Vail v. J. & J. H. Peck & Co.
Vail v. J. & J. H. Peck & Co.
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered, at the circuit session in September, by
The only question made in the present case is, whether, in an assignment for the benefit of creditors, under the statute of 1852, it becomes necessary to give notice to the debtors on choses in action, which, by the express terms of the statute, may be included in the assignment, in order to prevent their being held, by trustee process, during the first ten days after the date of the assignment. And, it seems to us, it is not needful to give such notice. The statute provides a mode of giving publicity and a public character to the assignment, by filing copies of the assignment, and schedules of the property and the creditors, within ten days, “ in the county clerk’s office in the county where the assignment is made and the property assigned is situated.”
And we are satisfied it was the purpose of the statute to make the assignment good, for ten days, as to all intervening liens, in favor of creditors certainly, without notice to the debtors. And after that, if the proper papers are not filed in the proper offices, the assignment becomes inoperative as to attachments and levies until said papers are filed; and this, no doubt, even where the assignee may have taken possession or given notice. This view is the only one which seems to us altogether consistent with the provisions of the statute and its general purpose. We find, too, upon examination of the cases referred to in argument, that the same construction has been given, in other states, to statutes very similar to that of 1852. This is so in Connecticut and in Pennsylvania.
Judgment reversed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Jackson A. Vail v. J. & J. H. Peck & Co. and their trustees, Carlos Bancroft and others R. M. Guilford and others
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- An assignment of choses in action to a trustee for the benefit of the creditors of the assignor in pursuance of the assignment law of 1852 (Laws of 1852, p. 14,) is at once operative against any subsequent attachments by the trustee process, if the proper papers respecting the assignment are duly filed in the county clerk’s office within ten days, as provided for by said law.