101 Ala. 577 | Ala. | 1893
On the 4th day of December, 1886, the appellee, Habbeler, entered into a written contract with Alfred H. Moses by which lie agreed to sell to Moses the lands described in the bill, situate in Colbert county,
Sometime in 1891, Moses, becoming insolvent, executed to certain assignees a general assignment of his property and effects, including his rights under said contract of purchase, for the benefit of his creditors. The assignees afterwards resigned the trust, and the appellants, Janney and Cheney, were regularly appointed in their stead by the chancery court of Montgomery county. They accepted the appointment and assumed the trust, and, with Moses, are made defendants to this bill. In bar of the exercise of the jurisdiction of the district court, Janney and Cheney interposed a plea setting up said assignment, and averring that- immediately thereafter the assignees took possession and assumed control of all the said property assigned for the purposes of the trust, and on the 11th day of July, 1891, filed their bill in the chancery court of Montgomery county, setting forth, among other things, that many of the creditors of Moses had attached a large portion of the property assigned, claiming the invalidity of the assignment, and that said at
The case is different from that of a receiver, who is an indifferent person, without title, appointed by the court to take possession of particular property pending the determination of its ownership or disposition by the court. Such a person is the mere officer or agent of the court, and the property in his custody is essentially in the possession and under the dominion of the court, and no
We are of opinion the ruling of the district court was right, and its decree is affirmed.