Case ID: goebel_1/html/0186-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Goebel, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

In the Matter of the Assignment of Elias Ehler.
    
      Chattel mortgage — Booh accounts included in — Lien on.
    
    Book accounts are not the subject of a chattel mortgage, but when specially included therein, it operates as a lien on such accounts or the proceeds thereof.
    
      Decided March 18, 1889.
    C. Crane & Co., represented to the court that they were the holders of a note executed by Elias Ehler for $12,769, secured by a chattel mortgage conveying to them among other property “ all the accounts due Elias Ehler on book account.’’ The assignee has disposed of all the property which came into his hands, except the accounts due to Elias Ehler, and has distributed the proceeds and has collected a large amount of said accounts. The claim of Crane & Co., has not been paid in full, and they claim to have a lien upon said accounts or the proceeds thereof, and ask that the assignee be ordered to pay over to them the amount which he has collected on the accounts. The assignee denies that Crane & Co., has a lien upon the accounts.
    Follett, Hyman & Kelly, for plaintiff.
    
      Drausin Wulsin and Archer <& McNeil, for defendants.
   Goebel, J.

1. The words “goods and chattels” in the chattel mortgage do not include choses in action; such words refer to and include personal property which is visible, tangible or movable. Hence book accounts are not the subject matter of a chattel mortgage.

2. When such accounts are specifically included in a chattel mortgage, it operates as an assignment, whatever may be its form, and it is in legal effect a mortgage creating a specific lien on the accounts assigned or the proceeds thereof.