4 Kan. App. 168 | Kan. Ct. App. | 1896
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This is an action to recover the possession of a certain piano. The findings and judgment were in favor of the defendants. The material facts connected with the transaction out of which this controversy arose, as disclosed by the record, are as follows : April 19, 1890, the plaintiffs sold and delivered to one J. B. Albaugh, at New Albany, Ind., the piano in controversy, under a conditional sale whereby
“ Section 1. That any and all instruments in writing, or promissory notes, nowin existence or hereafter executed, evidencing the conditional sale of personal property, aijd that retains the title to the same in the vendor until the purchase price is paid in full, shall be void as against innocent purchasers, or the creditors of the vendee, unless the original instrument or a true copy thereof shall have been deposited in the office of the register of deeds in and for the county wherein the property shall be kept, and when so deposited, shall be subject to the law applicable to the filing of chattel mortgages ; and any conditional verbal sale of personal property reserving to the vendor any title in the property sold shall be void as to creditors and innocent purchasers for value.”
' It is contended by the plaintiffs in error that this law does not apply to a contract entered into and to be wholly performed in another state, and which relates to property which at the date of the contract is located in such other state, and that, even' though it should be held to apply to such a contract, it should not be held to apply in this particular case. • As the plaintiffs had no notice until after Hill purchased the piano from Albaugh that the property had been removed to Kansas, and as the object in view of such statute was to give notice to creditors or persons contemplating a purchase of the property that the one in possession was not in fact the owner, as this sale from Albaugh to Hill was made prior to the date that the plaintiffs first learned that the piano was in Kansas, a subsequent depositing of the contract with the register of deeds would have been no protection to Hill, and for this reason the plaintiffs were excused from complying with the terms of the statute. The contention of the plaintiffs in error must be sustained.