Spring Lake Ins. Co. v. Waters

• Citation: 50 Mich. 13,14 N.W. 679
• Court: Supreme Court of Michigan
• Decision Date: 17 January 1883
• Parties: SPRING LAKE INS. CO. v. WATERS.

14 N.W. 679

50 Mich. 13

SPRING LAKE INS. CO. v. WATERS.

Supreme Court of Michigan

January 17, 1883

Where a party purchases property in good faith, and for value, his title is not affected by any intent of the grantors to defraud their creditors by the sale.

Error to Muskegon.

Smith Nims & Erwin, for plaintiff in error.

Albert H. Standish and W.D. Fuller, for defendant in error.

GRAVES C.J.

The defendant was sheriff of Muskegon county, and having received for service an execution and also an attachment in favor of the "Lima Machine Works" and against Seneca G Lapham and Rufus K. Smythe, constituting the firm of Lapham Smythe & Co., he levied the same on 16 railroad flat cars narrow-gauge, and the Spring Lake Iron Company replevied them. The jury found for the defendant, and assessed his damages at $240. The record is much longer than it should have been and the explanation is not perfectly apparent. The nature of the case may be indicated by referring to the surrounding facts.

July, 1879, Lapham, Smythe & Co., the judgment and attachment debtors, agreed with the plaintiff corporation to furnish it a large quantity of wood, and in order to facilitate performance they proceeded to make a railroad from the plaintiff's furnace into the forest. With the view of equipping the road they purchased from the "Lima Machine Works" a quantity of car-wheels on credit. Subsequently it was deemed expedient to cover the enterprise of making and running this railroad with a corporate character, and accordingly the "Ravenna & Spring Lake Narrow-gauge Railroad Company" was organized.

January 13, 1880, Lapham, Smythe & Co. executed a bill of sale to this corporation for the engine and cars belonging to the road before the incorporation and for certain other property. The articles purchased of the "Lima Machine Works" were included. On the same day, the railroad company executed to the plaintiff corporation a lease of the road for five years, together with its equipments and including the property in controversy.

April 17, 1880, Lapham, Smythe & Co. executed a bill of sale to the plaintiff corporation of all their right and interest in the cars in question. The judgment on which the execution issued was obtained April 26, 1880, and the levy was made the same day. The attachment was levied on the sixteenth of May. The action was resisted on the ground that the transfers of the property directly and...