Marion Machine, Foundry & Supply Co. v. Gould

WHITE, J., pro tem. Respondent brought this action to recover certain personal property alleged to be wrongfully detained by appellants. The cause was tried before the court, sitting without a jury, resulting in a judgment for respondent, from which judgment, and from an order denying a motion for a new trial, this appeal is prosecuted.

The facts germane to this proceeding are, that during the year 1930 the firm of Stillion & Hillegas, as copartners, were engaged in the drilling of an oil well on premises located in the city of Inglewood. As such copartners, they purchased of respondent, from time to time, certain oil well supplies and accessories, including the personal property in question here. To secure their indebtedness to respondent the co-partners, on December 2, 1930, executed a promissory note to the former in the sum of $2,000, together with a chattel mortgage securing the same, covering the property described in the first amended complaint herein. In April, 1931, the firm of Stillion & Hillegas went into bankruptcy, and on June 16, 1931, respondent filed proof of its claim against said copartners in the sum of $1444.24, due on conditional sales contracts, and for $12.65 due on the chattel mortgage. In December, 1932, an agreement was entered imo between the appellant Gould and the trustee in bankruptcy for Stil[718]lion & Hillegas, which agreement received the approval of the bankruptcy court, and under the terms of which the trustee in bankruptcy conveyed to appellant Gould "all the right', title and interest of the bankrupt estate in and to the equipment, derrick, machinery, fixtures on the said real property, which is at present covered by a chattel mortgage or contracts, subject to all liens, mortgages, contracts and charges thereon". This contract, and all the rights of appellant Gould thereunder, was subsequently assigned by him to appellant Argo Oil Co. On March 7, 1934, the trustee in bankruptcy, with the approval of the bankruptcy court, conveyed to appellant Argo Oil Co. the real property upon which the oil well was situated, together -with "the personal property, machinery and equipment located thereon".

Appellants assail the judgment on the ground that the record is without substantial evidence to support the findings of the trial court that respondent was the owner of the personal property in question, and that appellants were without any rights entitling them to the possession thereof. In support of this claim it is urged that title to the personal property here in question was vested in appellant Argo Oil Co. by reason of the transfer of the bankrupt estate’s title therein through execution of the. instruments mentioned above. This claim, however, is negatived, in our opinion, by the notice of disclaimer executed by the trustee in bankruptcy, through his attorney, and introduced in evidence at the trial as plaintiff’s exhibit 6, under the plain terms of which the trustee in bankruptcy specifically disclaims, on behalf of the bankrupt estate, any right, title or interest in and to the identical personal property mentioned in the first amended complaint herein.- There also appears in the record, as plaintiff’s exhibit 3 at the trial, an order made by the referee in bankruptcy under date of March 8, .1934, declaring that inasmuch as the trustee in bankruptcy had no right, title or interest in or to the property in- question here, that the sale thereof under date of March 6, 1934, did not include the personal property about which this litigation centers. This order was signed by the referee in bankruptcy March 8th, the day before the confirmation of sale to appellants was made. Surely, it cannot be contended that the trustee in bankruptcy intended to or did invest appel