Williams v. Ashe

Citations

• 111 Cal. 180
• 43 P. 595
• 1896 Cal. LEXIS 563

Syllabus

<p>Pledge—Transfer by Pledgee—Bona Fide Purchaser — Replevin — Finding of Qualified Interest — Statement—Presumption upon Appeal.—Although a pledgee of personal property, having bills of sale absolute in form, can pass a full title to a bona fide purchaser thereof for value without notice of the pledge; yet where, in an action of claim and delivery for such property by the transferee against the original owner, the jury has found that the plaintiff has only a qualified interest in the property to the extent of the indebtedness of the defendant to the pledgee, it will he presumed upon appeal taken by the defendant, that the evidence warranting a finding that the sale did not pass absolute title to the plaintiff, was omitted from the statement.</p> <p>Id.—Adverse Claim by Lienholders—Loss of Lien—Rule Inapplicable to Pledgee —Right of Purchaser from Pledgee.—As a general rule, a lienholder who refuses upon proper demand to deliver property without setting up his lien thereon, or who bases his refusal upon a claim other than that of lien, waives his right to claim a lien after action commenced; and if one having a lien claims absolute ownership in a replevin suit his lien is lost, and he cannot claim any rights as a lienor, unless his claim is honestly and mistakenly pressed, in which case he may have his lien upon abandoning the false claim of ownership; hut the general rule as to the waiver or loss of lien by a claim of ownership does not apply in the case of the pledgee, who may sell or assign either the property or his interest in the pledge to a bona fide purchaser, who will he allowed to hold property until the extinguishment of the original obligation, as a transferee of the rights of the pledgee.</p> <p>Id.—Complaint in Replevin — Claim of Ownership — Sufficiency of Pleading.—A complaint in replevin which alleges ownership and possession of the property claimed on and after a specified date, though it is insufficient as against a special demurrer, in not allegi