Manny v. Logan

• Decision Date: 31 October 1858
• Parties: MANNY et al., Plaintiffs in Error, v. LOGAN, ASSIGNEE, Defendant in Error.
• Court: Missouri Supreme Court

27 Mo. 528

MANNY et al., Plaintiffs in Error,

v.LOGAN, ASSIGNEE, Defendant in Error.

Supreme Court of Missouri.

October Term, 1858.

1. The term “voluntary,” as applied to conveyances within the act concerning voluntary assignments (R. C. 1852, p. 202), means voluntary as opposed to compulsory; a conveyance to a creditor in trust for himself as well as the other creditors of the assignor, is a voluntary assignment within the meaning of said act.

Error to Marion Circuit Court.

On the 30th of January, 1858, one Samuel W. Riggs, being largely indebted, executed a deed of trust of certain described real and personal property to one Logan as trustee. Certain debts of said Riggs to various parties, among others to Logan, the trustee, were recited in this deed, and the trustee was directed therein to pay said debts in their order, and when all said specified debts were paid, to hold the residue of the proceeds for the benefit of all the creditors of the assignor, to be apportioned pro rata among them. The present proceeding is an application, under section 26 of the act concerning voluntary assignments, on behalf of certain creditors of said Riggs, for a citation, directed to said assignee, to appear and show cause why he should not file an inventory and give bond, etc., or be dismissed from his trust. A citation issued. The assignee answered admitting his acceptance of the trust, and that he had not filed an inventory, but denied that he was bound to do so. The court dismissed the proceeding on the ground that the conveyance was not a voluntary assignment within the meaning of the act concerning voluntary assignments, and refused to require Logan to file an inventory. The plaintiffs were not named as creditors in the assignment.

Dryden, Lipscomb and Porter & Harrison, for plaintiffs in error.

I. The deed from Riggs to Logan was a “voluntary assignment” in the sense of the first section of the act concerning voluntary assignments. (See Burrill on Assign. 5; 10 Paige, 461; 3 Sumn. 345; 26 Mo. 322.)

Pratt and McCabe, for defendant in error.

I. This was not an assignment for the benefit of creditors in general. The creditors whose debts are secured by it are those named in the deed. The plaintiffs in the present proceedings are not named therein. It was not a voluntary assignment within the act concerning voluntary assignments. Logan was a creditor, and his debt was secured.

NAPTON, Judge, delivered the opinion of the court.

This was an application by the plaintiffs, claiming to be creditors of one Riggs--who had assigned his goods and lands to Logan for the benefit of certain creditors named, and afterwards for the benefit of...