Morrison v. Morris

• Decision Date: 11 July 1888
• Citation: 85 Ala. 196,4 So. 667
• Parties: MORRISON ET AL. v. MORRIS ET AL.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

4 So. 667

85 Ala. 196

MORRISON ET AL. v. MORRIS ET AL.

Supreme Court of Alabama

July 11, 1888

Appeal from circuit court, Montgomery county; JOHN P. HUBBARD Judge.

Rice & Wiley, for appellants.

Tompkins, London & Troy, for appellees.

STONE C.J.

Morrison Herriman & Co. and their co-appellants were attaching creditors, and Josiah Morris & Co. were garnishees. The garnishment was served August 9, 1886, and the garnishees filed their answer January 19, 1887. They fully and positively denied all indebtedness, and all other grounds of liability, which can be reached and condemned in garnishment proceeding. Code 1886, §§ 2945, 2946, 2974. The record shows no intervening proceedings between the filing of their answer by the garnishees, and the final judgment entry, July 15, 1887. If the answer was contested, the record contains nothing in regard to it. Yet the case went off on verdict of a jury, and it is probably our duty to presume there was a contest of the answer. In the form in which the answer is given, nothing less could have presented an issue for trial by a jury. Under the general charge there were verdict and judgment for garnishees. Certain exceptions were reserved by the attaching creditors. Plaintiffs showed that Knowles & Warner were indebted to each of the three attaching firms in a large sum due and demandable before July 30, 1886. Their several claims had been reduced to judgment January 14, 1887, which judgments were in evidence. testimony for the garnishees set forth that Knowles & Warner were indebted to them in the sum of $28,200; that Knowles & Warner executed to them a bill of sale of their merchandise, and other articles named in it, on the day it bears date, July 31, 1886, and then placed them in possession, which they have since held under the said bill of sale; "that the value of all the property conveyed by Knowles & Warner was less than their indebtedness to Josiah Morris & Co. The value of the stock of goods and other property conveyed by the bill of sale was $16,000." The bill of sale was in evidence, and this was all the testimony.

Appellants' claim of right to recover in this suit is based on two clauses of the bill of sale. After the recital of the indebtedness of Knowles & Warner to Josiah Morris & Co. $28,203.23, the bill of sale has this language: "Now, for the purpose of paying said indebtedness, we, A. S. Knowles and W. C. Warner, do bargain, sell, and deliver...