Washington Bank of Walla Walla v. Fidelity Abstract & Sec. Co.

• Decision Date: 12 November 1896
• Citation: 15 Wash. 487,46 P. 1036
• Court: Washington Supreme Court
• Parties: WASHINGTON BANK OF WALLA WALLA v. FIDELITY ABSTRACT & SECURITY CO.

46 P. 1036

15 Wash. 487

WASHINGTON BANK OF WALLA WALLA v. FIDELITY ABSTRACT & SECURITY CO.

Supreme Court of Washington

November 12, 1896

Appeal from superior court, Walla Walla county; William H. Upton Judge.

Action by the Washington Bank of Walla Walla against the Fidelity Abstract & Security Company, a corporation, to foreclose a chattel mortgage. From a judgment and decree in favor of plaintiff, defendant appeals. Affirmed.

Thomas & Dovell, for appellant.

Thos H. Brents and Wellington Clark, for respondent.

DUNBAR J.

The appellant corporation, by its secretary, S.E. Dean, applied to the respondent, a corporation, for a loan of $2,000 offering as security a chattel mortgage on a set of abstract records, maps, and indices of lands in Walla Walla county. The particular description was as follows "The abstract records of all lands in Walla Walla county, state of Washington, and all maps, plats, and indices thereunto belonging, or in any wise appertaining, now in the office of said mortgagor." The loan was made, appellant made default in payment, and respondent brought suit to foreclose the mortgage. The defendant answered, setting up as an affirmative defense that the property described in the mortgage was a copy of the financial records of Walla Walla county, arranged in a certain and peculiar manner by appellant, together with certain peculiar indices to said records, made and arranged by appellant; that, without a knowledge of the arrangement of said copies and said indices, the said property was of no value whatever; that the property described was the product of the work and mind of the said Dean, secretary, and of no other; and that the same were made and arranged for the use of said corporation, and none of the property was of any value whatever unless the party having possession thereof had the right to publish and copy the same. The cause was referred to a referee, and, after trial, the referee returned a report recommending the decree as asked in the complaint. The defendant below excepted, and asked the court to make finding in accordance with the answer just above quoted. Only one question is brought to the attention of this court, namely, the contention that, on account of the peculiar nature of the property described in the mortgage, the court erred in decreeing its sale. The appellant relies on the case of Dart v. Woodhouse, 40 Mich. 399. This case holds that a set of abstract books such as those in suit is but the unpublished manuscript of an author, valuable only on account of its literary contents, and belongs to the class of unleviable property, such as a patent right or a copyright, which are held by most of the courts to be unassignable privileges or incorporeal and...