Case Name: Elisha A. Martin vs. Louis Potter & another & Trustee
Court: Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Massachusetts
Decision Date: 1858-09
Citations: 11 Gray 37
Docket Number: 
Parties: Elisha A. Martin vs. Louis Potter & another & Trustee.
Judges: 
Reporter: Massachusetts Reports
Volume: 77
Pages: 37–38

Head Matter:
Elisha A. Martin vs. Louis Potter & another & Trustee.
A valid assignment in another state of a debt due from a citizen of Massachusetts to a citizen of that state is valid here as against a subsequent foreign attachment by another citizen of that state, if seasonably notified to the debtor, although the notice is not actually received by him until after the attachment.
Trustee process. The trustee disclosed that he was indebted to the principal defendants; that previously to the service of this process the defendants made an assignment of all their property for the benefit of certain creditors, according to the laws of New York, of which the plaintiff and the defendants were citizens, and that the assignees sent notice to the trustee, which had actually arrived at the post office of his residence in Lee before, although he did not receive it until after, the service.
J. D. Colt, for the plaintiff.
The trustee must be charged. The courts of this state will not give effect to an assignmen making preferences in New York, so as to defeat an attaching creditor, even though he is a citizen of New York. Zipcey v. Thompson, 1 Gray, 243. Edwards v. Mitchell, 1 Gray, 239. 2 Kent Com. (6th ed.) 405-408, 458 note.
M. Wilcox Sf R. W. Adam, for the trustee,
cited Angell on Assignments, 64, 65; Story Confl. §§ 396, 398; Whipple v. Thayer, 16 Pick. 25; Daniels v. Willard, 16 Pick. 36; Burlock v. Taylor, 16 Pick. 335; Blake v. Williams, 6 Pick. 304, 305, Wakefield v. Martin, 3 Mass. 558 ; Dix v. Cobb, 4 Mass. 512.

Opinion:
By the Court.
The trustee process is sued out in this state. The assignment of the debt was made in New York before the attachment. It does not appear that the trustee had notice until afterwards, but if notice is seasonably given the debt is held to be transferred from the time of the assignment. Such notice is sufficient if the assignment was valid in the state where it was made. Now it has been repeatedly held that an assignment, made in another state and good there, is good in this state, unless contrary to the policy of our laws, or affecting injuriously the rights of our citizens, in which case the court will take care that our citizens are protected by our laws notwithstánding the foreign assignment.
Trustee discharged.