American Multigraph Sales Co. v. Jones

• Citation: 58 Wash. 619,109 P. 108
• Parties: AMERICAN MULTIGRAPH SALES CO. v. JONES.
• Decision Date: 03 June 1910
• Court: Washington Supreme Court

109 P. 108

58 Wash. 619

AMERICAN MULTIGRAPH SALES CO. v. JONES.

Supreme Court of Washington

June 3, 1910

Department 1. Appeal from Superior Court, King County; J. T. Ronald Judge.

Action by the American Multigraph Sales Company against John D Jones. From a judgment for plaintiff, defendant appeals. Reversed and remanded.

Frank E. Green, for appellant.

Robt. F. Booth, for respondent.

CHADWICK J.

This case requires no statement of facts. It involves only an answer to the question, Is a conditional bill of sale void as against a subsequent creditor in good faith if not filed within 10 days? Section 3670, Rem. & Bal. Code reads as follows: 'All conditional sales of personal property, or leases thereof, containing a conditional right to purchase, where the property is placed in the possession of the vendee, shall be absolute as to the purchasers encumbrancers and subsequent creditors in good faith, unless within ten days after taking possession by the vendee, a memorandum of such sale, stating its terms and conditions and signed by the vendor and vendee, shall be filed in the auditor's office of the county, wherein, at the date of the vendee's taking possession of the property, the vendee resides.' The trial judge held, and directed a verdict upon the theory, that a conditional bill of sale was not void as against subsequent creditors if filed before the assertion of their claims, basing his decision upon Sayward v. Nunan, 6 Wash. 87, 32 P. 1022, wherein it was said: 'The failure to record the bill of sale within 10 days would only protect such parties as had obtained intervening rights after its execution and before the time it was filed for record.' That case construed section 1454, 1 Hill's Code, now section 5291, Rem. & Bal. Code, wherein it is provided that no transfers of personal property shall be valid as to existing creditors where the property is left in possession of the vendor, unless the bill of sale be recorded within 10 days after such sale is made. It is evident, and was so held in Greenwood v. Corbin, 48 Wash. 357, 93 P. 433, that this section has no application where no debts existed at the time of the sale. In other words, the bill of sale statute (section 5291) was designed to protect existing creditors, while the conditional sale statute is designed to protect subsequent creditors. As against this class, the sale is made absolute unless a memorandum has been recorded within ten days after the...