4 Johns. Ch. 228 | New York Court of Chancery | 1820
The prayer of the bill is, that thp plaintiff be quieted in his title to two military lots, which the defendants caused to be sold under a dormant judgment, against Henry Plainer. The charge is, that the judgment was satisfied long before the §ale, and that it was kept on foot by fraud, and made subservient to a scheme of fraudulent speculation on the part of the defendants.
It is contended, on the part of the plaintiff, that there aré several periods in the history of the case, at each of which the acts that occurred amounted to a satisfaction and discharge of the judgment, and that every subsequent step which was taken, was an act of premeditated fraud.
1. It is said, that the judgment was satisfied by a settlement between Bachman and Plainer, the original parties, in August, 1798.
Henry Plainer was examined, being made a competent witness by a release from the plaintiff. He says, that there . 1 v had been various dealings between him and Bachman, who „ was a merchant* and a neighbour of his* between the date of the judgment and 1797, when they came to a partial settlement. ' That in August, 1798, they came to a final settlement, and there was a considerable balance due Plainer. That Bachman then gave him a receipt in full, as well of the judgment as of all other accounts and demands. That as Bachman was then bail for Plainer, and wished some indemnity, it was agreed that the balance, being above 400 dollars, found due to Plainer, should remain unsatisfied. Charles, Vincent, son-in-law of Plainer, another witness, who was present at the partial settlement in 1797, and kept several receipts in his possession belonging to Plainer, testifies, that in August, 1798, Plainer gave him the receipt in full above mentioned, and a few days thereafter he saw Bach-man and Plainer together, and the receipt in full of the
These two witnesses thus prove, that the judgment was satisfied, by the act and acknowledgment of the parties, in August, 1798. They concur as to the circumstances .attending the partial settlement the year before, and from them it would appear, that though the balance on the judg-. Blent was 252 pounds, yet that Bachman assumed or acknowledged several debts which would, when adjusted, leave a considerable balance in favour of Platner, and the adjustment of these debts in 1798, left the balance, already mentioned, in favour of Platner.
If this receipt in full had been produced, it would have silenced this controversy, in the first instance, but the non-production of it is accounted for in the following manner :
Platner admits that he gave his receipts, which were produced at the partial settlement, to Vincent to keep, but he thinks the receipt in full was retained in his own possession, and he does not account for the loss of it. But Vincent says, Platner gave it to him to keep; and this is the more probable account, as Vincent had been the depositary of the former receipts. He says, that Bachman repeatedly urged \ him to surrender up that and the other receipts to him, as he wanted to use the judgment as his indemnity for becoming bail for Platner. It is to be observed, that Platner was about this period overwhelmed with misery and ruin, being early in June, 1799, convicted of forgery, and sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison for life, where he continued, until pardoned in 1806. This will very easily account for the dispersion of his papers; and this calamity afforded facility and temptation to the plunder, of his estate. Vincent says, that Bachman became so importunate, that in June, 1799, (being the very time of the conviction of Platner,} he delivered the receipts to John Shafer, and requested him to take and preserve copies, which he did ; and in Septem
Platner and Vincent were both of them, at the period of 1799, men of bad credit. The former has, however, considerably regained the forfeited esteem of his acquaintance; and the intrinsic probability and apparent candour of their story, is corroborated by facts derived from other and unquestionable sources.
Shafer confirms the fact of having the original receipts delivered to him by Vincent, and one of them purported to be a receipt in full from Bachman to Platner, as well of the judgment as of all demands. He says, Vincent wished him to keep the originals, but owing to the conviction of Platner,. he was afraid of difficulty, and refused, and only consented to keep copies, which he -took, and then returned the originals to Vincent. He says, he had seen the handwriting of Bachman, and he believed the receipts to be genuine. The copies he took were called out of his hands by Vincent in' September, 1799, about three months after they had been taken; and Vincent says, this' was done at the solicitation of Bachman, who required the possession of them. The character of Shafer is not impeached. Abraham Vincent, a brother of Charles Vincent, and who lived with him in the spring of 1799, says, he saw in his possession a receipt, purporting to be given by Bachman to Platner, in full of the judgment, and of all demands. That he was well acquainted with the handwriting of Bachman, and knew the signature to be his. He read it, and recollected the contents of it distinctly.
When the copies of the receipts were returned to Vincent, Shafer took a receipt in these words : “ Received of Major John Shafer, a copy of sundry receipts of Abraham Bach-man to Henry Platner, Sept. 10, 1799.” This receipt is proved as an exhibit in the cause, and it gives peculiar force to the other testimony.
This fact is in corroboration of the testimony of Platner and Vincent, that the partial settlement in 1797, showed that Platner could not eventually be the debtor.
It is proved by Henry Avery, that he found among the papers of Bachman, after his death, several receipts given by him to Platner, and which are exhibits in the cause. How came Bachman by these receipts, unless, upon a final settlement, the parties considered their dealings and demands as closed, or unless Bachman repossessed himself of all the vouchers he had given, in the manner stated by Vincent ? Platner was, at that time, deemed dead in law, and forever separated from all the business or pecuniary concerns of this life.
Jacob F. Miller was present at the partial settlement in 1797, and he is said to have witnessed the receipt in full in 1798. He was one of the executors of Bachman, who revived the judgment, and gave it credit, as being valid and subsisting. He died in 1804, and we are deprived of any "explanation which he might have given to the mystery of
There is another exhibit in the cause, which is an item of some influence on this point. Bachman, on the 17th of August, 1798, gave a receipt to Platner, of a bond from Joseph Denio to Platner, on which was a considerable balance, which he promised, when collected, to pay in goods to two of the daughters of Platner ; and Platner says, that on the final settlement, he deposited such a bond with Bach-man for the benefit of two of his daughters.
Here, then, is the evidence in favour of a satisfaction of the judgment in August, 1798. We have four witnesses' who all testify to the existence of a receipt in full of the judgment given by Bachman, and one of them satisfactorily accounts for its loss. In corroboration of the testimony of these witnesses, we have another fact, which shows, that Bachman • could not, as early as October, 1797, have regarded the judgment as a valid, subsisting debt. We find, also, that he was in possession, and died in possession, of other receipts, which he had before given to Platner, and at the time of the final settlement, in August, 1798, he takes a bond due to Platner, to collect, as agent of Platner, and-to appropriate the proceeds according to his direction. This mass of positive and circumstantial testimony satisfies me, that the judgment was settled and discharged in August, 1798; and if there was any understanding or arrangement between Bachman and Platner, that the judgment should remain as a security or means of indemnity to Bachman, for becoming bail to Platner, such an arrangement was, in judg
If the judgment was satisfied in 1798, it must have been fraudulently revived by Miller, the responsible and acting executor of Bachman; and whatever validity may be attached to bona fide purchases by third persons, under executions issued upon the revival of the judgment, yet the owners of the judgment ought not to be permitted to derive any benefit from such sales, and every assignee of the judgment took it, and made purchases under it, at his peril.
2. If, however, there was a balance due upon the judgment, at the time of the conviction of Plainer, the judgment was not revived in 1800, either with the formalities required by law, or with the notice that justice and equity required.
Plainer was convicted of a felony in June, 1799, and sentenced to imprisonment in the state prison, at hard labour, for life. The act of the 29th of March, 1799, declared, that all such convicts for any felony thereafter to be committed, should be deemed to be civilly dead, to all intents
3. But, admitting the judgment was not satisfied before the death of Bachman, and was duly revived, it is next contended, that it was satisfied by the sales made in Ontario, under an execution issued at the instance of the execu- . tors oí Bachman, and in Delaware, under an execution issued at the instance of J. R. Van Rensselaer, the assignee of the judgment.
According to a statement of the book account, and the balance due on the judgment, made out to the 17th of April, 1798, and which was taken from the papers of the estate of Bachman, the balance due to Bachman, at that time, on the judgment and book account, and other demands taken together, amounted to 2521. 3s. 10d. This was the statement and balance shown to Jacob R, Van Rensselaer, the first assignee of the judgment by Miller, the executor, as coming from the estate of Bachman; and E. Gilbert, the attorney of Bachman’s executors, in respect to the revival of the judgment, states, in a letter to Van Rensselaer, (and which is an exhibit in the cause,) that Miller, the executor of Bachman, presented to him
Van Rensselaer purchased the judgment of Miller, one of the executors of Bachman on the 4th of December, J802, for 206/, 3s. lid. and he states that Miller claimed that sum, as being the balance due on the judgment, on the 14th of November, 1801. Upon what data such an estimate could have been made, does not appear; and we know that it could not have been correct, for the balance admitted by Miller to be due in April, 1798, with interest, and after deducting the Ontario sales, fell far short of that sum. Van Rensselaer, who had now become proprietor of the judgment, had already issued his execution to the sheriff of Delaware, by whom it was received on the 13th of Novejnber, 1802, and he added to the 206/. 3s. lid. his own private demands against Plainer, and thereby made the sum for which execution issued to be 275/. 15s. lOd. This addition to the execution was utterly unwarrantable; and to show in how loose and careless a manner the property of Plainer was pursued, it is worthy of notice, that the test. fi. fa. issued in 1800, to the sheriff of Ontario, (as appears from the exhibit of the writ and its indorsements,) contained a direction, not only in the body of it, but by indorsement in the name of the attorney, to collect 772l. 8s. 8d. (the penalty of the bond,) besides costs and sheriff’s fees. We have no evidence that the judgment had ever been even revived hen this execution, issued in the name of E. Gilbert, as attorney.
The defendant S. says that he attended the Delaware sales, as agent for Van Rensselaer, the assignee of the judgment, and that the sales were at the court house on the 16th of April, 1803. That when the sheriff was commencing the sales, he entered, on behalf of Van Rensselaer, into an agreement with certain persons, who were settled upon lots advertised and set up for sale, by which, instead of paying up the execution, they might become purchasers of it, and take an assignment of the judgment, and, under it, pursue other property of Plainer, that might afterwards be discovered. That the claimant of one tract of land was not included in this agreement, and he accordingly bid off that land for a sum which was, by a previous agreement between him and the settlers, deemed to be his proportion of the burden of the execution. The other persons bid only nominal sums, and took the direction of the sale, and received a title from the sheriff under the judgment. The real sum bid by one of those persons, and the nominal sums bid by the others, produced the sum already mentioned of 402 dollars SI cents; this sum was produced upon a sale of lands proved to have been worth, at that time, upwards of 16,000 dollars, and, at the time the testimony was taken, upwards of 43,000 dollars. This arrangement left a balance remaining due upon the execution, according to the sum for which it was issued, of -292 dollars 70 cents, and that sum was to be considered as the price which the settlers were to pay for the purchase and assignment of the judgment. This agreement was ratified and carried into effect by Van Rensselaer ; and in June following, the judgment was assigned to Levi Baxter, one of the parties to the agreement, for and on behalf of himself and the associates.
There is no essential difference between the answer of the defendant, and the testimony of the witness, in respect to the arrangement of the sale, except that the latter describes the intention of it, and the baneful effects of it, in more clear and explicit terms. The defendant says, he acted throughout the sale, as the agent of Van Rensselaer, and had then no interest in the judgment or sale; and it was not until the settlers had received an assignment of the judgment, that he entered into an arrangement with them to share the risk and profits of a speculating excursion with an execution into the western countries. He says, the settlers first applied to him to be their agent, to collect the balance, for a reasonable reward ; and that having ascertained that Platner owned military titles, it was finally agreed that he should come in as a copartner in the concern, and share in the risk of acquiring some good titles to military lots. It was then that the defendant S. applied to the defendant W., who resided in Cayuga county, and made a proposition to him, that if he would engage in the risk, and attend to the sales, purchases made under the same should enure to his benefit in equal proportion with the others ; and to this proposition, the defendant W. says, he assented.
According to the testimony of Root, the defendant S', must have had an eye to the speculation, at the time of the sale,
The question now occurs, is the owner of an execution to * be permitted to enter into an agreement by which a fair sale . . . . ° . under the usual competition is to be suppressed, and property; , . . . - , .. , to more than thirty times the amount oi the execution, sold r . . * . . . . , , i i tor a nominal sum, m order to leave a, balance to teed the execution, and enable it to sweep away property to an umnea- , , , . . . n i ' • suraole extent, m other counties r ouch an agreement is against the policy of the law, dangerous to the rights of property, and fraudulent in its design. The creditor who suffers an execution, which the law lent him for his security, to be perverted to such a purpose, ought to be deprived of any further use of it. It is satisfied and cancelled by the f°rce °f such an act. This must be the necessary conclus’on ^aw* It would be a violation of all principle, and a reproach to the administration of justice, ,to consider a sma^ balance preserved under such circumstances, and for suc^ usest as a subsisting debt. As was truly observed, in the case of Jones v. Caswell, (3 Johns. Cas. 29.) “ the law v - ' has regulated sales on execution with a jealous care, add provided a course of proceeding likely to promote a fair competition. A combination to prevent such competition, is contrary to morality and sound policy. It operates as a fraud upon the debtor, and his remaining creditors, by depriving the former of the opportunity of obtaining a full equivalent for the property which is devoted to the payment of bis debts, and opens a door for oppressive speculation.” By the interference and act of the owner of the execution, and by a combination between him and third persons, the property of Platner chargeable with the execution, is sold for nominal prices, and for the very purpose of pursuing and
The execution was, accordingly, satisfied and discharged, by the sales in Delaware.
4. But assuming that there did remain a balance, after -these Delaware sales, from sixty to eighty dollars, legally due on the judgment, we are then to examine the conduct of the defendants at the Cayuga sales. They had now become the principal owners of the residuum of the debt, small indeed in amount, but mighty in mischief; and the Cayuga sales were under their special and immediate direction.
The defendant S. says, that an execution to the sheriff of Cayuga was sent by him to the defendant W., in December, 1803, and the property oí Plainer advertised for sale on the
At that sale, according to the answer of S., some few persons (of whom he mentions four) attended, but the persons present seemed to suppose Platn'ePs title spurious, and were unwilling to bid. He says, that nothing was said, at the time of the sale, touching the judgment, or the amount due upon it; and twenty-five military lots, lying in' twelve different towns, were separately sold, for the aggregate sum of ten dollars and one cent! On the day following, the deputy sheriff who attended, executed a deed to the defendant W., who purchased for the benefit of the defendants, and the four settlers in Delaware who were interested in the assignment of the judgment. After this sale, the defendant S. purchased in their respective interests in the execution, and the defendants and Levi Baxter remained the sole proprietors of the lands purchased. These twenty-five lots were worth in cash, at the time of the sale, under a good title, (and we have- no evidence that Plainer'1 s title was not good,) 28,950-dollars, and on credit, 57,900 dollars; and in 1818, on credit, 173,700 dollars. The defendant W., in his answer, gives the same account of the sale, and says that he had, previous to the sale, searched the clerk’s office, and believed that many of the Plainer lots “ might become an object worthy of attention.” He says further, that after making the said purchases, he had been enabled, “ agreeably to his original expectation, to have several of the lots settled, and the titles adjusted and quieted.”
These facts are conclusive upon the case of the Cayuga sales, and show that they were a mere mockery of justice, and perverted to the total sacrifice of the rights of Plainer. Comment upon them becomes useless. We cannot hesitate, for a moment, in pronouncing the whole proceeding an act of fraud. Here, also, if not before, the execution is to be deemed satisfied and discharged by the act of the party.
5. The defendants, however, giving credit on the execution for the sum of 11 dollars 28 cents, according to the sheriff’s return, proceed next to the county of Onondaga-
- This is all the information touching these last sales, and the facts admitted speak for themselves.
6. The next epocha in the history of this case, is the sale in Seneca county, on the 25th of May, 1807. The defeudant S', says, his two associates attended, and a number of lots were sold for the benefit of the concern. The defendant W. says, that 11 lots were sold for the benefit of the concern. The defendant W. says, that 11 lots, lying in five towns, were sold under the same judgment, and upon an .execution issued for the remaining balance, and bid off by him and Baxter, for 28 dollars. According to an estimate, made by a witness, Humphrey Howland, those 11 lots were worth, in cash, at the time of .the sale, 14,750 dollars, and én-a credit, 29,500; and on a sale on credit, at the time he gave,his testimony, 78,500 dollars.
It may here be observed, that the plaintiff shows a title to those two lots, derived from a purchase from Plainer, in May, 1792.
The conclusion, from this review of the case, is, that the sale of the plaintiff’s lots, in 1807, was fraudulent and void. There are several acts in the progress of the proceedings under the judgment, between 1798 and ISQ7, from each of which the like conclusion might be drawn.
The counsel for the defendants were so pressed upon the argument, with the weight of the proof, that they offered, in behalf of the defendant S., to release all claim and title to the lots of the plaintiff, under the sale in 1807, but objected to a surrender of the possession, or to make a more general release. But the defendants do not set up, or produce, any title, or semblance of title, other than that derived under the judgment, and as the plaintiff received a deed of the lots from Plainer, in 1792, for a valuable consideration, the
I might, perhaps, have rested the cause upon some one of the selected points, without examining the others', yet I have deemed it fit and proper, for the sake of example, to review ’every part of the history of the case which has been laid before me. It is not, however, without pain and regret, • that I have felt myself under the necessity of using strong language of reproof and censure upon so many of the circumstances that occurred. Such a case can never be permitted to pass without animadversion, and I hope that this-, and many other instances of like abuses, which I have to deal with, may, by the correction they receive, teach a lesson of wisdom and accuracy, moderation and justice, on future occasions. - 1
The following decree was entered: “ It appearing to the Court, that the judgment in favour of Abraham Bachman against Henry Plainer, mentioned in the pleadings and proofs in this cause, was satisfied by a settlement made by and between th.e parties to it, in the year 1798;
Vide Matter of Deming, 10 Johns. Rep. 232 and Loflin v. Fowler, 18 Johns. Rep. 335.
The^"ud|mcnt P. was satisfied by the settiement between the parties ¡n Avgust, ,
The penalty ofabondcannot be made to cover any other debt or demand than that mentioned tion.
Nor can a theS™OT¡¿naí ^liy paia/be cover°new°and garments be^®en 1116 par‘
seems that victeToTfebny ?nd sentenced ™®nts^r(pf=[*.n aon’is ‘Muter ■ martaus. And, tlierefore, writs of . scire /«etas issued to such convict in prison, and not to his legal representatives, or terre-tenants, to revive a judgment, and two nifdls returned thereon, can have no legal eflect or operation.
agreement by . the owner of an execution%with . certain persons, to prevent the usual competition at a sheriff’s sale, leave a small balance on the execution, for seizing P other Sebtor,t3isf£he and theTxecutionis deemed, in law, to be satisfied, there having in law, to be been th“dexecution“ —1 far greater sum than the debt, consequence of lent fa»Uiee ment, sold for mere nominal prices.
sheriff seizes suEcient^ pro-debtor °under the debtor is from the >dgplaintiff" must Itff^orhis mt" ney‘ Where the
ga]es by the fjg,',^ “under fraulakntand V0ld"
Saies by the tfegef0*under fraudukntand V0ld"
Bales by the m^undei^tim frauduientand V0ld‘