protection if he would have been entitled to protection had he then taken a mortgage on the property. Knowledge of the unfiled mortgage possessed by the general creditor when he changes his position to his detriment should be as fatal to his right to protection as it would be had he taken a mortgage on the property with such knowledge. A lien under attachment should be regarded as conferring no greater rights under the same circumstances than a lien under a mortgage.
The construction which has uniformly been placed upon the word “creditors” in statutes providing for the refiling of chattel mortgages is in the direction of the interpretation which meets our approval in this case. Although the word “creditors” is used without qualification, and the mortgage declared void as to them when not refiled within a certain period, the courts have invariably held that one who seized the property before the default occurred could not, after the default, be regarded as a creditor within such a statute, although he was in fact a creditor. Lowe v. Wing, 56 Wis. 33. 13 N. W. Rep. 892; Case v. Conroe, 13 Wis. 498; Edson v. Newell, 14 Minn. 228, (Gil. 167;) Corbin v. Kincaid, 33 Kan. 652, 7 Pac. Rep. 145; Frank v. Playter, 73 Mo.672; Howard v. Bank, (Kan.) 24 Pac. Rep. 983; Ullman v. Duncan, (Wis.) 47 N. W. Rep. 266. See language of court in Swiggett v. Dodson, (Kan.) 17 Pac. Rep. 594-598. We find express authority for or in support of our views in Brown v. Brabb, (Mich.) 34 N. W. Rep. 403; Crippen v. Jacobson, 56 Mich. 386, 23 N. W. Rep. 56; Waite v. Mathews, 50 Mich. 392, 15 N. W. Rep. 524; Fearey v. Cummings, 41 Mich. 376, 1 N. W. Rep. 946; Dyer v. Thorstad, (Minn.) 29 N. W Rep. 345; Thompson v. Van Vechten, 27 N. Y. 568; Argall v. Seymour, 48 Fed. Rep. 548; Root v. Harl, (Mich.) 29 N. W. Rep. 29; Cutler v. Steele, (Mich.) 48 N. W. Rep. 631. In Brown v. Brabb, (Mich.) 34 N. W. Rep. 403, the court say: “The language of the statute contains no qualifications as to the time the creditors become such. It does not say that the unfiled mortgage shall be void as to subsequent creditors, and this has led some courts to hold that it is void as to all creditors. But a qualification is
