Reynolds v. Stockton

• Decision Date: 30 June 1887
• Citation: 43 N.J.E. 211,10 A. 385
• Parties: REYNOLDS and others v. STOCKTON, Receiver, etc.
• Court: New Jersey Supreme Court

10 A. 385

43 N.J.E. 211

REYNOLDS and others

v. STOCKTON, Receiver, etc.

Court of Errors and Appeals of New Jersey.

June Term, 1887.

(Syllabus by the Court.)

On appeal from court of chancery.

R. J. Moses, Jr., for appellants. F. W. Stevens, for respondent.

VAN SYCKEL, J. The appellants in this proceeding commenced an action in February, 1879, in the supreme court of New York, against the Hope Life Insurance Company, John F. Smyth, then superintendent of the insurance department of New York, Joel Parker, receiver, and the New Jersey Mutual Life Insurance Company. Joel Parker was then acting receiver of the last mentioned company under appointment of the court of chancery, of New Jersey, and also ancillary receiver under appointment by the supreme court of New York. It is admitted that the Hope Company was not brought into court by process of summons or otherwise, and that no appearance to said suit was put in by said company.

The range and object of that suit, as presented by the pleadings, was to determine who was entitled to the fund deposited with the New York superintendent of insurance by the Hope Company. The New Jersey Company claimed it under its agreement to reinsure the Hope Company. Joel Parker, as receiver, and the New Jersey Company, filed an answer in which that is the only issue made. No amendment was subsequently made to the pleadings, and no further answer filed by said receiver or said company. The case was referred, and on the seventh of March, 1885, a decree was made adjudging the relative interests of the parties in the deposit funds. Before the decree was entered in New York, Joel Parker was succeeded by Robert F. Stockton as receiver in New Jersey, but he continued to be ancillary receiver in New York until 1886, when he was discharged there by an order of the supreme court, and directed to turn over the assets in his hands to the New Jersey receiver. On the eleventh of October, 1886, after the discharge of the receiver in New York, a further proceeding was taken in the aforesaid suit in New York, without in anywise amending the pleadings, and without further answer or appearance on the part of Parker, receiver, or the New Jersey Company, in which it was adjudged that the plaintiffs in said proceeding recover of Joel Parker, as receiver of the New Jersey Mutual Life Insurance Company, the sum of $1,010,496.29. This claim was presented to Robert F. Stockton, receiver of the New Jersey Company, and by him rejected on the ground that the New York adjudication did not constitute legal proof of the...