Hall v. Keating Implement & Machine Co.

• Decision Date: 18 November 1903
• Citation: 77 S.W. 1054
• Parties: HALL v. KEATING IMPLEMENT & MACHINE CO.<SMALL><SUP>*</SUP></SMALL>
• Court: Texas Court of Appeals

77 S.W. 1054

HALL v. KEATING IMPLEMENT & MACHINE CO.^*

Court of Civil Appeals of Texas.

November 18, 1903.

Appeal from District Court, Runnels County; John W. Goodwin, Judge.

Action by R. A. Hall, trustee in bankruptcy of R. L. Maddox, against the Keating Implement & Machine Company. From a judgment for defendant, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Appellant, as trustee for the bankrupt estate of R. L. Maddox, brought this suit against appellee to recover certain personal property alleged to belong to the bankrupt estate. The defendant, in its answer, in addition to a general denial, pleaded title and ownership in itself. The case was tried without a jury, and judgment rendered for the defendant. From this judgment the plaintiff has appealed. No findings of fact or conclusions of law were filed by the trial judge, but the testimony supports the statement concerning the facts made in appellee's brief; and, therefore, in deference to the judgment, we adopt such statement as our findings of fact:

"On January 17, 1901, Shutler & Hotz, of Chicago, Ill., acting through their state agents, Keating Implement & Machine Company, sold to R. L. Maddox a car load of Shutler wagons, by written contract of sale, providing the price at which said wagons were severally sold, and the terms of sale (the several items aggregating about $1,372.40), and binding said Maddox to execute his notes to Shutler & Hotz on the terms specified in the contract, upon receipt of the goods. In said contract it was provided, among other things, `that the title to and ownership of all goods which may be shipped as herein provided, or during the current season, shall remain in and their proceeds, in case of sale, shall be the property of first party [meaning Shutler & Hotz] and subject to their order until full payment shall have been made by the undersigned, in money.' The goods arrived at Ballinger, Runnels county, Texas, on or about February 7, 1901; and thereupon said Maddox, in pursuance of his contract so to do, executed and delivered to Shutler & Hotz his two promissory notes, for $686.25 each, payable at First National Bank, Ballinger, Texas, with interest at 8% from August 7, 1901, until maturity, and 10% thereafter. Said notes, by their terms, matured, respectively, November 15, 1901, and December 15, 1901, and represented the purchase price of the car load of wagons above referred to.

"Subsequent to the execution of the notes, and before the maturity thereof, and before the transactions hereinafter mentioned, Shutler & Hotz indorsed and delivered said notes to Keating Implement & Machine Company; and thereafter, on or about October 28, 1901, W. O. Garrison, a representative of the Keating Implement & Machine Company, with said notes and contract above described in his possession, came to Ballinger, endeavoring to collect said notes; they being wholly unpaid, and Maddox being in an insolvent condition. At that time said representative lodged the contract with the county clerk of Runnels county, and caused same to be duly registered as a chattel mortgage. Failing to collect the notes, it was agreed that they should be settled as far as practicable by the return of the unsold wagons; credit to be made upon the notes for the value of the goods so returned. In pursuance of that arrangement, Keating Implement & Machine Company, on the date referred to, retook the goods remaining unsold, to the value of $740.60, made an inventory of same, collected and stored them together at a particular place in Maddox's place of business, and segregated same from property belonging to Maddox; and it was then and there understood that said goods were then and there delivered to Keating Machine & Implement Company to become its property, and that Maddox thereupon became entitled to and was allowed the credit above referred to on his said indebtedness under his said notes. Thereafter Keating Implement & Machine Company arranged with Maddox to handle said goods as their agent, without any title or interest therein passing to the...