Skeele Coal Company v. Baker

Full title: SKEELE COAL COMPANY, Respondent, v . CHARLES T. BAKER, Appellant

Court: Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, First Department

Date published: Apr 1, 1915

168 App. Div. 888 (N.Y. App. Div. 1915)

152 N.Y.S. 1143

Opinion

April, 1915.

Present — Ingraham, P.J., Clarke, Scott, Dowling and Hotchkiss, JJ.; Hotchkiss, J., dissented.

Order affirmed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements. No opinion.

HOTCHKISS, J. (dissenting):

I dissent. The contract of the government was with defendant, and neither the contract nor any interest therein was assignable, nor could any lien be imposed thereon by any agreement between the parties. ( National Bank of Commerce v. Downie, 218 U.S. 345; Nutt v. Knut, 200 id. 12.) The warrants when received by defendant must necessarily have been received in his own right and as his property. The agreement to deliver the government warrants to plaintiff was no more than an executory promise, the breach of which was not a fraud.