Source: http://supreme.nolo.com/us/139/628/case.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 03:58:54+00:00

Document:
A marshal of the United States, or his deputies, being sued in trespass for seizing particular property under an attachment, to him directed, and defending upon the ground that the property so seized belonged to the defendant named in the writ of attachment, may have the case -- the amount in dispute being sufficient -- removed to the proper circuit court of the United States as one arising under the laws of the United States.
A, or intended so to be. . . . Schedule B, hereto annexed, contains, as near as I can state, a list of all my creditors and the amount of their respective demands, and both of said Schedules A and B are hereby made part of this assignment."
Schedule A, annexed to the assignment, contained an inventory of certain real estate and a list of persons indebted to the assignor, and was verified by his oath to the effect that it contained a true list of the assignor's creditors and the amount of their respective demands. But it contained no clause or provision which by any construction embraced a stock of goods worth about $10,000, and constituting at the time the bulk of the assignor's estate. Held that the title to these goods did not pass to the assignee, and remained subject to attachment as the property of the assignor. The general description in the assignment of the property conveyed is limited by the particular description immediately following in the same clause referring to Schedule A.
The statutes of Iowa relating to assignments for the benefit of creditors refer to general assignments, by which the assignor makes a disposition of all his property for the benefit of all his creditors. They do not relate to partial assignments which are permissible under the laws of that state.
the time of the seizure, and therefore were liable to be taken under the attachments. Upon the petition of the defendants, accompanied by a proper bond and an affidavit setting forth the nature of the defense, the case was removed into the court below for trial as one arising under the laws of the United States. The plaintiff moved to remand it to the state court. The motion was denied, and by direction of the court the jury returned a verdict for the defendants. A judgment in their favor was accordingly entered. Bock v. Perkins, 28 F. 123.
"cases arising under the laws of the United States are such as grow out of the legislation of Congress, whether they constitute the right or privilege, or claim or protection, or defense of the party, in whole or in part, by whom they are asserted."
Reagan v. Aiken, 138 U. S. 109; Houser v. Clayton, 3 Woods 273; Ellis v. Norton, 16 F. 4.
No different doctrine was announced in Buck v. Colbath, 3 Wall. 334. On the contrary, that case sustains the view we have just expressed. Colbath sued Buck in a state court in trespass for taking his goods, the latter pleading simply that he was marshal of the United States, and had seized the goods under an attachment against the property of certain parties named therein, but not averring that the goods belonged to the defendants named in the writ. This Court, upon error to the highest court of the state, held that the marshal was guilty of trespass in levying upon the property of one against whom the writ did not run, and could be sued therefor in a state court, the mere fact that the writ issued from a federal court constituting no defense. The judgment in that case against the marshal was reviewed here under the act of Congress authorizing such review in cases where a party specially claimed the protection of an authority exercised under the United States and the decision withheld the protection so claimed. The decision sustains the proposition that where a marshal, being sued in trespass in a state court for taking property under a writ of attachment to him directed, defends upon the ground that the property attached belonged to the defendant named in the writ, the case is one arising under the laws of the United States, and therefore removable.
"This indenture, made the 20th day of November, A.D. 1884, between Henry P. Lane, of New Albin, Allamakee County, and State of Iowa, of the first part, and Wm. O. Bock, of said county and state, of the second part:"
of the first part, in consideration of the premises and of the sum of one dollar to him aid by the party of the second part, the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged, has granted, bargained, sold, and assigned, and does hereby grant, convey, and assign, unto the said party of the second part and to his assigns, forever, all the lands and all the personal property of every name and nature whatsoever of the said party of the first part, more particularly enumerated and described in the schedule hereto annexed, marked 'schedule A,' or intended so to be, upon the following trusts, viz., to take possession of said lands and property, and sell said lands, unless otherwise directed by the Circuit Court of Allamakee County, State of Iowa, on notice published as in cases of sales of real estate on execution, and dispose of said personal property upon such terms as in his judgment may appear best, but not on credit, and hold the proceeds of sales of all said lands and personal property for distribution among all the creditors of said party of the first part in accordance to such orders and directions as may from time to time be made by said circuit court, and shall, after final settlement and distribution be made, and all the reasonable expenses, rents, taxes, assessments, commissions, and allowances are paid, return any surplus there may be of the proceeds of the sales of the assigned property to the party of the first part or his assigns, and also to reconvey, reassign, to him or them any real or personal property remaining unsold. Schedule B, hereto annexed, contains, as near as I can state, a list of all my creditors, and the amount of their respective demands, and both of said Schedules A and B are hereby made part of this assignment. Witness my hand the day and year first above written."
"In presence of SAM'L H. KINNE"
Bock, on the same day, accepted the trust created by this instrument, and agreed to execute its provisions.
assignor, but no mention was made in it of the stock of goods in question. It was verified by his oath to the effect that, according to the best of his knowledge, it contained a true statement and account of his estate, both real and personal. Schedule B, also annexed to and made part of the assignment, contained a list of the assignor's creditors, about fifty in number, with the amount of their respective demands. It was verified by Lane's oath to the effect that it contained a true list of all his creditors and the amount of their respective demands.
Lane was engaged in mercantile business at New Albin, Allamakee County, Iowa, when the assignment was made, and owned the goods alleged to have been wrongfully taken under the attachments. After the assignment was executed and acknowledged, Bock took possession of them. He caused an inventory to be made and put the assignment on record before the attachments were levied. At the time of the assignment, he was in Lane's employment, and had charge of his mercantile business.
The court charged the jury that as the goods in question were not enumerated or described in the schedule annexed to and made part of the assignment, and could not by any construction of its clauses be included in it, the title did not pass to Bock, and they were rightfully attached as the property of Lane. It also held that the defendants were entitled to a verdict upon the further ground that if the instrument were treated as a general assignment under the statutes of Iowa regulating assignments for the benefit of creditors, it was void because, when taken in connection with certain conveyances executed about the same time by the assignor for the benefit of his wife and wards -- all the instruments constituting, in the judgment of the court, one transaction -- it gave a preference to some creditors over others, in violation of the statute, and for that reason was void. Van Patten v. Burr, 52 Ia. 518, 521.
and description of the property assigned, of his stock of goods worth nearly $10,000, and constituting the bulk of his estate, was by inadvertence. Bock was present when the schedules were prepared, and it cannot be that he and Lane both were unaware of the fact that Schedule A contained nothing which, by any possible construction, could include the goods in Lane's store. Why these goods were omitted from Schedule A would be a matter of mere conjecture. The probability is that the assignment and schedule were not prepared at the same time, and that the conclusion ultimately reached by Lane was to make only a partial assignment, which was permissible under the laws of Iowa, and, through Bock, his clerk and assignee, retain control of the goods in the store without subjecting the latter to responsibility to creditors for their management, for, by the terms of the assignment, the assignee would only be liable to them for the proper management and distribution of the property enumerated and described in Schedule A, made part of the assignment. Be this as it may, and without saying that the intention of the parties could be ascertained by parol evidence or otherwise than from the assignment itself, we are of opinion that the better and safer construction is that the general words in the first part of the granting clause are limited by the particular description in the latter part of the same clause of the property actually conveyed to the assignee. These views are sustained by the weight of authority, and we are referred to no decision of the Supreme Court of Iowa to the contrary. So that whether the property in question passed to Bock by virtue of the assignment is to be determined by the general rules governing the interpretation of written instruments, the controlling one of which is that effect must be given to the intention of the parties as disclosed by the instrument to be construed.
Henry Cheriot, or to which and in which he has any right, property, claim, or demand, which said goods, wares, and merchandises, hereby granted and sold, are particularly described and enumerated in the Schedule A, signed by the said Henry Cheriot, and to these presents annexed,"
"This was not, in fact a general assignment of all Cheriot's estate, for though the words in one place be general, yet the assignment immediately goes on to specify, by a reference to the schedules annexed, the specific articles of property assigned, and it therefore could operate only upon the articles specified, for, as the court said in Munro v. Alaire, 2 Caines 327 [Chief Justice Kent delivering the opinion], if a general clause be followed by special words, which accord with the general clause, the deed shall be construed according to the special matter."
"all their books, stock in trade, printing apparatus and machinery, books of account, book debts, notes, and demands, and all their other property of every name and nature, except such as is exempt from attachment, most of the same being now at their place of business, a schedule of which is annexed, and other and fuller schedules of the property hereby assigned shall be hereunto annexed as soon as the same can be conveniently made."
had jointly or each of them had severally. But we are to take the whole instrument into consideration in order to ascertain the true intent and meaning of the parties. . . . The general words are restrained by reference to the schedules which were annexed before the attachment was made. So that the assignment, independently of the parol evidence, cannot by fair construction be said to include the furniture of the individual assignors. Wilkes v. Ferris, 5 Johns. 345."
In the same case, it was held that parol evidence that it was intended to include the furniture in the conveyance tended to contradict, not explain, the writing, and was inadmissible. See also Tucker v. Clisby, 12 Pick. 22.
"indebted to divers persons in divers sums of money, which, by reason of sundry losses and misfortunes, he has become unable to pay in full, and is desirous of providing for the payment thereof, as far as he can, in a just and equitable manner by assignment of all his property and effects for the purpose,"
"all and singular his goods, chattels, promissory notes, debts, wares, merchandise, securities, and vouchers for and affecting the payment of money, claims, demands, choses in action, and property of every name and nature whatever, of and belonging to him, and which are more particularly and fully enumerated in the schedule hereto annexed, marked 'schedule A.'"
words of reference to the schedule is to deny to them all import whatever, and that is justified by no rule of construction. If, instead of referring to the schedule for a particular description of the property, the grantor had followed the general description with such words as 'namely,' 'that is to say,' or 'as follows,' and set out in the body of the assignment itself the items enumerated in the schedule, there could hardly have been a doubt but that the preceding general words of description would have been restrained and confined to the subsequent enumeration. And if that be so, how does the fact that the schedule, instead of being incorporated in the body of the deed, is on a separate sheet of paper annexed thereto change in any manner the application of the principle? For, the schedule being a part of the deed, we should read it as if inserted in the body of that instrument."
The above cases, in our judgment, rest upon sound rules of interpretation. To the same effect are United States v. Langton, 5 Mason 280, 288; Guerin v. Hunt, 6 Minn. 375; Wood v. Rowcliffe, 5 Eng.Law & Eq. 471; McAlpine v. Foley, 34 Minn. 251; Rundlett v. Dole, 10 N.H. 458; Belding v. Frankland, 8 Lea 67, and Scott v. Coleman, 5 Litt. 349. See also Burrill on Assignments, 5th ed., pp. 192-198.
should be restricted by a subsequent clause referring to a schedule annexed for a more full description,"
citing Wilkes v. Ferris and Holmes v. Hubbard, above cited. Similar criticism could be made upon other authorities relied upon by the plaintiff. But it is unnecessary to extend this opinion by an examination of them.
"No general assignment of property by an insolvent, or in contemplation of insolvency, for the benefit of creditors, shall be valid unless it be made for the benefit of all his creditors in proportion to the amount of their respective claims;"
"the debtor shall annex to such assignment an inventory, under oath, of his estate, real and personal, according to the best of his knowledge, and also a list of his creditors, and the amount of their respective demands; but such inventory shall not be conclusive [as] to the amount of the debtor's estate, and such assignment shall vest in the assignee the title to any other property belonging to the debtor at the time of making the assignment; . . ."
"the assignee shall at all times be subject to the order and supervision of the court or judge, and the said court or judge may, by citation and attachment, compel the assignee, from time to time, to file reports of his proceedings, and of the situation and condition of the trust, and to proceed in the faithful execution of the duties required by this chapter;"
"the court or judge may, upon application of the assignee or any creditor, compel the appearance in person of the debtor before such court or judge forthwith, or at the next term, to answer under oath such matters as may then and there be inquired of him, and such debtor may then and there be fully examined under oath as to the amount and situation of his estate, and the names of the creditors and amounts due to each, with their places of residence, and may compel the delivery to the assignee of any property or estate embraced in the assignment."
(ed. 1880) 592, §§ 2115, 2117, 2123, 2124; (ed. 1888) §§ 3292, 3294, 3303, p. 849.
We do not perceive that these statutory provisions determine the question before us. In the event of a general assignment of property by one insolvent or in contemplation of insolvency for the benefit of creditors, the debtor is required to annex to the assignment an inventory of his estate, and the assignment is not invalidated or rendered void for the want of such an inventory. Whatever estate belongs to the debtor at the time of a general assignment passes, by force of the statute, to the assignee. The transaction contemplated in the Iowa statute, and termed a general assignment, "is a disposition of all the property of the insolvent for the benefit of all his creditors." Van Patten v. Burr, 52 Ia. 518, 521. But the assignment in question here was not a general assignment. It was only a partial one. The debtor assigned, and from the terms employed by him could have intended to assign, only the property particularly enumerated and described in the schedule annexed to the instrument that passed the title. The plaintiff concedes that partial assignments are permissible under the statutes of Iowa. Lampson v. Arnold, 19 Ia. 479, 486. The statutory provisions just referred to have reference only to general assignments.
For the reasons given, we are of opinion that the court did not err in holding that the goods attached did not pass to Bock by the assignment in question, and were subject to the writs that came to the hands of the defendants, and the jury were properly instructed to find for the defendants.
This disposes of the case without the necessity of considering whether the assignment, if regarded as a general assignment of the debtor's property, was or was not void under the statutes of Iowa.

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