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5 Colo. 162

George v. Tufts

Supreme Court of Colorado

Decided December 15, 1879

Supreme Court of Colorado · decided 1879-12-15

Tujfts, the defendant in error, brought an action in replevin against George, in September, 1875. The declaration was in the cepit and detinet. Pleas non aepit and property in defendant.

Relies on Murch v. Wright · Frank v. Miner · Porter v. Dement

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1879-12-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 11 later decisions — most recently September 1932

1 federal appellate · 1 district · 8 state decisions

501879188018901900191019201930decided

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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Elbert, O. J.

¶1Where a cause is heard on an agreed state of facts, no exception to the judgment is necessary. Clayton v. Smith, 1 Col. 95.

¶2The agreement of Tufts with Berbower and Walther, that the title to the property sold and delivered to .them should remain in Tufts until payment of the purchase-money, was void as to creditors. Tufts, if desirous of preserving a lien on the property sold, should have complied with the provisions of the Chattel Mortgage Act then in force. H. S. 102.

¶3Secret liens, which treat the vendor of personal property who has delivered possession of it to the purchaser as the owner until the payment of the purchase-money, -cannot be maintained. They are constructively fraudulent as to creditors, and the property, so far as their rights are concerned, is considered as belonging to the purchaser holding the possession. This is the doctrine of the Supreme Court of Illinois under a similar statute. Murch v. Wright, 46 Ill. 488; McCormick v. Hadden, 37 Ill. 360; Ketcher v. Watson, 24 Ill. 59; Henry et al. v. R. I. Locomotive Works, 3 Otto, 672. *166Nor does notice of the lien affect the right of creditors. Frank v. Miner, 50 Ill. 445; Porter v. Dement, 35 Ill. 479.

¶4The judgment of the court below on the agreed facts should have been for the plaintiff in error. The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded, with directions to enter judgment in accordance with the views herein expressed.

¶5Reversed.

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