72 Wash. 514 | Wash. | 1913
This proceeding was brought by E. P. Jami-son & Company, a corporation, against the receiver in the case of McGill v. Brown et al., to require the receiver in that case to pay over to E. P. Jamison & Company the proceeds of a warrant, amounting to the sum of $425.08, wrongfully collected by the receiver. The trial court, after hearing the evidence, made the order as prayed for. The receiver has appealed.
Appellant argues that the respondent had no lien or claim upon the posts, and no right to demand that the receiver furnish the posts to the city; that the receiver, having furnished the posts, was entitled to collect the pay therefor, and that, if respondent had any claim to the proceeds, it was its duty to intervene in the action and set up its claim. There is no merit in any of these positions. It seems too plain for argument that the city warrant, or the proceeds of the contract, never became an asset of the West Coast Iron Works, because it never came into possession of the West Coast Iron Works. Their right to the warrant had been assigned and the assignment had been accepted by the city before the posts were delivered or manufactured, and long before the receiver was appointed. The respondent never claimed any lien upon the posts themselves. It rested upon its claim to the warrant, which had been assigned to it. If the receiver had not been appointed to take over the assets of the West Coast Iron Works, that company could not have reasonably claimed the warrant from the city, after the posts were delivered, because of this previous assignment. The receiver took no greater interest in the estate than the West Coast Iron Works had at the time of the appointment of the receiver. High, Receivers (4th ed.), § 440; 34 Cyc. 191, 193. This warrant had been assigned to the respondent by a valid and binding assignment, long prior to the appointment of the receiver. When the receiver demanded the warrant from the city, he had no right thereto, nor to the funds which he derived therefrom. It is true, a few of the posts were delivered to the city after the receiver was appointed and some work done upon the posts, but this was done in accord with the contract, and did not alter the right of the respondent to the warrant the right to which had previously passed, and the receiver had notice of that fact. The receiver obtained the warrant by artifice — not necessary to discuss — and wrongfully; under
The judgment is therefore affirmed.
Crow, C. J., Chadwick, Gose, and Parker, JJ., concur.