Wickstrand v. Pure Oil Co.
Wickstrand v. Pure Oil Co.
Opinion of the Court
Plaintiff appeals from a judgment entered in favor of The Pure Oil Company, substituted as defendant in place of the original defendant, Manhattan Oil & Linseed Company.
Elmer Broms and Linda Broms are husband and wife. Plaintiff is the latter’s brother. Early in 1921 Elmer obtained a contract for a deed to half a lot in Alexandria and later a lease of part of another lot. Upon this property he erected the ordinary filling station with tanks and equipment and established a gasolene and oil business. On December 17, 1921, the contract for deed was assigned by Elmer and wife to his father, John Broms, and on the same date by the latter assigned to Linda. There was no consideration unless the dollar recited in the instruments as such was actually passed back and forth, and of this John Broms was not certain. Thereafter, on May 31, 1922, Linda received the deed from the owner, which was recorded August 28, 1922.
In June, 1922, Elmer negotiated a sale of all the property and business, including the lease mentioned, to Manhattan Oil & Linseed -Company for $12,500, payable in instalments. On October 81, 1922, The Pure Oil Company brought an' action against Elmer to recover a balance due for goods sold and delivered in the business conducted by him between September 30, 1921, and May 5, 1922, and recovered a judgment, January 20, 1923, for $1,926.69. The execution issued thereon was levied upon $2,000' in the hands of the Manhattan Oil & Linseed Company. The latter has paid to
The Pure Oil Company in its pleading attacked as in fraud of creditors of Elmer the transactions by which the title to this property sold to the Manhattan Company .purported to have passed from Elmer to Linda prior to such sale, and likewise the pretended sale to plaintiff of the $2,000 part of the proceeds of said property. The court in substance found the charge true, and certain findings, necessary to support the conclusions of law, are challenged in the appeal as not supported.
The first finding attacked is to the effect that Elmer added $10,000 in value to the real estate bought and leased by the erection and installation of the filling station thereon; and that plaintiff has been repaid the $500 borrowed of him and Linda has been paid many times over the $1,300 or $1,800 which she contributed to the improvement, she having received out of the sum paid by the Manhattan Company for the property and business the sum of $4,759.50 in one lump sum. No other finding could be justified, insofar as the above facts are material. Elmer purchased the half lot for
The finding that Elmer paid the entire consideration for the property and business sold to the Manhattan Company is assailed. Elmer, a hostile witness, admitted that he personally negotiated for the property, improved it, and started and conducted the business until it was sold. To be sure, he says that he advised with his wife; but that would be natural, and no indication that he was her . agent. He transacted all the business with the purchaser, and manipulated the placing of the title in Linda’s name previous to the transfer to the purchaser. It is said Linda furnished $5,000, the initial payment made by the Manhattan Company for the plant, to pay the debts incurred by Elmer in running the business, and acquiring the property. But if the property was in fact as to creditors of Elmer his, the $5,000 paid upon the purchase price was his and not hers.
The finding as to there being a sale in bulk of a stock of goods and merchandise without an attempt to comply with the statute relating to such sales (G. S. 1913, § 7018), is attacked as immaterial, not being within the issues. For the purposes of this appeal that may be conceded, but the decision of the court below must nevertheless stand if the two findings next referred to are supported.
The court found the $2,000 which the Manhattan Company had in its hands was the property of Elmer and subject to seizure under the execution issued upon the judgment of The Pure Oil Company against him. As we understand plaintiff, this finding is attacked on the ground that the order dismissing the garnishee, the Manhattan Company, is res adjudicaba that the $2,000 did not belong to Elmer, and also on the ground that there was no lawful levy on this money, since, when the order of dismissal was made, there was a stay of 20 days granted and the levy of the execution was made before the stay expired. There is no merit in either point.
Finally, it is claimed that the finding, to the effect that the pretended assignment of the $2,000, retained by the Manhattan Company out of the purchase price when The Pure Oil Company garnisheed and upon which plaintiff brought this suit, was not obtained in good faith or for a valuable consideration but for the purpose of delaying and defrauding the creditors of Elmer Broms, is not sustained by the evidence. In our opinion such finding is unavoidable upon this record. It is clear from Elmer’s testimony that the property and business sold to the Manhattan Company was acquired by Mm and was his. The placing of the title to a part of it in the name of his wife, after he had begun to incur the indebtedness included in the judgment of The Pure Oil Company, must be considered as merely a futile effort to defraud and delay that company from enforcing its claim against him. That transaction was presumptively fraudulent, the wife being the recipient of the husband’s title. Murphy v. Casey, 151 Minn. 480, 187 N. W. 416, and the prior case therein cited.
But concede, for the purposes of this decision only, that as against plaintiff The Pure Oil Company cannot question the transfer of Elmer’s title to the half lot to Linda, and consequently
Again, there is no basis whatever in this record for Linda claiming title to all of the proceeds of the sale to the Manhattan Company, even granting that she owned the half lot. It is obvious the business was not hers, but her husband’s. The lease was in his name. The deed given to the Manhattan Company by Linda and Elmer recited a consideration of $6,000, and the bill of sale transferring the business and lease a consideration of $6,500. Linda had contributed to the venture at the most $1,800; .she had received from the sale $1,729.50 in one check. This $2,000 was set aside to abide the result of the litigation and the claim of The Pure Oil Company.
The evidence, in our opinion, amply justifies the findings assailed on this appeal. There can be no doubt that the conclusion of law and judgment accord with the findings of fact as made.
The judgment is affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- A. J. WICKSTRAND v. THE PURE OIL COMPANY
- Status
- Published