56 Neb. 590 | Neb. | 1898
The firm of Edholm & Aiken was, during a portion of the month of January, 1890, and some years prior thereto, conducting a retail jewelry business in Omaha, and on the 18th of said month the bank, plaintiff in error herein, commenced an action against the firm to recover the amount of an indebtedness of the firm to the bank, and procured therein the issuance of a writ of attachment, which was levied on the stock of jewelry of the firm, inclusive of certain chains, etc., ownership of which was subsequently asserted by the defendant in error herein. At the time of the levy of the writ these particular articles were attached to or contained in what are
One of the issues of the litigation was whether the chains, etc., had been sold to Edholm & Aiken or sent to them on selection; and another was, did the bank actively direct the levy of the writ of attachment, and on these particular goods, or, if not, did it ratify the act of the officer in making the levy?
One of the alleged errors which is presented for plaintiff in error is in regard to the admission of testimony. In the appraisal of the goods levied upon a list of the articles was made which covered several pages of the paper used. Some of the pages were numbered and others were lettered, and the ascertainment of the reason for changing from numbers to letters for some of the pages of the inventory was made the subject-matter of interrogatories to a witness for defendant in error. This drew out in the answers, or the answer to the question to which the witness was finally allowed to voice a response, that it was done to separate in the list the goods which were supposed to belong to Edholm & Aiken from those that were supposed to be memorandum goods. We have given almost, if not quite, the exact language of the witness,—exact in the portions material to our inquiry.
It is also urged that there was an error committed in the admission of the testimony of a witness to the effect that the goods, the damages for the wrongful appropriation of which were sought in this action, were not sold to Edholm & Aiken, but forwarded to the firm as samples or on selection, when it appeared that it was doubtful whether the witness had a personal knowledge in relation to the matter, or other than that derived from hearsay. The allowance of this testimony to be given was, we think, probably an error, but if iso, it worked no prejudice to the rights of the complaining party.
At the time of the issuance and levy of the writ of attachment in the suit by the bank against the firm of Edholm & Aiken, or on January 18, 1890, it appeared
At the time the bond was given th-e defendant in error was not claiming any of the property which had been attached. He was not in the contemplation of tlhe parties. The bond was made for .the purpose of indemnifying the officer against the claim of Thompson, and cannot be said to have been a ratification of the levy with any other conditions than were then elemental of it and known, or with any other claims than were then existent against it and known. It was established by the evidence that the bank did not give directions in regard to the levy, did not designate any goods upon which it should be made, but that it was delivered to the officer to be
It is clear that the bond in question here was not given writh a view to any claim of defendant in error to the goods upon which the writ was to be levied; hence it cannot be -said that the giving of the bond was in effect a direction of a levy on his goods. It was not executed as a part of a specific direction to do something of which the bank -had no knowledge. It was asked to be given-because of the claim as it stated of D. E. Thompson, and executed in response to -such request. It seems clear that the indemnity bond furnished no evidence to establish a direction by the bank of the levy of the attachment writ on the property of defendant in error, -or of a ratification by it of such a levy; hence it was error to admit it, and one well calculated to be harmful to the rights of the plaintiff in error.
It is further argued in this same connection that this, if an error, was ivithout prejudice, for the reason that there was undisputed testimony of a demand for defendant in error on the bank to release the levy on these
There is a criticism in the- argument of some of the instructions given, the basis of it being that in each the trial court essayed to embrace all elements necessary to a verdict favorable to a designated party and omitted a material one. If taken literally, and out of the eonnedion in which given, each of the said instructions may be said to be open to the objection urged against it; but, in view of the circumstances and facts developed in evidence, and when read as they were in connection with the other instructions, it hardly seems possible that any one would or could misunderstand them or fail to catch their true import, and we doubt whether the technical errors committed—the subject of the complaint—could alone be enough to work a reversal of the judgment. We
Reversed and remanded.