74 Mo. App. 627 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1898
— Plaintiffs are the execution creditors of the Ryan Commission Company in the sum of $713.26, and as such on the twenty-seventh of March, 1897, caused a levy upon certain personal property in and about a feed store in this city as the property of the defendants in the writ. Margaret E. Kehoe claimed to be the absolute owner of the property seized. Plaintiffs indemnified the sheriff and caused additional levy upon other property in and about said premises, to which Margaret E. Kehoe also set up a claim as absolute
On her behalf claimant testified that she knew nothing of the affairs of the Ryan Commission Company when the bill of sale was made to her; that she bought the property embraced therein in order to "make her living,” and intended to pay the note given for the purchase, price when it matured. She also claimed to be the owner of one hundred feet of ground in this city, but did not remember accurately what she paid for it, and although it had been in her name for several years, she had never paid any taxes thereon, for the reason that no bill had been presented to her. The court discarded the instructions requested by the parties and instructed the jury of its own motion, who thereafter returned a verdict that the property levied upon, at the time thereof, belonged to the Ryan Commission Company. A judgment in accordance was set aside on the ground that the verdict was against the weight of the evidence, from which ruling this appeal is taken by plaintiffs.
Trial courts have a large discretion in granting new trials for such reasons, the only limitation being that their discretion must not be abused. Parker v. Cassingham, 130 Mo. loc. cit. 350. It has been held that abuse of discretion in this respect should not be attributed to the trial court, if the whole evidence presents a substantial conflict. Bank v. Wood, 124 Mo. 72. In the case at bar while the testimony for plaintiffs afforded cogent evidence that the bill of sale to the claimant was a fraudulent contrivance for the use of the Ryan Commission Company (Hoffman v. Nolte, 127 Mo. 120), we are not willing to say that the