47 Minn. 67 | Minn. | 1891
This action by the -assignee (under our insolvent law) of an insolvent debtor is for the purpose of avoiding a transfer of personal property executed in writing by the insolvent to the .defendant, a creditor, as security for the debt. The conditions under which this was made were such that, by force of the .insolvent law, it was avoided by the insolvency proceedings, as an unlawful preference, unless that result is affected by the fact that the defendant, thus preferred, was a non-resident of the state. The contract was made in. this state, and the property in question was and still remains here. The defendant (appellant) disclaims making any attack upon the validity of the law, or of the assignment; but relies upon the proposition that, by reason merely of its non-residence, the insolvent law had no effect to avoid its contract.
This position of the defendant cannot be sustained. The contract in question, made in this state concerning property here, and to be executed here, was subject to the law under which it was made. Its
The appellant relies, in support of its contention, upon Ogden v. Saunders, 12 Wheat. 213, and other decisions of the' same court, and upon what is said in Wendell v. Lebon, 30 Minn. 234, (15 N. W. Rep. 109.) But a later decision of the 'supreme court of the United States removes whatever seeming support the language of prior decisions may have afforded for such a proposition as that here contended for. Denny v. Bennett, 128 U. S. 489, (9 Sup. Ct. Rep. 134.) That was an action for conversion, prosecuted by the assignee of an insolvent debtor against the United States marshal, who, after the assignment under our insolvent law, and after the assignee had acquired actual or constructive possession of certain personal property embraced in'the assignment, seized the same by virtue of an attachment issued out of the circuit court of the United States, in an action against the insolvent by non-residents of this state. The plaintiff recovered judgment in this court, — Bennett v. Denny, 33 Minn. 530, (24 N. W. Rep. 193,) — which was affirmed in the supreme court of the United States. That court stated the principal question to be decided as being whether our insolvent law was repugnant to the constitution of the United States, so far as it affects citizens of other states. The argument of the plaintiff in error was to the point (aside from that based on the doctrine' of the inviolability of contracts) that such a statute can have no extraterritorial operation, and
Judgment affirmed.