Thorn Wire Hedge Company v. Fuller

by Morrison Waite

United States Supreme Court

122 U.S. 535

Thorn Wire Hedge Company  v.  Fuller

This is a writ of error brought under section 5 of the act of March 3, 1875,c. 137, (18 St. 470,) for the review of an order of the circuit court remanding a suit which had been removed from the district court of Freeborn county, Minnesota. The facts are these: Cassius D. Fuller and Burt G. Patrick, citizens of Minnesota, doing business as hard were merchants in the city of Albert Lea, began the suit October 12, 1886, against Jacob Larson, sheriff of the county, for trespass, in taking possession of their stock of goods, and destroying their business. The sheriff answered November 13, 1886, to the effect that his taking was under the authority of an execution issued upon a judgment in the same court in favor of the Thorn Wire Hedge Company, an Illinois corporation, against George A. Patrick, and that the goods were the property of the execution debtor, which had been transferred by him to Fuller & Patrick, the plaintiffs, in fraud of the rights of his creditors.

On the same day the Thorn Wire Hedge Company, J. W. Calkins, Aaron K. Stiles, and Gary G. Calkins, intervened as defendants in the action, and filed an answer, substantially the same in all respects as that of the sheriff, with the following in addition: 'That in making the levy of said execution, and in selling the said property under the same, the said sheriff [Larson] acted under the express direction of said intervenor, the Thorn Wire Hedge Company, and upon indemnity furnished him by said Thorn Wire Hedge Company, with said intervenors, J. W. Calkins, Aaron K. Stiles, and Gary G. Calkins, as sureties and bondsmen, according to the statute in such case made and provided, and in that behalf said intervenors acted, * * * i thout any malice or want of probable cause or intent to wrong anybody, and solely with intent to obtain payment of a just debt due from said George A. Patrick, and out of the property which he owned and had attempted to cover up, but which really belonged to him; * * * that, by reason of said facts, said intervenors, the Thorn Wire Hedge Company, J. W. Calkins, Aaron K. Stiles, and Gary G. Calkins, acting under the statute in such case made and provided, are the parties primarily liable for the acts and doings of said defendant Jacob Larson, and as such are interested in the matters in litigation in this action, and in the success of the defendant therein, and in resisting the claim of the plaintiffs therein. Wherefore said Thorn Wire Hedge Company, J. W. Calkins, Aaron K. Stiles, and Gary G. Calkins intervene in this action, and pray that said plaintiffs take nothing by this action.'

Notes