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12 Mich. 180

Smith v. Mitchell

Michigan Supreme Court

Decided December 5, 1863

Michigan Supreme Court · decided 1863-12-05

Mitchell brought suit in trover, to recover the value of certain furniture, which he claimed under a general assignment made to him by Increase A. &. William H. Pendleton, composing the firm of I. A. Pendleton & Son, for the benefit of their creditors, and which defendant Was alleged to have converted to his own use on 24th 'August, 185*1, the date of the assignment. Defendant justified taking the property as constable, by virtue of executions issued against the Pendletons.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““The assignment is not void on its face, for excepting property exempt from execution without specifying it. A bona fide selection is as practicable here as under a levy.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including Wilson v. Perrin

““Evidence of what the property brought at auction is admissible, as having some tendency to prove value.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including Barbrick v. White Sewing Machine Co.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1863-12-05

How this case has been cited

Cited by 19 later decisions — most recently December 1938

2 federal appellate · 15 state decisions

7018631870188018901900191019201930decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

By the Court:

¶1The assignment is not void on its face for excepting property. exempt from execution, without specifying it. A. bona fide selection is as practicable here as under a levy.

¶2*191Evidence that goods were at the railroad depot, directed to the insolvent firm, which they claimed and disposed of after the assignment, was improperly excluded, as it had a bearing on the good faith of the assignment as a general assignment.

¶3The sale of said property by the firm, and evidence showing the assignee’s knowledge and consent, should not have been excluded, as it bore upon the question of fraud.

¶4Evidence of what the property brought at auction is admissible, as having some tendency to prove value.

¶5Evidence that the property levied on was held and sold under a former levy, was admissible to show that the constable had not damnified the claimant, and had not converted the goods.

¶6Evidence that goods levied on were sold for charges which were a prior lien, would discharge the constable from any liability on account of those goods, on two grounds: first, that they were incumbered to their value; second, that he never took or converted them; the lien being adverse, and he never completing his levy by possession.

¶7The Court erred in not charging that the assignment was void if it did not fairly bona fide assign all of the assignors’ property liable for the payment of their debts.

¶8Judgment reversed, and new trial ordered.

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