Doheny v. Worden

75 A.D. 47, 77 N.Y.S. 959, 1902 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2077
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided July 1, 1902·Published·Cited by 7 cases

Opinion

Williams, J.

■ The order appealed from should be reversed, with ten dollars costs and disbursements, and the motion denied, with ten dollars costs. '

The appellant procured an attachment to be issued and levied upon personal property of defendant November 12, 1898. Judgment was thereafter entered in the action Hay 11, 1899, and an execution issued and levied July 28, 1899.

[49] The respondents procured an attachment to be issued and levied upon defendant’s personal property July 31, 1899.

About the 22d of September, 1899, respondents noticed a motion for October 7, 1899, to vacate the appellant’s attachment, judgment and execution, for failure to make a legal service of the summons in the appellant’s action, and this motion was granted. The defendant in the two actions was not a party to the motion.

The service of the summons upon the defendant in the action, personally, within or without the State, or by publication thereof, as required by law, was essential to the validity of appellant’s attachment, judgment and execution. This would be true so far as the judgment and execution were concerned, manifestly, and section 638 of the Code of Civil Procedure provides as to the attachment that “ Personal service of the summons must be made upon the defendant, against whose property the warrant is granted, within thirty days after the granting thereof; or else, before the expiration of the same time, service of the summons by publication must be commenced, or service thereof must be made without the State, pursuant to an order obtained therefor, as prescribed in this act, and if publication has been, or is thereafter commenced, the service must be made complete, by the continuance thereof.”

There was concededly no service of the summons upon the defendant personally within or without the State, but there was an. attempted publication thereof, which respondents claimed was not completed as required by law. There was an order for the publication, made under section 440 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which directed that it be made in two newspapers not less than once a week for six successive weeks. One of the newspapers designated was the Syracuse Evening Journal. The publication in this newspaper was made December 12, 19 and 24, 1898, and January 2, 9 and 16,1899, so that it was made twice during the week commencing Monday, December nineteenth, and was not published at all during the week commencing Monday, December twenty-sixth. There was a full week after the publication on December twenty-fourth during which there was no publication at all. The publication was commenced on a Monday, and .was continued on each Monday thereafter, except Monday, December twenty-sixth. Christmas, [50] December twenty-fifth, falling on Sunday, Monday, the twenty-sixth, was the legal holiday under the Statutory Construction' Law (Laws of 18.92, chap. 677, § 24, as amd. by Laws of 1897,. chap. 6.14). The newspaper was not published on that day by reason of its being a holiday. The mistake was made in publishing the summons in that paper on Saturday, the twenty-fourth, instead of Tuesday, thó twenty-seventh. Two publications were thus made in one week, and none at all in the following week. This mistake rendered the service of summons by publication insufficient. There was no legal service of the summons. The provision of the Code is definite and must be complied with. Very likely it is not necessary that all the publications shall be made on any one day of the week, but there must be one in each seven days.

The court, therefore, was correct in holding that there was no legal service of the summons upon the defendant in the appellant’s action.

It is' claimed, however, that the respondents had no standing to raise the question we have considered and to ask for the relief afforded by the order appealed from.

So far as the attachment was concerned, the motion was made under section 682 of the Code of Civil Procedure, which provides that “ The defendant, or a person who has acquired a lien upon, or interest in, his property, after it was attached, may, at. any time before the actual application of the attached property, or the pro^ ceeds thereof, to the payment of a judgment recovered in the action, apply to vacate or modify the warrant,” etc.

In order to secure the benefit of this provision, the respondents were obliged to show a valid lien upon or interest in the- property acquired after the property was attached by appellant, They claimed such lien by attachment issued and levied July 31, 1899. The appellant attacked the respondents’ attachment and claimed it was invalid because:

First. The complaint and affidavit were insufficient as a basis for the ¿ttachment.

. Second. Tlie papers were insufficient to authorize an order for the service of their summons by publication.

Third. There was no proof, of a commencement or completed publication of the summons. '.

[51] The complaint might have been more formal than it was, but it was sufficient to show a cause of action against the defendant. It was not necessary that there should be a complaint at all as a basis for attachment. An affidavit only was required by the Code of Civil Procedure (§ 636). The sufficiency of the complaint became material only by reason of the affidavit referring to the complaint for a statement of a cause of action, and making the complaint part of the affidavit for that purpose.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Doheny v. Worden, 75 A.D. 47, 77 N.Y.S. 959, 1902 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 2077 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1902).

75 A.D. 47 (Doheny v. Worden) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

Related

In re Kaila B.
64 A.D.3d 647 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 2009)
Caton v. Caton
72 Misc. 2d 544 (New York Supreme Court, 1972)
Rieffer v. Home Indemnity Co.
61 A.2d 26 (District of Columbia Court of Appeals, 1948)
Bodine v. Bodine
79 Misc. 434 (Appellate Terms of the Supreme Court of New York, 1913)
Empire City Savings Bank v. Silleck
98 A.D. 139 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1904)
Doheny v. Worden
79 N.Y.S. 1131 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1902)
Rallings v. McDonald
76 A.D. 112 (Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of New York, 1902)