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11 Abb. Pr. 110

Platt v. Platt

New York Supreme Court

Decided December 15, 1870

New York Supreme Court · decided 1870-12-15

William H. Platt and others, executors of Nathan C. Platt, deceased, brought an action in the supreme court against George W. Platt, for the purpose of setting aside releases and conveyances made by Nathan 0. Platt to the defendant.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1870-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently December 1900

3 state decisions

101870188018901900decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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By the Court.*—Cardozo, J.

¶1The learned judge below treated the case as if it were one of mere dissolution of partnership, and applied the rule which would obtain in such cases* that whichever partner holds possession of the books, does so for the benefit of both parties, and cannot exclude the other from using them. I think he overlooked the fact that the testator had put an end to his right to the use of the books, and that the possession of the defendant was exclusively for his own benefit. Eathan C. Platt had parted with his interest in the partnership and conveyed it to the defendant. While that sale stands, the plaintiffs have no rights in the property. While that sale stands, the books belong to no one but the defendant,—and while they belong exclusively to him, no one else has the right to a general inspection of them. To grant such general inspection now, is to give to the plaintiffs, before trial, what they can only claim after, by prevailing in the suit, the sale shall have been declared void, and the partnership re-established, and the property *113declared to belong to them and the defendants jointly.

¶2I think the order below was wrong, and should be reversed.

¶3Order reversed

¶4 Present, Cardozo and G. G. Barnard, JJ.

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