Advocates:
Croos Da Brera (with him Ramachandra), for defendant, appellant.-Under section 254 of the Code, the judgment-creditor, at whose instance a decree of Court is seized, becomes an assignee thereof. The assignment operates as from the date of seizure, and the assignee is entitled to all the privileges of a private assignment. The assignment in favour of the substituted-plaintiff may * have been made prior to the seizure, but so long as it was not notified to Court, the debtor was not obliged to consider it. The payment of the debt by the defendant to the judgment-creditor in case No. 5,299 was made in ignorance of the assignment to substituted-plaintiff. Such payment must be taken to be made
in good faith, and the debtor should be discharged. A private 1928. assignment must be taken as non-existent so long as it is not coder v. notified to Court as required by section 339 of the Code. Under the Roman-Dutch law it is clear that unless the debtor has received formal intimation from the cessionary, he can safely pay to the cedent or to a subsequent cessionary who has given notice. Counsel cited Berwick's Voet, p. 104; 3 Burge, pp. 547-541; and 4 Halsbury's Laws of England 379.
Coder, for substituted-plaintiff, respondent.-Section 254 merely says that a seizing creditor becomes an assignee from the date of decree, but in this case there was nothing to seize, as the debtor had by prior deed divested himself of his interest in the substituted-plaintiff's favour. Section 254 says that the assignment is good so far as that person's interest extends. This clearly contemplates the existence of some interest in the plaintiff. It is the duty of the debtor to pay to any person legally entitled to receive payment. The substituted-plaintiff's assignment was prior in date, and he was entitled to payment in preference to the subsequent assignee by operation of law. Even the seizing-creditor was not substituted as required by section 339, and the debtor should have waited until this was done.
Croos Da Brera.-Under the Roman-Dutch law, even in the case of two private assignments, payment to the subsequent assignee without notice from the former is good, and discharges debtor. An assignee by operation of law ought not to be placed on a different footing.