182 Pa. 1 | Pa. | 1897
Opinion by
The plaintiffs are assignees of Robert H. Coleman, who on
The court below was of opinion that the deed of assignment passed title to the assignee to all the personal property of the assignor, without reference to its location, because it is well settled that such property passes by the law of the domicil of the owner. It is well to note here, that although defendant had seized personal property on its attachment in Florida, afterwards, it formally released it, so that question is not a subject of contention.
But, as to the attachments levied on land in those two states.
We are of opinion that under the admitted facts the rule of comity which prompted the decree was carried too far, and further than the authorities warrant. For our present purpose it may be admitted that the deed of assignment was not executed and recorded in Florida and Georgia with the formalities required by the statutes of those states to make it effective there; but that is not the question here; the assignor is a citizen of this state, and the creditor is a Pennsylvania corporation. The creditor goes out of this state to a foreign jurisdiction to seek an advantage over other creditors by invalidating an assignment of property, not because it is not good here, but because it is not good there. If it succeed it withdraws that much property from the grasp of the trustee for all the creditors. Further, the same creditor has presented and proved its claim, under the assignment here, embracing the very property it seeks to appropriate in the foreign jurisdiction; has been heard on every question it chose to raise in the court of the domicil. If it had not sought the jurisdiction of our courts to enforce its demand, and had not made itself a party creditor to the assignment, it is doubtful, on the authorities, whether comity would have suggested a relinquishment by our courts of jurisdiction; for the subject-matter of the litigation, the assignment, and the persons of the litigants, are within our jurisdiction. We do not however decide this point, because it is not necessary to a decision of the cause. But clearly, whether a Pennsylvania creditor, under a Pennsylvania assignment, has, by positive, unequivocal acts here, estopped itself from denying the validity of the assignment, is not a question which comity demands should be re
We think it clear that if defendant were attempting to question the validity of the assignment under the laws of this state, it would be held to have estopped itself from denying it, by its unequivocal acts affirming it. Why, if the same acts estopped the creditor here, should he not be estopped from denying it elsewhere ? If equity would close his mouth here, his mere removal to another jurisdiction does not open it to effect the same result; it is just as unconscionable to assert in Georgia the invalidity of the assignment as to assert it in Pennsylvania.'
But, it is argued by appellee, if the assignment in Pennsylvania cannot pass lands in other states, where the conveyance does not conform to the laws of the situs, then, by the assignment, the property is not subject to the claims of the general creditors, and the defendant, in levying his attachment upon it, impairs no right of any creditor under the assignment; and further, to restrain the attaching creditor is to, in effect, decide a question of foreign law, which the weight of authority holds should be decided by the foreign courts.
The decree of the court below is reversed, and it is directed that an injunction issue against defendant, restraining it from further prosecuting its said attachments and suits in the courts at Savannah, Georgia, and in the courts at Jacksonville, Florida, and from doing any act or thing to hinder, delay or interfere with the said assignees in the control and management of the estate and effects hereinbefore described, or from in any way seeking to procure or secure to itself any greater benefit or interest out of said estate and effects than shall represent its pro rata share of the distribution of the estate and effects of Eobert H. Coleman under the said assignment to and among the creditors entitled thereto.
It is further ordered that appellee pay the costs.