Sheffield v. Walker
| Decision Date | 22 March 1950 |
| Docket Number | No. 234,234 |
| Citation | 231 N.C. 556,58 S.E.2d 356 |
| Parties | SHEFFIELD et al. v. WALKER et al. |
| Court | North Carolina Supreme Court |
R. D. Johnson, Warsaw, and J. Faison Thomson, Goldsboro, for the plaintiff, appellees.
James N. Smith, Goldsboro, for the defendant, the Shepherd Company, appellant.
Chattel mortgages and conditional sales are nearly allied to each other. Poindexter v. McCannon, 16 N.C. 373, 18 Am.Dec. 591. For this reason, G.S. § 47-20, which covers Chattel Mortgages, and G.S. § 47-23, which embraces conditional sales, prescribe identical requirements for their recording. These statutes provide that a chattel mortgage or a conditional sale of tangible personal property is valid as against creditors or purchasers for a valuable consideration from the mortgagor or vendee only from and after its registration in the county where the mortgagor or vendee resides if he resides in the State, or in the county where the property is situated if he resides out of the State.
Since there is no allegation and proof that the Ford truck was situated in Duplin County at the determinative time, the primary question raised by this appeal is simply this: Was the testimony presented by the plaintiffs at the trial sufficient to sustain the proposition that Walker resided in Duplin County when the conditional sale was registered, i. e., on September 11, 1947?
It was well said by the late Justice Oliver Wendell Holmes that 'a word is not a crystal, transparent and unchanged, it is the skin of a living thought and may vary greatly in color and content according to the circumstances and time in which it is used.' Towne v. Eisner, 245 U.S. 418, 38 S.Ct. 158, 159, 62 L.Ed. 372, L.R.A.1918D, 254. This aphorism finds abundant exemplification in the word 'residence,' which has many shades of meaning, ranging all the way from mere temporary presence to the most permanent abode. 17 Am.Jur., Domicil, section 9.
'Residence' is sometimes synonymous with 'domicile.' But when these words are accurately and precisely used, they are not convertible terms. Thayer v. Thayer, 187 N.C. 573, 122 S.E. 307. 'Residence' simply indicates a person's actual place of abode, whether permanent or temporary; 'domicile' denotes a person's permanent dwelling-place, to which, when absent, he has the intention of returning. Owens v. Chaplin, 228 N.C. 705, 47 S.E. 2d 12; Roanoke Rapids v. Patterson, 184 N.C. 135, 113 S.E. 603. Hence, a person may have his residence in one place, and his domicile in another. Wheeler v. Cobb, 75 N.C. 21.
When due heed is paid to both the legislative purpose and the context, the meaning of the statutory requirement under scutiny becomes plain. G.S. § 47-20 and G.S. § 47-23 are designed to give notice of chattel mortgages and conditional sales to third persons; and the requirement that such instruments are to be registered in the county where the maker resides is based on the legislative realization that 'persons interested to have knowledge in such respect would go to the county where a person resides to see what disposition he had made of his personal property by deeds and other instruments required to be registered'....
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