29 Me. 9 | Me. | 1848
Lead Opinion
Whitman C. J. did not sit in the case. The opinion of the majority, Wells J. dissenting, was drawn up by
Bennet Lawrence and the defendant had mutual dealings in account. Lawrence for a valuable consideration, assigned his account against the defendant to one of his creditors. The defendant had notice of that assignment, and was requested to pay the amount due from him. A suit
The assignment made by Lawrence to his creditor, conveyed the equitable title to the balance due from the defendant to Lawrence at the time, when the defendant had notice of that assignment. The defendant could not diminish that balance by any claim accruing or procured subsequently. The as-signee of a chose in action receives it subject to all the equities then existing between the assignor and his debtor. It is liable to no other burdens or deductions. Jenkins v. Brewster, 14 Mass. R. 294; Sargent v. Southgate, 5 Pick. 312; Sanborn v. Little, 3 N. H. R. 539; Weeks v. Hunt, 6 Verm. R. 15; Jefferson County Bank v. Chapman, 19 Johns. R. 322; Ritchie v. Moore, 5 Munf. 388; Newman v. Crocker, 1 Bay. 246; Hooper v. Brundage, 22 Maine R. 460.
The statute provisions of this State are based upon the same principles, c. 115, § 35, and c. 1 If, § 35,
There can bo no doubt, that courts of justice, when called upon to order one judgment to be set off against another, are
The defendant first became entitled to the amount due from Lawrence to him for costs, when he obtained a judgment for them. It is said, that costs are incidental and accessory to the debt. They are in fact not connected with it, but are an allowance made by statute to a party to compensate him for the trouble and expense, which he may incur in the prosecution of his suit for the recovery of his debt or damage. They are not •a part of his debt, claim, or damage. If the assignee of a chose in action could only acquire a title to it, subject to all equitable claims then existing between the assignor and his debtor, and also subject to all the costs, which they might occasion by litigation respecting them, the law would be materially altered, and his rights valuable, at the time, might prove to be of no value.
It is difficult to perceive, that the defendant has stronger claims in equity than in law to have the set-off made. He was notified, that the balance due from him had been assigned. If he could not adjust it with the assignee, he might have decided how much was due from him and have tendered that balance ; or have offered, as soon as the suit had been entered in Court, to be defaulted for that amount, and thus have protected himself, against all further costs, and havp placed himself in a position to recover costs, if the balance should not prove to be greater. He might, as he did, lawfully commence a cross action. If he chose to exercise that legal right, he can have no just cause of complaint, if he be left to pursue that legal course to the end, and to obtain all his legal rights by it, without asking to be relieved from the result, by having another person’s rights impaired to do it.
It is further insisted, that the plaintiff was not entitled to file a bill of exceptions in this case. That the question, whether a set-off should be ordered, was one submitted to the judicial discretion of the District Court.
Courts may be at liberty to exercise such a discretion by ordering or refusing to order judgments to be set off, when they
The exceptions are sustained, the set-off prayed for is disallowed, and judgments are to be entered in each case accordingly.
Dissenting Opinion
Dissenting opinion by
Where a demand is assigned, the assignee takes it subject to the equities subsisting between the parties, and also to the legal rights of the parties. The debtor having a counter demand, if it is not allowed to him, may file his account in set-off, or bring a cross action, in the same manner as if no assignment had been made. The assignment cannot abridge this right nor limit the legal claim to costs. Where demands are un-liquidated, the assignee takes them subject to all the legal rights of investigation, which the law allows. He cannot restrict the debtor to any one mode of judicial investigation. The mode prescribed by law, for determining the rights of the parties, is incident to the demand assigned.
In the present case, the defendant might have filed his account in set-off, and had the whole dispute settled at his own expense. But he was not bound to do so, by law or equity. He had a legal right to commence his action. The plaintiff might in that suit have offered to be defaulted for any given sum, or might have paid what was claimed in the cross action, or made a tender, retaining his own suit; but on the contrary, he litigates it until there is a large bill of costs, and then says, that his own judgment is not to be affected by those very costs which he has created. The defendant might have offered to be defaulted in the suit against him, but that could only protect him against the claim of the plaintiff. His own account would not have been allowed in that way. It is said he might have paid the balance, but it does not appear that the parties could agree upon the balance, and the litigation was to determine
Shall we establish the doctrine, that when a demand is assigned, the debtor shall be confined to some one legal mode of, ascertaining the balance ?
It is true the costs, which accrue, did not exist at the time of the assignment, but the assignee has given rise to them by his resort to the law, and his mode of resisting the claims of the debtor, as much so as the debtor has done.
A man who purchases an unliquidated claim, takes it with his eyes open, and knows that it is liable to litigation.
The legal rights of both parties exist with the claim and go with it, and it is not in the power of the assignee to debar the debtor from resorting to any mode allowed by law, to decide the differences between them, and he would do so effectually, if the judgments could not be set off. Does the assignee obtain new legal rights, impairing those which existed between the original parties ?
A & B have mutual accounts, the law prescribes the mode of adjustment. A’s is the larger one, he assigns it to C. C says to B unless you pay the balance, which- I claim, I shall 'commence an action against you in A’s name, and you must file your account in set-off. If you commence a cross action, which you have a right to do, still my judgment shall not be affected by the costs you may recover, and I will compel you to prove every item of your claim — and I will collect my bill of costs and the balance of the judgment out of your property, and you may look to A for your bill of costs.
The costs are the result of a right co-existing with the demands before the assignment.
The assignee takes subject to all, defences which might be made against assignor. Burnham v. Tucker, 18 Maine R. 179.
