Duffey v. Reardon

70 Ohio St. (N.S.) 328
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJune 21, 1904
DocketNo. 8379
StatusPublished

This text of 70 Ohio St. (N.S.) 328 (Duffey v. Reardon) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Duffey v. Reardon, 70 Ohio St. (N.S.) 328 (Ohio 1904).

Opinion

Price, J.

The plaintiff in error presents two questions which arise on the record:

First. Is the order of the justice requiring the railway company to pay into court the money in its [332]*332possession, due to the defendant in errbr, a final order ?

Second. In proceedings in aid of execution before a justice of the peace, are the wages under $150 earned within three months by an unmarried man, having a widowed mother wholly dependent upon him for support, exempt, where proceedings in attachment as provided by statute are not invoked to subject the money to the benefit of the judgment creditor?

(1) It is claimed that the order of the justice under consideration is not a final order, and if that view is correct, then error did not lie to review it, and the judgment debtor had no standing in either of the reviewing courts. To support the position taken, we are referred to the provisions of section 6680-5, Bevised Statutes, which is a part of the provisions of our statute, for proceedings in aid of execution before a justice of the peace. The .sections immediately preceding prescribe the manner of instituting the proceeding; — by affidavit of the judgment creditor, his agent or attorney; the process that shall issue for the party charged with a liability to the judgment debtor, its service and return, and the nature and extent of the examination of such party on the return day of the process, and the order to be made on such examination.

Then section 6680-5 provides that, “If the justice shall make an order, pursuant to the preceding section, directing the payment of money by the person, partnership or corporation, against whom the aforesaid proceedings are instituted, and if such person, partnership or corporation fail to comply with said order, the judgment creditor may proceed against [333]*333such person, partnership or corporation by civil action; and thereupon such proceedings may be had as in other civil actions, * *

As to the person, partnership or corporation cited, to appear and answer in such proceeding, it appears from this section that the order of the justice of the peace, is not a final order, precluding further inquiry or proceedings. The party may decline to obey the order of the justice, and in such case the judgment creditor may resort to a civil action against him, in which any proper defense may be set up by answer.

Similar provisions are found in section 5551, Revised Statutes, regulating attachment and garnishee proceedings in the court of common pleas, and in sections 6503 and 6504, regulating like proceedings before a justice of the peace.

Hence, the cases cited for plaintiff in error, which hold that error will not lie to review the order of a justice of the peace, requiring the garnishee to pay into court money of the defendant in attachment. The remedy of the garnishee in such case, is to refuse to comply with the order and have his rights adjudicated in a civil action. This is the doctrine of Secor v. Witter, 39 Ohio St., 218, cited by plaintiff in error.

But this is not a case in which a garnishee in an attachment proceeding, or a party ordered to pay in a proceeding in aid of execution, prosecuted error to the order of the justice; but it is a ease where the judgment debtor, whose personal earnings were sought to be appropriated, prosecuted error to review the order of the justice. As to him the order was final, and his only recourse or rem-. [334]*334edy is the one he pursued, unless he could have-appealed, which we do not decide. He was made a party to the proceeding and served with, notice to appear on the same day set for the examination of the railway company. The statute (section 6680-2) requires that he be notified, if found in the county, at least three days before the hearing, and by these steps he became a party to the proceeding. The order in question affected one of his substantial rights, inasmuch as it directed his employer to pay his wages into court to cover the judgment and costs. He was claiming-these wages as exempt under our laws, and, if his exemption was denied by the justice, such denial and order on the railway company appropriated his. property, and it became his duty, if he did not wish to abide by the decision, to prosecute error in a higher court to have his rights determined. It would be too late for him to contest the question with the railway company, if he took no steps to reverse the order, and the company obeyed it by paying the money into court, or to the judgment creditor.

We think that as to the judgment debtor, the order is a final order as defined in section 6707, Revised Statutes. It follows that he had a right to prosecute error in the court of common pleas, and also in the circuit court, as he has done.

(2) Are the personal earnings of an unmarried man having a widowed mother wholly dependent upon him for support, exempt in proceedings in aid of execution before a justice of the peace?

The plaintiff in error seems to concede that if he were seeking to subject such earnings by attachment before a justice of the peace, an unmarried. [335]*335man having a widowed mother wholly dependent upon him for support, may lawfully hold his earnings within a certain time and under a certain amount, as exempt; hut as he is not proceeding by attachment, the right to the exemption does not. exist.

An examination of some provisions of our statute-becomes necessary in order to decide the question. Section 6680-1 provides: “When a judgment creditor, his agent or attorney, makes oath in writing-before the justice of the peace, who rendered the judgment, or before his successor, that the affiant has good reason to believe, and does believe, that any person, partnership or corporation, naming the-same, is liable to the judgment debtor in any sum of money, whether then due or not, and that said money is not exempt from execution or attachment-under the laws of the state of Ohio, the justice shall' order such person, partnership or corporation, to-appear before him at his office at a time and place-specified in such order, # * # and answer under-oath respecting such liability; and he may also subpoena witnesses to testify concerning the same.”

The affidavit made in this case contains the required statement that “the said money is not exempt from execution or attachment under the laws-of the state of Ohio.” The use of this clause of the-statute does not rest in the discretion of the affiant, but is one of the conditions upon which the order may issue.

As before stated, “the judgment debtor, if found, within the county, shall be served with notice in. writing at least three days before the hearing provided for in the foregoing section, which notice.[336]*336shall be served like a summons.” See section 6680-2, Revised Statutes.

The judgment debtor, appeared in pursuance of the notice, and made it appear without contradiction, that while he is an unmarried man, he is the son of a widowed mother wholly dependent upon him for support, and that his earnings within three months ($88.87), were necessary to the support of the mother. That showing was in answer to a very material statement in the affidavit of the judgment creditor, quoted above, and we therefore turn to the statute, section 6489, Revised Statutes, regulating attachments before a justice of the peace to ascertain the effect of the showing.

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Bluebook (online)
70 Ohio St. (N.S.) 328, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/duffey-v-reardon-ohio-1904.