Bates v. Days

17 F. 167, 5 McCrary's Cir. Ct. Rpts 342, 1883 U.S. App. LEXIS 2242
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Missouri
DecidedJuly 11, 1883
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 17 F. 167 (Bates v. Days) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Missouri primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bates v. Days, 17 F. 167, 5 McCrary's Cir. Ct. Rpts 342, 1883 U.S. App. LEXIS 2242 (circtwdmo 1883).

Opinion

Krkkel, J.

The facts in the case are as follows:

Bates, a citizen of Hew York, sued Days, a citizen of Macon City, Macon county, in the state of Missouri, by attachment on a claim amounting to $3,800, and the United States marshal, on the twentieth day of March, 1882, under a writ, seized a stock of goods, books, notes, and accounts, valued at $12,000, as the property of Days. On the day of the seizure, one lluboy, a citizen of the state of Missouri, as assignee of the Macon City Savings Bank, sued out an at tachmont in the state court against Days on a claim of the bank for $3,500, and the sheriff of Macon county, to whom the writ was directed, undertook to levy the attachment on the property seized by and in the actual possession of the United States marshal. In his return the sheriff states that lie levied the attachment on the stock of goods of Days, subject to the attachment of Bates .in the United States court, and that‘he notified the marshal of the attachment and levy, and that he summoned him as garnishee. Some days after the levy by the sheriff, Hemphill and Bailey,' two non-residents of the state of Missouri, sued out an attachment each against Days in this court, and the United States marshal levied the same on the goods which he liad seized on the attachment of Bates. The property attached was sold under an order of this court, and about $8,000 realized. The first attachment of Bates, amounting, with costs, to about $1,000, has been paid. , There remains in the registry of the court the balance of proceeds, which is claimed by Ruboy under Ms attachment, and by Hemphill and Bailey on their attachments. These adverse claims are the matter in controversy.

The difficulty grows out of the construction of the act of congress regarding attachments, and the application of its provisions to the state laws on the same subject. The laws of Missouri make pro vis[168]*168ion for two or more attachments issuing out of the same or co-ordinate courts in the state, but are silent as to attachments in United States courts. Bubey, assuming that the state attachment laws prevailed in them, heretofore moved this court for an order directing a transfer of the cases from this to the state court, to have them determined under the state law. This application was denied, because non-residents of the state are entitled to have their controversies determined in the federal courts. Bubey thereupon applied to be made a party to the proceedings in this court, so as to enable him to assert his rights. Leave was granted. Hemphill and Bailey, though later than Bubey in time with their attachments, yet claim the proceeds in controversy, because they say Bubey has no standing in this court. This depends upon the construction given to the federal and state attachment laws. And first of the provisions of the federal statute: Section .915 provides: “In common-law cases in the circuit and district courts the plaintiff shall be entitled to similar remedies by attachment or other process against the property of defendant which are now provided by the laws of the state in which such court is held for the courts thereof.” All other provisions regarding attachments, -found in the United States Statutes, pertain to exceptions or limitations, or look to the effective enforcement of state attachment laws. The remedies in the United States courts, under the provisions cited, are to be similar to those provided for the courts of the state. What are the remedies provided by the laws of the state of Missouri in cases such as the present? Section 447 of the Statutes of Missouri is as follows:

“Where the same property is attached in several actions by different plaintiffs against the same defendant, the court may settle and determine all controversies which may arise between any of the plaintiffs in relation to the property, and the priority, validity, good faith, and effect of the different attachments, and may dissolve any attachment, partially or wholly, or postpone it to another, or make such order in.the premises as right and justice may require.” '

If the writs issue from different courts of co-ordinate jurisdiction, such controversies shall be determined by that court in which the first writ of attachment was issued.

Under the provisions of the laws of the United States cited, this court administers the laws of the state of Missouri regarding attachments. That law, as is shown in the provision cited, has amply provided for the cáse in hand, which requires the determination of the property between Bubey, .Hemphill, and Bailey. That Bubey, with his attachment in the state court, was prior in time to Hemphill and Bailey, is not disputed. But it is said that Days’ property was in the hands of the United States marshal,—in other words, in the hands of the law,—and therefore could not be attached. This is true, if, by attaching in a case like this, is meant the actual seizing of possession of the property and the taking it out of the hands of the officer. In [169]*169this ease such seizure was unnecessary, for the property, as stated, was in the hands of the law. Yet something indicating the assertion of this rig]it must be done by Ruboy in order to entitle him to a lien or claim on the property and give him standing in this court. Eu-bey being a citizen of the state of Missouri, could not- sue Days in the federal court, because both were citizens of the same state. Ho was remediless unless the courts of the state afforded him redress. The attachment law did this, and upon suing out the writ and causing the same to be levied, and notifying the United States marshal, as he did, it gave him a lien on the surplus and a standing in this court such as enabled him to assert his rights, which he did in due time. Though the marshal’s return shows that he made additional levies in the Hemphill and Bailey cases on the same goods he had seized under the attachment in favor of Bates, yet it is apprehended that if he had returned the second and third,—the Hemp-hill and Bailey writs,—with the indorsement that since the seizure under the Bates attachment additional writs of Hemphill and Bailey against the same property had come into his hands, and that he held the property subject to those several attachments, such a return would undoubtedly have been good. The executive officers of courts should understand that when writs issue from state and federal courts against the same property, the officer first obtaining possession, on being notified that a state court officer, as in this case, has a writ against the same property, all reasonable facilities should be offered such officer to make a full return, and the officer holding the property should show in his return whatever was done by such state court officer. Federal and state courts are not foreign courts, or in hostility to each other, in administering justice between litigants. The citizen of the state in the federal court is as much in his own court as in the courts of the state. The rights he has he cannot be deprived of in a federal court. The citizen of another state has the same claim to a debtor’s property in the state of Missouri as a resident, but no more. In the case before the court, Bubey, being prior in time with his attachment to Hemphill and Bailey, is prior in right. '

Attachments of state courts are valid and binding in federal courts, and their priorities- are to be ascertained under the laws of the state, where no federal law interferes. ‘

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
17 F. 167, 5 McCrary's Cir. Ct. Rpts 342, 1883 U.S. App. LEXIS 2242, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bates-v-days-circtwdmo-1883.