Bingenheimer Mercantile Co. v. Weber

191 N.W. 620, 49 N.D. 312, 27 A.L.R. 1392, 1922 N.D. LEXIS 57
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedDecember 18, 1922
StatusPublished
Cited by13 cases

This text of 191 N.W. 620 (Bingenheimer Mercantile Co. v. Weber) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering North Dakota Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Bingenheimer Mercantile Co. v. Weber, 191 N.W. 620, 49 N.D. 312, 27 A.L.R. 1392, 1922 N.D. LEXIS 57 (N.D. 1922).

Opinions

Biedzell, Oh. J.

This is an appeal from an order entered in the district court of Morton county, denying a motion of the defendant to dismiss garnishment proceedings. The plaintiff is a North Dakota corporation, the defendant a resident of Montana, and the garnishee a corporation doing business and authorized to do business in both North Dakota and Montana, but not organized under the laws of either state. The action is one to recover upon a promissory note and substituted service was obtained upon the defendant in Montana. Garnishment summons was served upon the Northern Pacific Railway Company and .a disclosure made showing an indebtedness of $87.18 owing by the garnishee to the defendant. The defendant appeared specially by his .attorney and moved to dismiss the garnishment. The debt owing by the garnishee to the defendant is for wages earned in Montana. The .sole question presented is whether or not the indebtedness of a foreign ■corporation, authorized to do business in this state, to an employee for wages earned in another state, of which the employee is a resident, is .subject to garnishment in this state, in a suit brought by a resident .against the employee, where substituted service upon the latter is had.

Our garnishment statute, § 7567, Comp. Laws, 1913, provides:

“Any creditor shall be entitled to proceed by garnishment in any •court having jurisdiction of the subject of the action against any per[315]*315•son, ■ including a public corporation, who shall be indebted to or have any property whatever, real or personal, in his possession or under his control, belonging to such creditor’s debtor, in the cases, upon the conditions, and in the manner prescribed in this chapter.”

Does the garnishee corporation have in its possession, or under its ■control, property belonging to the plaintiff’s debtor, within the meaning of the foregoing statute, so as to render such property subject to garnishment? The question of jurisdiction for garnishment, or for attachment purposes, is one that has not been found easy of solution, owing, principally, to the great variety of facts under which the question has been presented at different times, and to the seeming conflict of rights claimed under the jurisdiction of different states. For some purposes, for instance, a debt is regarded as the property of the creditor, following him wherever he may be under the maxim “mobilia sequun-tur.” In some jurisdictions, by force of the maxim, the situs of a debt has been held to be the domicil of the creditor and the credit could not be reached by garnishment in another jurisdiction. See, Central Trust Co. v. Chattanooga R. & C. R. Co. (C. C.) 68 Fed. 685, and cases therein cited. This, however, as will appear later in this opinion, is not the view adhered to by the weight of judicial authority. Obviously the foreign attachment and garnishment laws are framed on a theory opposed to the maxim. They presuppose that, though the debtor may be beyond the jurisdiction of the state, property left behind, in the shape of a credit, is still subject to the jurisdiction of the court to the extent that it may be applied upon such creditor’s debts. Otherwise, there could be no such thing as foreign garnishment or attachment applicable to a chose in action. Harvey v. Great Northern R. Co. 50 Minn. 405, 17 L.R.A. 84, 52 N. W. 905; Lancashire Ins. Co. v. Corbetts, 165 Ill. 592, 36 L.R.A. 640, 56 Am. St. Rep. 275, 46 N. E. 631.

Since, then, for the purposes of garnishment, the credit sought to be garnished does not necessarily follow or attach to the nonresident creditor, it remains to be seen whether or not it is so far controlled by the jurisdiction of the debtor that it may be rendered subject to garnishment here. Different tests to determine the answer to this question have been proposed at various times. It has been held that jurisdiction would not -exist in the forum of the plaintiff’s and garnishee’s domicil, if the debt sought to be garnished were payable elsewhere, or if the [316]*316debt represented business done or moneys earned by the defendant elsewhere. Missouri P. R. Co. v. Sharitt, 43 Nan. 375, 8 L.R.A. 385, 19 Am. St. Rep. 143, 23 Pac. 430; Drake v. Lake Shore & M. S. R. Co. 69 Mich. 168, 177, 13 Am. St. Rep. 382, 37 N. W. 70; Keating v. American Refrigerator Co. 32 Mo. App. 293; Todd v. Missouri P. R. Co. 33 Mo. App. 110 (overruled by Wyeth Hardware & Mfg. Co. v. H. F. Lang & Co. 127 Mo. 242, 48 Am. St. Rep. 626, 29 S. W. 1010, 27 L.R.A. 651; Bullard v. Chaffee, 61 Neb. 83, 51 L.R.A. 715, 84 N. W. 604; Wright v. Chicago, B. & Q. R. Co. 19 Neb. 175, 56 Am. St. Rep. 747, 27 N. W. 90. And too, various facts have been thought to signify that a debt was payable elsewhere when such facts would not, for other purposes, warrant such assumption.

Regardless of the conflict introduced in the authorities dealing with this question, due more or less to the consideration mentioned above, we think the true principle and rule of decision is that laid down by the United States supreme court, in the case of Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co. v. Sturm, 174 U. S. 710, 716, 43 L. ed. 1144, 1146, 19 Sup. Ct. Rep. 797, in which it was said:

“The proposition that the situs of a debt is where it is to be paid is indefinite. ‘All debts are payable everywhere, unless there be some special limitation or provision in respect to the payment; the rule being that debts as such have no locus or situs, but accompany the creditor everywhere, and authorize a demand upon the debtor everywhere.’ 2 Parsons, Contr. 8th ed. 702. The debt involved in the pending case had no ‘special limitation or provision in respect to payment.’ It was payable generally and could have been sued on in Iowa, and therefore was attachable in Iowa. This is the principle and effect of the best considered cases — the inevitable effect from the nature of transitory actions and the purpose of foreign attachment laws if we would enforce that purpose. Embree v. Hanna, 5 Johns. 101; Hull v. Blake, 13 Mass. 153; Blake v. Williams, 6 Pick. 286, 17 Am. Dec. 372; Harwell v. Sharp Bros. 85 Ga. 124, 8 L.R.A. 514, 21 Am. St. Rep. 149, 11 S. E. 561; Harvey v. Great Northern R. Co. 50 Minn. 405, 17 L.R.A. 84, 52 N. W. 905; Mahany v. Kephart, 15 W. Va. 609; Leiber v. Union P. R. Co. 49 Iowa, 688; National F. Ins. Co. v. Chambers, 53 N. J. Eq. 468, 32 Atl. 663; Holland v. Mobile & O. R. Co. 16 Lea, 414; Pomeroy v. Rand, McN. & Co. 157 Ill. 176, 41 N. E. 636; Berry Bros. [317]*317v. Nelson D. & Co. 77 Tex. 191, 19 Am. St. Rep. 748, 13 S. W. 978; Wyeth Hardware & Mfg. Co. v. H. F. Lang & Co. 127 Mo. 242, 27 L.R.A. 651, 48 Am. St. Rep. 626, 29 S. W. 1010; Howland v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. Co. 134 Mo. 474, 36 S. W. 29.”

In addition to the authorities cited in the foregoing quotation, see, also, Stone v. Drake, 79 Ark. 384, 96 S. W. 197; Baltimore & O. S. W. R. Co. v. Adams, 159 Ind. 688, 60 L.R.A. 396, 66 N. E. 43; Leech v. Brown, 172 Iowa, 182, 154 N. W. 440; Wiener v. American Ins. Co. 224 Pa. 292, 23 L.R.A. 593, 73 Atl. 443; Biggert v. Straub, 193 Mass. 77, 118 Am. St. Rep. 449, 78 N. E. 770; Starkey v. Cleveland, C. C. & St. L. R. Co. 114 Minn. 27, L.R.A.1915F, 880, 137 N. W. 540; Wright v. Southern R. Co. 141 N. C. 164, 53 S. E. 831; National F. Ins. Co. v. Chambers, 53 N. J. Eq. 468, 32 Atl. 663; Bristol v. Brent, 38 Utah, 58, 110 Pac. 356; Rood, Garnishment, §§ 242-245.

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Bluebook (online)
191 N.W. 620, 49 N.D. 312, 27 A.L.R. 1392, 1922 N.D. LEXIS 57, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/bingenheimer-mercantile-co-v-weber-nd-1922.