A. J. Case & Co. v. Illinois Central Railroad

184 Iowa 98
CourtSupreme Court of Iowa
DecidedFebruary 16, 1918
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 184 Iowa 98 (A. J. Case & Co. v. Illinois Central Railroad) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Iowa primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
A. J. Case & Co. v. Illinois Central Railroad, 184 Iowa 98 (iowa 1918).

Opinions

Salinger, J.

I. It appears that plaintiff advanced money to one Cox, wherewith to do work for defendant, and that pay for this work was payable at plaintiff’s place of business, possibly payable to the order of plaintiff. But plaintiff does not rely on this, but sues on its assignment from Cox — and the case before us is this: The defendant railroad company was, at one time, indebted to Cox. Cox made assignment to plaintiff, of which assignment the railroad company was notified. The defendant is suable in Illinois, and an alleged creditor of Cox’s garnished it in Illinois. It notified Case & Company, in effect, that such garnishment proceedings were pending, and that it intervene and defend its rights to the fund held by the railroad company for someone. Case & Company did not appear. The justice of the peace in whose court in Illinois said garnishment was pending, adjudged that the garnishment plaintiff, was entitled to be satisfied out of said fund. Later, Case & Company sued the defendant upon its assignment of said debt once owing Cox. The defendant pleaded the Illinois garnishment proceedings in bar. A demurrer to this plea was sustained, and the defendant now urges such ruling to be erroneous.

The arguments before us present, on part of the appellee, the contention that, since Case & Company were not made parties to the Illinois garnishment, 'were not served with judicial notice of the proceedings, and made no appearance therein, that said order constitutes no adjudication against plaintiff, and is in no manner binding upon it. On the other hand, the railroad company urges that, whether or no thcIllinois proceedings effect an adjudication in the strict sense, these proceedings are none the less entitled to the proteo [101]*101tion of the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution of the United States.

For reasons presently to be stated, we are of opinion that neither contention should be entertained by us at this time.

1-a

1. Appeal and error: foreign judgment as bar: Federal questions. The Federal question now presented was not made below, and we are inclined to think that, to raise it here, the trial, court should have been given an opportunity to pass upon it. True, defendant did claim below that the Illinois proceedings were a bar to the claim of the plaintiff. But this did not necessanly invoke the protection of the full faith and credit clause of the Constitution of the United States. The protection of the full faith and credit clause may, of course, be waived. And such asserted bar can rest upon state statutes, state decisions, or common-law rules. Wherefore, making such defense is not necessarily a claim of protection under the Federal law. To say the least, the better practice is to make the Federal question in the court of the first instance.

2-a

2. Pleading: pleadings demurrable. The defendant confesses that it holds a balance due of $868.70 on the claim that belonged to Cox before he assigned it to the plaintiff. It appears that the Illinois judgment impounded but $177.25 of that sum. The defense set up this $177.25 judgment as a compíete defense, and asked that the plaintiff be sent out of court because of the judgment which, at most, appropriated but a part of the fund which the plaintiff claimed. It is manifest that this defense is too broad. The plaintiff was entitled to recover at least so much of the fund as exceeded the amount of the Illinois judgment; therefore, the existence of that judgment, no matter how binding, would not sustain the claim that plaintiff [102]*102was entitled to no relief; wherefore, the demurrer to such plea was good. See 1 Chitty on Pleadings, *459, 524; Lord v. Brookfield, 37 N. J. L. 552, 554; Graffin v. Jackson, 40 N. J. L. 440; Bailey v. Pennsylvania, R. Co., 70 N. J. L. 308 (58Atl. 83).

The defendant pleaded the sequestration of part of a fund claimed by the plaintiff, and thereupon asked that plaintiff recover nothing. It framed its own defense. The court could not reframe it, but, on demurrer interposed, was bound to pass upon the plea as defendant had tendered it. See Mitchell v. Beck, 178 Iowa 786. We may assume that the partial sequestration gave the defendant some rights, but it was not the right to have the plaintiff go hence without any recovery. Whether the partial sequestration should defeat the plaintiff’s claim in its entirety was the only question tendered by the demurrer on this-point; and the court, by sustaining the demurrer to such plea, ruled rightly that defendant was not entitled to the relief it sought.

At this point, then, it is quite immaterial whether the full faith and credit clause protects the Illinois judgment, or whether the same operates as an adjudication in strictness, or has any binding effect upon the plaintiff. No matter how much the full faith. and credit clause protects it, or whether it was or was not a binding adjudication, -¿he plaintiff was certainly entitled to recover so much of the fund due it as the Illinois judgment did not profess to touch. Wherefore, as said, a plea of the Illinois judgment as a complete defense was demurrable, because it was no such defense, no matter how the law dispute between these contenders be settled.

If a cause can be affirmed without passing upon an asserted Federal right, such right will not be inquired into. New Orleans & N. E. R. Co. v. National Rice Milling Co., 234 U. S. 80 (34 Sup. Ct. Rep. 726).

[103]*1033. Continuance: pendency of foreign garnishment proceeding. IT. But the defense in bar was not the sole defense. There was an allegation that judgment had been entered against the defendant for $177.25; that this judgment had been appealed, and the appeal was pending in one of the state courts of Illinois. See abstract, page 9. Based upon these allegations, there was a prayer for alternative relief, asking “that this action may be continued until final disposition of the appeal from the judgment rendered against defendant in the justice court of Joseph Dimke at Galena, Illinois. (Abstract, page 10.) The sustaining of the demurrer denied the right to such alternative relief. In our opinion, even as the plea in bar was too broad, the demurrer was too broad, and defendant should have been awarded the continuance it prayed.

Ordinarily, the pendency of a suit in another jurisdiction will not base an abatement; but to this rule there is at least one exception, and this case is squarely within it. A garnishee impleaded in one jurisdiction may use the proceedings and orders therein as an abatement, when impleaded in another jurisdiction by another debtor of his creditor’s. See Lancashire Ins. Co. v. Corbetts, 165 Ill. 592 (46 N. E. 631), and Illinois cases therein cited; Jones v. Jones, 108 N. Y. 415 (15 N. E. 707); Embree & Collins v. Hanna, 5 Johns. (N. Y.) 101; Wallace v. McConnell, 13 Peters (U. S.) 135; Whipple v. Robbins, 97 Mass. 107; American Bank v. Rollins, 99 Mass. 313.

There is a strong analogy between the situation existing here and the cases wherein appellate tribunals apply a rule known as “the balance of convenience rule,” in making provisional orders to preserve the status of what is involved in an appeal taken. As to this rule, we said, in Wehrman v. Moore, 177 Iowa 542, at 551:

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