Hardy v. Hunt

Citations

• 11 Cal. 343

Syllabus

<p>A party placing money in the hands of another for the purpose of making a bet on an election, in the name of the bailee, but for the benefit of the bailor, may retract the illegal act of making the bet, and does not forfeit the money by reason of the illegality of the purpose for which it was deposited.</p> <p>The bailor does not part with the ownership by allowing it to be used for his benefit, though in the name of another. The money in the hands of the agent remains, as between him and the principal, the money of the principal.</p> <p>Upon the retraction of the wager, the right to the possession of the money is in the agent or bailee, and he may maintain an action for it where the bailor interposes no objection.</p> <p>Nor can an attaching creditor of the bailee, levying on the money in the hands of a stakeholder with whom it had been deposited by the bailee, claim that the bailor is estopped by having allowed the bailee to use the money in his own name, when the specific money was in question and could be distinguished. The creditor had not been misled by acts or declarations of the bailor, nor had he given credit to the bailor by reason thereof.</p> <p>The stakeholder being informed of the rights of the bailor, was bound to protect those rights by resisting, in some way, the proceedings against him as a garnishee, the bailor being no party thereto; nor will he be protected by a judgment improperly entered against him, ordering him to pay the money to the attaching creditor.</p>