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48 N.Y. 169

Smith v. . Van Olinda

New York Court of Appeals

Decided September 5, 1871

New York Court of Appeals · decided 1871-09-05

The action was to recover for the alleged wrongful conversion of a wagon by the defendants. The defendants denied the allegations of the complaint, and alleged the recovery of a judgment in the Supreme Court, in favor of Van Olinda against James H. Smith and George Smith, in 1862'; an execution issued thereon, and delivered to the defendant Davis, as a deputy sheriff, under which the wagon was levied on and sold as the property of James H. Smith.

Cited by 1 later decisions — most recently November 1894

1 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1871-09-05

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Leonard, C.

¶1 I am unable to perceive any error in this case. The case of Booth v. Bunce (24 N. Y., 592) is much *172 relied on by the defendants’ counsel. There the execution creditor, who had levied on and purchased the property in question, offered to prove that the corporation, from whose possession it was taken, was organized to defraud the creditors of the debtor in the execution. The Court of Appeals held that it was error to exclude such evidence.

¶2 The question in this case is not at all the same. Here the offer was to prove that the plaintiff allowed the execution debtor to use her name and credit to carry on business for his sole benefit. There is no fraud in such facts, nor can any be deduced from them. She might have allowed the use of her name and capital, giving the whole profits to her step-son, without any injury to his creditors. If he acquired any property thereby, it would belong to his creditors, but clearly not her property which the step-son or debtor was allowed to use. It is the same with property acquired on her credit. The property so acquired belongs to her.

¶3 If there is any evidence showing fraud or a fraudulent intent, the case must go to the jury; but I am entirely unable to discover any facts in this case that would support any such conclusion. It is not in question by any fact in the case that the wagon levied on was made with materials and labor procured on her credit. She was the owner of the wagon, and there was nothing in the evidence on which the jury could find her title to be fraudulent. The judgment should be affirmed with costs.

¶4 All concur.

¶5 Judgment affirmed.

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