90 Mo. 208 | Mo. | 1886
This is a suit by Samuel J. Wilson, ■assignee of a partnership, consisting of James B. Me-.
The plaintiff’s action is one at law and was brought to recover from the firm of Benedict, Melone & Company, the amount of certain bills of exchange and. acceptances. Some of the creditors of the defendant firm werevallowed to defend against the claim, and in their answer, after denying the liability of said firm, set up that their claim having accrued prior to the appointment of Stewart as receiver of the firm of Benedict, Melone & Company, that plaintiff was not entitled to share in the money and property in the-hands of said receiver, but that the same should be distributed to the bona fide partnership creditors. The-answer of the receiver, besides being a general denial,' set up that the bills of exchange sued on were wholly without consideration, and that this was known to plaintiff ’ s assignor and that they had paid nothing for them.
On the trial, judgment was rendered for plaintiff' for the amount of the bill sued on, in which judgment it is provided that Stewart, the receiver of the firm of Benedict, Melone & Company, should not pay out of the assets of said firm any part of the judgment till after all the allowed claims of all the other creditors of said firm had been paid, and that, after the payment of them, whatever, if anything, remained, should be applied in payment of the judgment. From this judgment, plaintiff prosecutes a writ of error and claims it to be erroneous because the payment of his judgment by Stewart, the receiver, was postponed till after the claim's of all other creditors allowed by him had been fully satisfied.
For this reason the judgment will be reversed and the cause remanded, when the pleadings can be so .amended as to call into exercise the equitable powers of the court and the rights of the parties settled on equitable principles.