Lewis v. Lawrence

• Citation: 14 N.W. 587,30 Minn. 134
• Parties: LEWIS AND OTHERS v LAWRENCE AND OTHERS
• Decision Date: 10 January 1883
• Court: Supreme Court of Minnesota (US)

30 Minn. 134

14 N.W. 587

LEWIS AND OTHERSvLAWRENCE AND OTHERS

Supreme Court of Minnesota.

Filed January 10, 1883.

Appeal from order denying claimant's motion for new trial, district court county of Ramsey.

Harvey Officer, for plaintiffs.

Rogers & Rogers, for appellant and claimant.

MITCHELL, J.

This is a contest between the plaintiffs and the Traders' Bank of Chicago, claimant, as to which is entitled to the amount due from the garnishees, Broadwater, Hubbel & Co., on account of goods sold and delivered to them by the defendants Lawrence & Martin. The plaintiffs claim it as attaching creditors by virtue of their garnishee proceedings. The Traders' Bank claims it as assignee of the defendants. The facts upon which the bank based its claim are that prior to the service of the garnishee summons the defendants had drawn certain drafts or bills of exchange upon Broadwater, Hubbel & Co., and sold and transferred them for value to the claimant, the bank. The claim is that these drafts operated as an equitable assignment to the holder of the debt due from the drawees to the drawers. These drafts were ordinary bills of exchange, payable generally, and not out of any particular fund or debt. They were never accepted by the drawees. Taking the view of the facts most favorable to the bank, and assuming all other points in the case to be decided in its favor, there is one ground upon which the decision must necessarily be adverse to its claim.

A bill of exchange or draft payable generally, and not out of any particular fund or debt, will not amount before acceptance to an assignment to the holder of funds in the hands of the drawee belonging to the drawer, or of a debt due from the former to the latter. A draft for the whole of a particular specific fund or debt, amounts to an assignment of such debt or fund, even without acceptance. So, also, when a draft or order has been accepted, whether it be drawn on general funds or a specific fund, it is said to amount to an assignment of the fund; for in such case the acceptor, by his assent, binds and appropriates the fund for the use of the payee of the draft or order. But we have found no case which holds that a bill of exchange payable generally amounts before acceptance to an assignment of funds in the hands of the drawee belonging to the drawer, or of a debt due the latter from the former, or gives the holder of the draft any lien, legal or equitable, upon such fund or debt. Mandeville v. Welch, ...