51 Kan. 692 | Kan. | 1893
The opinion of the court was delivered by
Upon the trial, the plaintiff took several exceptions. The more important concerned the instructions given to the jury. It appears from the testimony that Joseph
The claim of the plaintiff is, that the chattel mortgage was executed and delivered in good faith, to secure an actual existing indebtedness of $2,000, upon a stock of goods worth about $1,200. Defendant, representing attaching creditors, insists that the chattel mortgage was given and accepted with the fraudulent purpose of hindering, defrauding and delaying the creditors of Moritz Lorie — not to secure $2,000 or any other debt. On the part of the defendant, it is urged that the exception to the instruction of the court was not suf
After the court had concluded its instructions, the plaintiff excepted in the following language: “Whereupon the said plaintiff duly excepts to said charge and to each and every part thereof.” While a general objection to the instructions of the court, without specifying wherein they are objectionable, is unavailing, yet this court has ruled that, “where the record of the exception reads as follows, to wit, ‘ To the giving of which instructions, and to each and every portion thereof, said defendant, by its counsel, then and there duly excepted/ the exception goes to each and every part of the charge separately.” (Railway Co. v. Nichols, 9 Kas. 235; Railroad Co. v. Retford, 18 id. 245.)
Again, a debtor in failing circumstances may execute a chattel mortgage to one of his creditors by way of preference, and deliver the same to him or his agent; and, if the chattel mortgage is accepted to secure an actual existing indebtedness, such mortgage, if properly recorded, or if possession is. taken thereunder before any levy on an attachment or execution, is valid. (Tootle v. Coldwell, 30 Kas. 125, and cases cited.) The giving of such a chattel mortgage, in accordance with the provisions of the statute, places the property of the debtor beyond the reach of his creditors, and, in the nature of things, hinders and delays them from the collection of their claims, because it appropriates the property embraced in the mortgage to satisfy the debt of the preferred creditor; but if the mortgage is given for a bona fide indebtedness and properly recorded, although it does hinder or delay other creditors, it is not thereby fraudulent or void.
The jury in this case retired on the 25th of November, 1889, and did not return their verdict until the afternoon of November 27. Evidently the instructions, (some of which
The judgment of the district court will be reversed, and the cause remanded.