Case Name: F. DE SAINT GERMAIN, Doing Business under the Firm Name of Jacob Strahle & Co. v. HENRY WIND
Court: Washington Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Washington
Decision Date: 1887-02-04
Citations: 3 Wash. Terr. 189
Docket Number: 
Parties: F. DE SAINT GERMAIN, Doing Business under the Firm Name of Jacob Strahle & Co. v. HENRY WIND.
Judges: 
Reporter: Washington Territory Reports
Volume: 3
Pages: 189–198

Head Matter:
[Decided February 4, 1887.]
F. DE SAINT GERMAIN, Doing Business under the Firm Name of Jacob Strahle & Co. v. HENRY WIND.
1. Sale — Conditional — Effect. — In the absence of fraud, a conditional sale, by which the title of chattels does not pass, though the possession does, is good and valid, as well against third persons as against the parties to the transaction; following Harinees v. Russell, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 51. Langford, J., dissenting.
2. Same — Lease. — In connection with the agreement of sale, the parties having executed what they called a lease, in which they denominated the installments of the purchase price “rent” the true character of the transaction, as a conditional sale, is not affected thereby.
Error to the District Court holding terms at Walla Walla. First District.
Action to recover the possession of a billiard-table or its value. The opinion states the facts. The contract referred to therein was as follows:—
“ This agreement, made the eighteenth day of October, 1882, between Jacob Strahle & Co., of the city and county of San Francisco, State of California, of the first part, and Charles Simpson, of the city and county of Walla Walla, Territory of Washington, of the second part, witnesseth, that the parties of the first part have let and leased unto the party of the second part the hereinafter described personal property, to wit: One (1) laurel inlaid centennial carrom billiard-table, style No. 6, size 4£ x 9 feet, No. 3859, slate bed, Delaney’s patent cushions, complete, with all fixtures, including one pool-hoard and outfit, and one revolving cue-rack, packed and shipped, for the term of thirteen months from and after the eighteenth day of November, 1883, at twelve o’clock M., at and for the sum of $350, in United States -gold coin, payable as follows, to wit: $50 on the delivery of these presents, and the further sum of $25 on the eighteenth day of each and every month ensuing, until the full term of thirteen months from this date expires. And the party of the second part hereby promises and agrees to faithfully pay the rent aforesaid, in' United States gold coin, at the several times hereintofore set forth, and at the expiration of said term to surrender and deliver up said property in like good order and condition as when received, reasonable wear and deterioration from proper use excepted. It is further agreed between the parties hereto that this lease shall terminate at the option of the parties of the first part: 1. In case the party of the second part shall at anytime faiTto pay the rent, or any part thereof, herein provided for, at the several times wdien the same shall become due; 2. In case the property hereby leased, or any part thereof, shall be removed from the premises wherein it is now situated without the consent of the parties of the first part in writing first had. It is also agreed that said parties of the first part shall keep the property described herein insured, during the continuance of this lease, against loss or damage by fire, in some first-class insurance company, to the amount of $250. The premium of $5 the party of the second part agrees to pay the parties of the first part.
“ In witness whereof the parties have hereunto set their hands the day and year first above written.
Witness: “Jacob Strahle & Co. [seal]
“Charles Simpson. [seal]
“ In consideration of the sum of one, dollar to us in hand paid, and of various other good considerations, we hereby agree that, in case the party of the second part to-the foregoing lease shall on his part well and truly fulfill the conditions thereof, and pay when due the different, installments of rents therein' agreed to be paid, we will, on the eighteenth day of November, 1883, provided the said Charles Simpson shall then so desire, sell and convey the property described in the said lease to the said Charles Simpson for the sum of twenty-five dollars. in United States gold coin, then to be paid to us. It is especially understood that time is. the essence of this contract, and that unless on the eighteenth day of November, 1883, the condition of the said lease, on the part of said Charles Simpson to be performed, shall have been fulfilled, and the said sum of twenty-five dollars in United States gold coin paid, then the privilege to purchase hereby granted shall be waived and forfeited.
“Jacob Strahle & Co. [seal]
“ San Francisco, October 18, 1882.”
Mr. A. E. Isham, for the Plaintiff in Error.
' The question whether there has been a sale of personal property so as to pass title is one of intent, and where the contract is in writing the intent must be derived from the instrument itself, unless the language is ambiguous. (Abbott’s Trial Ev., secs. 316-319; Sanders v. Keder, 28 Ohio St. 630.) The contract set forth in complaint was not a sale but a mere executory agreement coupled with conditions precedent. Simpson had the option to comply with it or not, and could not acquire title to the property until he complied with the conditions precedent. (Benjamin on Sales, secs. 92, 308-318; Kohler v. Hayes, 41 Cal. 455; 1 Parsons on Contracts, 537.) Such conditional sales are not in effect chattel mortgages, and not void because unrecorded. (Barson v. Dougherty, 11 Humph. 50; Sawyer v. Fisher, 32 Me. 28.) Simpson having acquired no title could pass none to defendant. Having failed to comply with the conditions of the contract, he lost all rights under it, and the title of the property remained in plaintiff, although the contract was never recorded. (Fosdick v. Schall, 99 U. S. 235; Hutching v. Canney, 98 Mass. 198; Boon v. Moss, 70 N. Y. 465; Singer M. Co. v. Graham, 8 Or. 17; Truman v. Harden, 5 Saw. 115; Enlow v. Klein, 79 Pa. St. 488; Mosley v. Shattuck, 43 Iowa, 540; Olney v. Howe, 89 Ill. 556; Duncan v. Stone, 45 Vt.; Heinbuckle v. Zugbaum, 5 West Coast Rep. 646; Domestic S. M. Co. v. Arthewholtz, 63 Ind. 322; Harkness v. Russell, 7 Sup. Ct. Rep. 51.)
Messrs. Allen, Thompson, & Growley, for the Defendant in Error.
The instrument sued on was not acknowledged or verified as a chattel mortgage is required to be, nor was it recorded, and although ostensibly a lease, operates in fact and in law as a bill of sale and a mortgage back. Having ignored the statute relative to chattel mortgages, plaintiffs cannot recover the property from an innocent purchaser in good faith for a valuable consideration, having neither actual nor constructive notice of plaintiff’s claim thereto. (Code, secs. 1987, 1988; Harvey v. Rhode Island Locomotive Works, 93 U. S. 664; Heryford v. Davis, 102 U. S. 235; Fosdick v. Schall, 99 U. S. 250; Sladtfeld v. Huntsman & Co., 92 Pa. St. 53; Wait v. Green, 36 N. Y. 556; Hoak v. Linderman, 3 Am. Rep. 612.) The object of our registration laws is to prevent secret liens upon and claims to personal property, and render the ostensible owner and actual possessor thereof to all intents and purposes the actual owner, when the interest of innocent third persons is affected. (Code, sec. 327.)

Opinion:
Mr. Chief Justice Greene
delivered the opinion of the court.
This is an appeal in the nature of a writ of error to review the decision of the District Court in an action for the recovery of the possession of a billiard-table or the value of it. The cause was tried by the judge without a jury; after all the evidence was in, the judge, on •defendant's motion, granted a judgment of nonsuit. It appears from the record that one Simpson received possession of the table from plaintiff in error, under and by virtue of a certain written contract between them, consisting of two parts, — a lease so called, and an agreement for sale; and that while the table was in Simpson's possession it was attached by some of his creditors, and afterwards was sold by- him in consideration, among other things, of payment of the attachment debt to one Bumstead, another creditor, who received it in possession, and-then sold it to the defendant in error, an innocent purchaser in good faith, for valuable consideration.
The whole case turns upon the single question of what must be held to be the* intention of the parties to the contract under which Simpson got possession. If they are to be considered as intending a contract of conditional sale, then it is conceded, and the record bears -out the concession, that the nonsuit was erroneous. There is much that might be said on both sides of the question. There is great room for divergency of view, as is evidenced by the great number of decisions to be found in the reports, many of them by courts divided within themselves, and opposed towards one another, in cases very closely resembling, if not substantially identical, with the one at bar. Our conclusion has not been reached without considerable hesitancy, and is not unanimous. A majority of us, however, are unable to distinguish the determinative features of this contract from those of that' in Harkness v. Russell, a case decided in November last by the Supreme Court of the United States, and reported in volume 7 of the Supreme Court Reporter, page 50. The contract in that case was held to be one of conditional sale, whereby the property in the thing to be sold was not to pass until the thing itself should be fully paid for.
We hold that the contract in this case was one for conditional sale. To call the agreement for payment of the purchase price a lease, and the installments of price as they fell due rent, was a very silly device to effect probably some end that could have been better effected in a straightforward way. It was intended, perhaps, to make appear indubitable what otherwise would have been more clear, — the will of the parties that the title of the vendor should not be divested until the purchase price should be fully paid.
The judgment of the lower court is reversed, and the cause is remanded, with directions to open the nonsuit and let the cause proceed.
Turner, J., concurred.