Albertsworth v. Glens Falls Indemnity Co.

192 P.2d 66, 84 Cal. App. 2d 816, 1948 Cal. App. LEXIS 1276
CourtCalifornia Court of Appeal
DecidedApril 13, 1948
DocketCiv. No. 13581
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 192 P.2d 66 (Albertsworth v. Glens Falls Indemnity Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering California Court of Appeal primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Albertsworth v. Glens Falls Indemnity Co., 192 P.2d 66, 84 Cal. App. 2d 816, 1948 Cal. App. LEXIS 1276 (Cal. Ct. App. 1948).

Opinion

BRAY, J.

The principal question here is whether the liability of sureties on an attachment bond continues in whole or in part after the filing of a supersedeas bond on appeal.

On July 10,1944, one Fruns commenced suit in the Superior Court of Santa Clara County against the Albertsworths (plaintiffs herein). That a writ of attachment might issue, defendant indemnity company filed an undertaking in the amount of $2,500, in the usual form, promising that if the attachment was discharged or the defendants therein recovered judgment, defendant indemnity company would pay all costs that might be awarded and all damages within the amount of the undertaking, which the Albertsworths might sustain by reason of the attachment. Because of the issuance of the writ and to prevent their property from being attached, the Albertsworths on July 11, 1944, deposited with the sheriff a cashier’s check in the sum of $5,400.

Thereafter, the Albertsworths moved to dissolve the attachment. This motion was denied without prejudice. The Albertsworths again moved to dissolve the attachment, and on September 20, 1944, the motion was granted and the return of the deposited check ordered. From this order Fruns appealed, and filed an undertaking on appeal executed by the Fireman’s Fund Indemnity Company, under the statutory obligations of section 946 of the Code of Civil Procedure. (This undertaking is hereafter referred to as the “appeal bond.”) By reason of this undertaking and the appeal, the sheriff retained possession of the check. Later, after a trial, a decision on the merits of the action was rendered in favor of the Albertsworths, and Fruns appealed from the judgment. This appeal was consolidated with the appeal from the order dissolving the attachment. The District Court of Appeal affirmed both the judgment and the order. (Fruns v. Albertsworth, 71 [818]*818Cal.App.2d 318 [162 P.2d 666].) Petitions for rehearing and for hearing by the Supreme Court were denied. The remittitur was filed in the superior court on December 27, 1945. On January 4, 1946, that court made its order for the return of the check. The sheriff, apparently in anticipation of the order, returned the check to the Albertsworths on January 3.

The Albertsworths then brought this action against defendant, the surety on the attachment bond. The trial court allowed plaintiffs, as damages, interest at 7 per cent per annum on the $5,400 deposited with the sheriff in the sum of $567, plus attorney’s fees in the sum of $325, and costs in the sum of $50.62, which fees and costs it found were necessarily included in proceedings taken in all courts for the purpose of dissolving the attachment. Another item of interest allowed will be discussed later. '

Is Liability on the Attachment Bond Reduced or Terminated by the Appeal Bond?

In its briefs, defendant takes the position that the appeal bond supersedes the attachment bond and terminates all liability thereon. On argument, it contended that the appeal bond either had that effect, or it limited the liability of the attachment bond sureties to damages incurred up to the time of the filing of the appeal bond only, and that while the sureties on the appeal bond are concurrently liable with them up to that time, the appeal bond sureties are solely liable from then on.

The question of the effect on the liability of the attachment bond sureties by the filing of an appeal bond has never been flatly passed on in California. The nearest our courts have come to the subject is in the four cases hereinafter mentioned. The first is Ayres v. Burr, 132 Cal. 125 [64 P. 120], where an action was brought against the sheriff for refusing to serve a second writ of attachment because of the filing of a bond to prevent the service of the first writ of attachment. It was the plaintiff’s contention that as an appeal bond had later been filed, the lien of the attachment ended, and he was entitled to reattach the property under a new writ of attachment issued upon the filing of a new attachment bond. The court held that in spite of the filing of the appeal bond the bond for release of attachment was still in effect, and said (p. 129) : “We think that the bond given to prevent the attachment was not destroyed or affected by the appeal. This bond was not given alone as personal protection to the sheriff, but was given for the benefit of the parties to the action,—as to the [819]*819defendant Thomas, to protect his property from attachment; and as to the plaintiff, as security for the payment of the judgment that might be finally rendered in the case. Pending the appeal, it could not be enforced, but we cannot see that because the statute provides that execution is stayed on the judgment, and that certain mentioned liens existing at the time the appeal is taken cease, it must follow that the bond given to prevent attachment should be disturbed; certainly, the statute does not so provide, and we cannot add to its terms. ’ ’

The second case is Primm v. Superior Court, 3 Cal.App 208 [84 P. 786], which holds that an attachment is not finally and irrevocably dissolved the moment a judgment for defendant is entered. Section 553 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides that in the event of such judgment, the property attached must be returned to defendant. But construing that section with the appeal bond section, the court states that the sections must “be harmonized and made operative as parts of one general law” and that “A fair, reasonable, unstrained construction leads to the conclusion that the dissolvent force of a judgment is neutralized by a perfected appeal, provided the additional undertaking is filed and the appeal perfected within the specified time. This construction gives harmonious effect to both sections and does not nullify any part of either.” (P. 212.)

In the third case there is language to the effect that the lien of an attachment ends with entry of judgment in favor of the defendant, whose property is attached, the liability on the attachment bond also terminates, and that the liability of the sureties on the appeal bond does not include the damages accrued prior to the filing of that bond. This case is Heine v. Wright, 76 Cal.App. 338 [244 P. 955], where the appellate court upheld judgments of the trial court which awarded damages against the sureties on an attachment bond up to the time of judgment in the original action and against the sureties on an appeal bond from the time of the appeal on. However, an examination of the opinion shows that the question of successive liability or total liability was not presented to the court, as the successful party elected to sue each surety in a separate action. Apparently, the court and the parties assumed without question that the rule applied was the rule of liability. The main point presented and passed on was whether the persons attached had consented to and requested the attachment. The statement that the lien of the attachment [820]*820ends with the judgment and the attachment sureties’ liability terminates there is contrary to the weight of authority. No case is cited to support the proposition, nor does the court consider the Primm case, supra. Moreover, it is agreed in the case at bar that, contrary to the holding in the Heine case, the liability of the appeal bond sureties is not limited to damages accruing subsequent to the filing of the appeal bond but includes all

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Bluebook (online)
192 P.2d 66, 84 Cal. App. 2d 816, 1948 Cal. App. LEXIS 1276, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/albertsworth-v-glens-falls-indemnity-co-calctapp-1948.