Taylor v. Judsonia Mercantile Co.

• Decision Date: 01 July 1892
• Citation: 19 S.W. 1065,56 Ark. 461
• Parties: TAYLOR v. JUDSONIA MERCANTILE COMPANY
• Court: Arkansas Supreme Court

19 S.W. 1065

56 Ark. 461

TAYLOR v. JUDSONIA MERCANTILE COMPANY

Supreme Court of Arkansas

July 1, 1892

APPEAL from White Circuit Court, MATTHEW T. SANDERS, Judge.

Geo Taylor & Co. interpleaded in an attachment suit brought by Kraft-Holmes Grocer Co. against the Judsonia Mercantile Co. a corporation engaged in merchandising.

The agreed statement of facts disclosed substantially the following state of case: In April and May, 1887, the Judsonia Mercantile Co., for the purpose of securing Geo. Taylor & Co. for advances to be made, gave them twenty-one notes aggregating over $ 1,300; said notes were made by different debtors of the company for various sums, and fell due about November 1, 1887, and were endorsed to Geo. Taylor & Co. In September, 1887, the company, being insolvent, executed a deed of trust, conveying all of their corporate property including the notes above mentioned, to Geo. W. Hanson, as trustee, for the benefit of certain preferred creditors including Geo. Taylor & Co. Subsequently the Kraft-Holmes Grocer Co. and certain other non-preferred creditors brought suits at law against the Judsonia Mercantile Co. and procured attachments to be levied upon its property. Upon the application of certain creditors preferred by the deed of trust, the chancery court appointed Hanson receiver of the property conveyed by the deed of trust. The appointment of the receiver was successfully resisted by the attaching creditors, this court holding that equity had no jurisdiction (Ford v. Judsonia Mercantile Co., 52 Ark. 426). The receiver, under the court's orders, paid over to the sheriff all funds collected by him, including the sum of $ 616.80 collected upon the twenty one notes above mentioned and still held by Geo. Taylor & Co. The attachments were sustained by the circuit court. At the time the attachments were sued out, the Judsonia Mercantile Co. was indebted to Geo. Taylor & Co. in the sum of $ 2,484.46, to secure the payment of which the twenty-one notes were still held.

The question in the case is, whether Geo. Taylor & Co. should receive the proceeds of these twenty-one notes or whether they should go into the general fund for the attaching creditors? Upon this point evidence was taken from which the court found the following facts: "At the time this deed of trust (from the Judsonia Mercantile Co. to Hanson) was executed and delivered, Wm. Warren, Jr., the agent of said Taylor & Co., was present and * * acquiesced in allowing said twenty-one notes to be included in the schedule of the assets of the Mercantile Company, and then agreed with the officers of said company and the trustee in said deed to return said notes to Hanson, the trustee, to be by him administered as the other assets of said Mercantile Company, under the terms of said trust deed, and also participated in the preliminary consultations had just before said trust deed was executed. The legal inference from the agreement of Mr. Warren to surrender said notes is that it was done in consideration that his principle was thereby, as he believed, obtaining better and more adequate security for his debt. * * * Afterwards the said Taylor & Co. intervened in certain actions at law by the attaching creditors of said Mercantile Company and * * filed a pleading, described as a motion or interplea, * * in which it is stated in...