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UNION NATIONAL BANK v. OIUM.
217

while the property remains in his possession or under his control. Gen. St. 1878, Ch. 41, § 16. There is no such definition of the word “creditors” as used in our registry law relating to the filing of chattel mortgages. Moreover, the object and construction of such a statute are different from the purpose and interpretation of a mere registry law. In Tolbert v. Horton, 31 Minn. 518, 18 N. W. Rep. 647, all that was decided was that a subsequent mortgagee who took with actual notice of a prior unrecorded mortgage is not entitled to protection. How this can be an authority for the contention of the attaching creditor in this case that he can claim protection it is difficult to see. It will be noticed that the Minnesota statute is radically different from ours. It contains an element which makes it, as to mortgages, a statute against frauds and perjury. In that state the mere filing of the instrument will not suffice. There still exists, if the property is not delivered, a presumption of fraud which must be overcome. Gen. St. 1878, Ch. 39, § 1. Our registry law contains no such feature. Section 4379, Comp. Laws. See, also, § 4657, Id. This peculiar provision of the Minnesota act is noticed by both opinions in the case, as well the dissenting as the prevailing opinion. In the construction that such statute was more than a mere registry law all members of the court agreed. Says Judge Mitchell: “Our statute on chattel mortgages is not a mere registry law, as seems to be often assumed. It is a statute declaring certain mortgages void as to certain persons unless certain things exist or are affirmatively made to appear.” Bank v. Ellis, 30 Minn. 270, 15 N. W. Rep. 243, merely decides that it is not essential to the protection of a subsequent chattel mortgagee in good faith, as against an unfiled prior chattel mortgage, that the former should place his mortgage on file before the prior mortgage is filed. This decision stands firmly on the language of the statute. But the fact that the subsequent mortgagee was a mortgagee in good faith was not controverted, and it affirmatively appeared in aid of the presumption that he was a bona fide mortgagee; that the mortgagee, on taking the security for an existing debt, surrendered