Johnson v. Carlin
Johnson v. Carlin
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff brought' this action to recover an indebtedness due her from defendant, and caused garnishment process to be issued and; served upon Henry Johnson, garnishee, alleging that he had money and property in his possession belonging to defendant. The garnishee;
The facts are substantially as follows: Claimant entered into an executory contract for the sale of certain land owned by him to Carlin, defendant, for the consideration of $2,600. Defendant was without funds, and theretofore occupied as a tenant a farm owned by plaintiff in Nicollet county, and owned a considerable amount of personal property then upon that farm. It was agreed between claimant and defendant that the deeds conveying the land to defendant should be executed by claimant and deposited with a third person to be by him delivered when the purchase price of the land was paid in full. In addition to conveying the land for the consideration stated, -claimant also agreed to furnish to defendant building material of the value of $600, to enable defendant to erect and construct farm buildings upon the land! To meet the payment of the purchase price of the land and the advances to be made for building material, the parties entered into the following arrangement: Defendant, by bill of sale in due form, sold and transferred to claimant all the personal property owned by him and situated on the rented farm in Nicollet county, under the agreement that it should all be sold at auction and the proceeds paid over to claimant to apply upon the purchase price of the land. It was further agreed that, if the proceeds exceeded the amount due claimant, the excess should be paid over to defendant; if the proceeds were less than enough to fully pay claimant, defendant should pay such deficiency before the de
The only question presented is whether, notwithstanding the apparent sale of the property by defendant to claimant, evidenced by the bill of sale, the title to the property in fact remained in defendant, vesting in him also ownership of the sale proceeds. The trial court found the facts as heretofore stated, and further, and correctly so, that claimant paid no consideration for the property, it'was never delivered to him, and that it remained the property of defendant and was such at the time the garnishee summons was served. The court also found that the plan adopted for disposing of the property was, so far as concerned the defendant, entered into for the purpose of hindering and delaying his creditors, though claimant did not participate therein, on the contrary acted in good faith in entering into the transaction. But the findings of the court to the effect that claimant paid no consideration for the property, that the parties did not intend by the transaction to vest in claimant the present title to the property, and that the ownership thereof remained in defendant are fully sustained by the evidence. Claimant’s contract to convey the land to defendant was executory, and it was expressly ■agreed that the deeds therefor should not be delivered until the purchase price was fully paid. Claimant had not prior to the garnishment delivered to defendant any part of the building material, nor had he parted with either money or property as a result of the
Order affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- KARNA JOHNSON v. CARL CARLIN
- Status
- Published