced tending to prove that the instrument conveying to plaintiff the hotel chattels was not recorded or filed with the township clerk; that Carrel in May, 1908, advised the supervisor that his assessment ought to be as it had been the year before ($2,000); that he had no other personal property in the township except that contained in the hotel; that he was assessed in 1908 for personal- property and paid the taxes thereon for that year. He proved the judgment of the .Supreme Court, but did not prove the fact of the taxation of costs other than by the recital in the writ of fieri facias.
There is also testimony warranting, if not requiring, the inference that, whether the arrangement was a sale or a mortgage, the purpose of plaintiff was to continue in business a customer who was threatened with financial reverses, to secure itself and still to leave the debtor in the apparent position of an owner of the property in his possession. The stock of liquors and cigars was mortgaged and had been since the previous December. The mortgagee, an attorney of Grand Rapids, was upon various occasions employed by the plaintiff and had been and was attorney for Carrel in some, if not all, of the pending litigation. He prepared the papers executed April 27, 1908, was present at the conference at which it is claimed an adjustment of accounts was made, and he represented the plaintiff and himself in a conference with the defendant after the levy had been made. He advised or told Carrel that he was entitled to exemptions both from the stock of liquors and cigars and from the hotel furnishings, and assisted him in securing them from the defendant sheriff. He replevined the stock of liquors and cigars not set out to Carrel as exempt. His intimate relations with Carrel and with plaintiff indicate that plaintiff had accurate knowledge of the precise financial condition of Carrel and of the litigation which threatened him. It appeared from the testimony of this witness that after the trial of the Liebler Case had been postponed at the December, 1907, term of the circuit court, upon his application, he prepared for Carrel a deed of the Dorr property and a bill of sale of these chattels to his (Carrel’s) wife, conveyances which were ignored when the arrangement of April 27th was made.
Treated as a sale, the transaction of April 27,1908, in so far as it related to the personal property, was presumptively fraudulent (3 Comp. Laws, §§ 9520, 9521) as to creditors of the vendor, who are all persons who shall be creditors of the vendor at any time while such goods and chattels shall
There is no merit in the criticisms which are made. There can be no doubt about the attitude of the witness on the Monday following the levy when he went to Caledonia. He represented the plaintiff. The fact that he was also personally interested does not change the situation. He was not personally interested in the hotel furnishings. He advised, or told, Carrel that he had the right to demand exemptions out of the hotel furnishings which had been seized. The questions propounded by the court to the witness called for his (witness’) theory of the right of Carrel to claim as exempt property which belonged not to Carrel but to plaintiff. An argument is made in this court upon the proposition that Carrel had the right to the exemption growing out of his possessory and contract rights. The proposition is not involved here. Whatever property defendant seized was either taken on the writ of replevin or was set out as exempt. The property was not moved. At the conclusion of the somewhat extended colloquy, the court said to counsel for plaintiff:
“Neither of you have answered the question I have asked as yet. I have charged the jury right now that, in the absence of acquiescence on the part of the brewing*686 company or their representatives, anything that Mr. Carrel may have done would not be binding upon them so far as their rights and interests in this property are concerned. It only bears upon the question of what the brewing company and Mr. Carrel were doing in conjunction, if anything at all. That is what I wanted to know.”
When it is considered that the business in which Carrel was principally engaged must have been the conducting of a hotel with a bar, or else either the hotel business or the saloon business, and that Carrel was claiming and took exemptions or one exemption of twice the value of goods permitted by the statute, with the knowledge, consent, and approval of the representative of plaintiff, it does not appear to us to be reprehensible conduct on the part of the court to make the inquiry which he did, with the caution and advice to the jury which he gave.
During the cross-examination of plaintiff’s witness Newnham, the following occurred:
“Q. Now, Mr. Newnham, when you were there at the brewing company on these different occasions in April, just prior and during the time that the Liebler Case was being tried the second time, which, according to the records there, began April 17 or 16, 1908, isn’t it a fact that you arranged with the officers of the brewing company to invite the whole jury panel to the brewing company to look over their plant ?
“A. No, sir.
“ Q- Didn’t you know that the jury went up there at the invitation of the brewing company ?
“A. I don’t know anything at all about it.
“Q. Will you swear they did not ?
“A. I don’t know anything about it. It is the first intimation I heard anything about this.
“Q. Don’t you know it was done in that case ?
“A. I do not, Mr. Geib.
“Q. Didn’t you talk it over ?
“A. No, sir.
“Q. And arrange with them with the officers of the brewing company ?
“A. No, sir; I did not.. No such thing ever happened as I know of.
“Q. But there was a verdict of no cause of action in that case ?
“A. There was; yes.
“Q. Which was afterwards reversed by the Supreme Court ?
“Mr. Maher: Counsel should be sure that he has a proper foundation before he asks such questions as that.
“Mr. Geib: Well, I will produce what I have if you want to know about it.”
Plaintiff’s witness Tusch was interrogated in a very similar manner. The answers of both witnesses were entirely favorable to themselves and to the plaintiff, and defendant offered no testimony upon the subject. No objections were made and no exceptions were taken to the cross-examination above set out, nor were objections
All of the assignments of error relied upon have been examined. None call for more extended discussion, and none call for a reversal of the judgment.
The judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.