Fish v. M'Donnell
| Decision Date | 10 February 1890 |
| Citation | 42 Minn. 519 |
| Parties | GEORGE M. FISH, Jr., <I>vs.</I> M. J. McDONNELL. |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
Action brought in the district court for Big Stone county, to recover possession of a stock of jewelry, mortgaged to plaintiff by one Ahearn, and taken possession of by defendant under a general assignment by Ahearn for the benefit of creditors. The plaintiff obtained the property, and at the trial before C. L. Brown, J., the court directed a verdict for defendant, leaving to the jury the sole question of the value of the property. The verdict was for $500, a new trial was refused, and plaintiff appealed.
E. F. Crawford, for appellant.
J. W. Reynolds, for respondent.
On the trial the mortgagor in the mortgage upon which plaintiff must rely for a recovery testified directly and positively that by the advice of the mortgagee, this plaintiff, he executed it to prevent his creditors enforcing their claims out of the property, and to compel them to wait until he could get around to pay them. This testimony was not contradicted, nor its force in any way impaired. The plaintiff, who was a witness in his own behalf, was silent on the point. The jury would have been bound to find the fact as thus proved. Such being the motive, or one of the motives, for its execution, the mortgage, as against other creditors, was not helped by the fact that there was also a valuable consideration for it. It was void as to creditors, and as to defendant, who represented them, and the court rightly directed a verdict for defendant.
Order affirmed.
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