Wilkie v. Becker
| Decision Date | 22 May 1964 |
| Docket Number | No. 39082,39082 |
| Citation | 268 Minn. 262,128 N.W.2d 704 |
| Court | Minnesota Supreme Court |
| Parties | Herbert WILKIE, dba Wilkie Well Drilling, Plaintiff, v. Reinhold BECKER, aka Reinhold W. Becker, Defendant, Thomas J. Murphy as trustee for Reinhold W. Becker, bankrupt, Appellant, First National Bank of Bertha, et al., Respondents. |
Syllabus by the Court
The general rule is that the right to receive money due or to become due under an existing contract may be assigned, even though the contract itself may not be assignable. A contract to pay money may be assigned by the person to whom the money is payable unless there is something in the terms of the contract manifesting the intention of the parties that it shall not be assigned.
Assignment means a transfer upon a sale or pledge of an account or any part thereof. Assignment of a part of an entire thing in action may be made and the equitable interests of he assignee will be protected.
Held that the judgment of the trial court denying the trustee's claim to the $2,589.98 and ordering the garnishee to pay the three assignees in order of priority designated by the court is affirmed.
O'Connor v. Einfeldt, 164 Minn. 422, 205 N.W. 268, distinguished.
John H. Shaughnessy, St. Cloud, for appellant.
King & Flora, Long Prairie, Bradford & Kennedy, Wadena, for respondents.
Appeal from a judgment of the district court. Herbert Wilkie, doing business as Wilkie Well Drilling, referred to herein as plaintiff, brought this action against Reinhold Becker, referred to as defendant-bankrupt; Thomas J. Murphy, trustee in bankruptcy for said bankrupt, referred to as trustee; First National Bank of Bertha, referred to as garnishee; and Jerome F. Ehnes, George Ehnes, and Walter Becker, referred to as assignees.
It appears from the record and briefs that on December 6, 1960, the defendant-bankrupt executed three written assignments, 1 identical in language, whereby, according to trustee, he attempted to assign, while insolvent, the sum of $93.91 to his brother-in-law, Jerome Ehnes; $1,929.56 to his father-in-law, George Ehnes; and $1,800 to his father, Walter Becker, above referred to as assignees.
The money was to be paid from the proceeds of an auction sale of farm personal property, which sale defendant-bankrupt was to hold on December 15, 1960. Plaintiff claims that the defendant-bankrupt retained the garnishee to act as clerk for the auction sale, although there is no evidence to sustain this statement. In any event, the garnishee acknowledged receipt of the assignments on December 6, 1960, and acted as clerk of the sale on December 15, 1960.
Plaintiff alleges in his complaint that on or about December 12, 1960, an action was commenced in Todd County District Court against the defendant-bankrupt and that on March 2, 1961, a judgment was entered in favor of the plaintiff for $728.10. He further alleges that on December 15, 1960, the date of the auction sale, a garnishee summons was served on the defendant-bankrupt and the garnishee.
It appears that thereafter the garnishee executed its garnishment disclosure disclosing that at the time of service of the garnishee summons the garnishee was indebted to the defendant-bankrupt in the sum of $8,938.76, plus or minus adjustments pending measurement of hay sold; also that the garnishee claimed certain setoffs, defenses, liens, and claims to said sum consisting of chattel mortgages, a conditional sales contract on the property sold at the auction, plus the three assignments above referred to and certain checks held for collection. The garnishee paid the holders of the chattel mortgages and conditional sales contract and now holds the balance of $2,589.98, which amount it is willing to pay in the manner decreed by the court.
The trustee filed an answer and cross-complaints against the three assignees, claiming that the alleged assignments were void; that his rights as trustee were superior to plaintiff's, and asked that the court order the garnishee to pay the entire sum held to him as trustee for the benefit of all of the creditors of the defendant-bankrupt.
The trial court found, among other things, that on April 25, 1961, defendant-bankrupt was adjudged bankrupt by a United States District Court; that Thomas J. Murphy was duly appointed, qualified, and acted as trustee in bankruptcy; that plaintiff admitted and recognized the legal right of the trustee to any money which plaintiff might recover in this matter and therefore assigned all of his rights and interests in said cause of action and garnishment to the trustee; and that the garnishee admitted by its answer that it is a mere stakeholder and will pay the money now in its possession in the manner directed by the court. In its conclusions of law the trial court denied the claims of the trustee and determined that the assignments to Jerome Ehnes and George Ehnes were prior in time to that of Walter Becker and that the garnishee should pay Jerome Ehnes $93.91, in full; George Ehnes $1,929.56, in full; and the balance of the $2,589.98 to Walter Becker. This appeal from the judgment entered was taken by the trustee.
The legal issue raised by the trustee on appeal is whether a promise to apply the proceeds of specified property upon a particular debt gives a lien upon or right to such proceeds until so applied. He argues that the assignments are not transfers of any present or future interest in anything, but at best are only requests by the defendant-bankrupt to the garnishee to pay certain sums of money to the three assignees from the proceeds of a future sale at such time as the garnishee is able to do so. He further contends that the requests would not transfer any interest in the proceeds of a future sale to the assignees until the money was actually paid to them; and that until such proceeds were paid to the assignees, the entire sum of money was the property of the defendant-bankrupt and subject to garnishment by his creditors.
The trustee cites O'Connor v. Einfeldt, 164 Minn. 422, 205 N.W. 268, as controlling. In that case the controversy was between the plaintiff, who had a judgment against the defendant for $465.55, and an intervenor bank, which had a chattel mortgage upon the greater part of the defendant's personal property to secure a promissory note of $5,000. By an arrangement between the defendant and the bank, the defendant disposed of his personal property at a public auction and something over $4,700 was...
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In re Kaufman
...Cross of Kansas, 230 Kan. 361, 634 P.2d 1123 (1981) [Assignment barred where contract expressly prohibits the same.]; Wilkie v. Becker, 268 Minn. 262, 128 N.W.2d 704 (1964) [Assignment barred where contract expressly prohibits the same.]; Forsythe v. Elkins, 216 Mont. 108, 700 P.2d 596 (198......
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Rumbin v. Utica Mutual Ins.
...Cross of Kansas, 230 Kan. 361, 367, 634 P.2d 1123 (1981) (assignment barred where contract expressly prohibits); Wilkie v. Becker, 268 Minn. 262, 267, 128 N.W.2d 704 (1964) (same); Forsythe v. Elkins, 216 Mont. 108, 114, 700 P.2d 596 (1985) 3. Compare the prohibitive language employed in th......
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Ness v. Gurstel Chargo, P.A.
...default under Minnesota law is that contracts are freely assignable absent some language to the contrary.”); Wilkie v. Becker, 268 Minn. 262, 128 N.W.2d 704, 707 (1964) (“The general rule is that the right to receive money due or to become due under an existing contract may be assigned even......
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Life Rehab Services v. Allied Property & Cas. Ins., 05-CV-1279(PJS/RLE).
...the lack of an explicit prohibition against an assignment. Instead, the Court relied upon its earlier decision, in Wilkie v. Becker, 268 Minn. 262, 128 N.W.2d 704, 707 (1964), as reiterated in Vetter v. Sec. Cont'l Ins. Co., 567 N.W.2d 516, 521 (1997). The Supreme Court reasoned as In our 1......