Eaton v. Pennywit

25 Ark. 144
CourtSupreme Court of Arkansas
DecidedDecember 15, 1867
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 25 Ark. 144 (Eaton v. Pennywit) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Arkansas primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Eaton v. Pennywit, 25 Ark. 144 (Ark. 1867).

Opinion

Clendenin, J.

The appellants instituted their action, in debt,, based upon the transcript of a judgment rendered in the fourth district court of New Orleans, in the State of Louisiana; sei’vice was had, the defendant appeared and filed two pleas: 1st, nul tielrecord ; and 2d, a special plea, setting up, in substance, “ that at the time when the suit or motion in which the judgment in the declaration in this behalf mentioned was enumerated, and from thence up to and until, and at the time when the said recovery in the said declaration stated was i’endered, as aforesaid, said defendant was a citizen of the State of Arkansas, and resided and was domiciled therein, and was not a resident or citizen of the State of Louisiana, and said defendant was not served with process in said suit, and had no notice whatever of the pendency of the same; and said defendant never appeared to said suit, either in person or by attorney, and no one duly authorized entered his appearance to such suit.” To these pleas issues were regularly made up, and the case submitted to the court, sitting as a jury, who, upon the trial, rejected the transcript of the judgment offered as evidence by the plaintiffs, heard the testimony offered by the defendant, and declared the law as moved for by the defendant, and found upon the issues for the defendant. To which finding of the court and judgment, the plaintiffs excepted, and having incorporated the transcript of the judgment, offered in evidence,1 the testimony heard by the court, and the declarations of law, in their bill of exceptions, which was signed and sealed, they have appealed to this court.

To arrive at a correct understanding of the questions presented in this case, it will be necessary to1 refer to, and give a brief statement of, the cause, originally instituted in Louisiana, which resulted in the judgment there, upon which the ease' now before us originated in this State.

It appears, from the transcript of the record of the fourth district court of New Orleans, that on the 3d day of January, 1862, the appellants, Eaton & Betterton, commenced their action by attachment against Levi Chapman, Ed. C. Carter, ~W. M. Ensign and (the appellee) P. Pennywit, upon a promissory note, for a sum certain; that the writ of attachment was levied upon a steamboat, the Thirty-fifth Parallel, averred in the petition to be the property,of the defendants. Personal service was had on one of the defendants, Levi Chapman, and publication made as to the other defendants, all of the defendants being averred in the petition to be non-residents. After the seizure of the boat and the service upon Chapman, he executed a bond, with security, which was accepted by the sheriff, and the property1 attached released. On the 15th of January, 1862, 'a default was entered against all of the defendants, and oh the same day, the record entry is : “ On motion of Durant & Homer, of counsel for defendants, and on filing their answer, it is ordered that the default entered herein be set aside;” and on the same day is the following entry: “ Now come the defendants, by their attorneys, and deny all and singular the allegations in plaintiffs’ petition contained; wherefore they pray for judgment in their favor for costs, and all further general and equitable relief. Signed, Durant & Homer, attorneys for defendants.” On the 15th January, 1868, the entry is : “ On motion ■of Durant & Homer, of counsel for defendants, it is ordered that this cause be continued indefinitely.” No further entry is made until January 12,1864, when we find the following: ■“ This case came up for trial this day. John Henderson, attorney for plaintiffs, Durant & Homer, attorneys for defendants. Plaintiffs offer in evidence the note sued on and annexed to petition. The evidence adduced in ’this case, having satisfied the court of the justice of plaintiffs’ claim, it is therefore ordered, adjudged and decreed that the plaintiffs, Eaton & Betterton, do have and recover from the defendants in suit, Levi Chapman, Ed. C. Carter, W. M. Ensign and P. Penny-wit, in salido, the sum of six thousand seven hundred and ninety-five dollars and seventy-one cents, with 8 per cent, interest from date of note until paid.”

The consideration of this case must turn upon two principal inquiries: 1st. Had the fourth district court of New Orleans jurisdiction of the person or property of the defendant ? 2d. Did the defendant have such notice as would bind him personally, or did he waive such notice by his appearance ?

The record of the proceedings in Louisiana affirmatively shows that Pennywit, as well as the other defendants in that court, were non-residents, and that Pennywit was not personally served with notice; therefore the court did not have jurisdiction of his person at the commencement of the action, or at the time of the levy of the attachment.

We think there can be no question'that the court in Louisiana, in a personal action, such as this was, instituted in the ■courts of that State, did have jurisdiction over any property of the defendant found there ; and the fact that the property so found was a steamboat, would not in any manner change the rule. It was not a proceeding, in rem against the boat by her name, but was a proceeding in personam, to subject the property of the defendants to the payment of their debts. The proceedings in the case in Louisiana, do not come within the law as held by the Supreme Court of the United States, in the case of The Steamboat Hine v. Trevor, 4 Wallace, 555, as contended for by the counsel of the appellee. In the case referred to, the facts were, that a collision occurred between the steamboats Hiñe and Sunshine, on the Mississippi river, in which the Sunshine was injured. Some time afterwards, the owners of the Sunshine caused the Iline to be seized, while she was in the jurisdiction of the State of Iowa, in a proceeding under the laws of that State, to 'subject her to sale in satisfaction of the damages sustained by their vessel. The cause was tried in the State courts, upon a plea to the jurisdiction; and being decided against the Hine, it was carried to the Supreme .Court of the United States, where it was held, in substance, that State statutes which attempt to confer on State courts a remedy for marine torts, or marine contracts, by proceedings strictly in rem, ai’e void ; because they are in conflict with the act of Congress. The court, upon the point we are considering, say: “It is said that the statute of Iowa may be fairly construed as coming within the clause of the 9th section of the act of 1789, £ which saves to suitors in all cases, the right of a common law remedy, where the common law is competent to give it.’ But the remedy pursued in the Iowa courts, in the case before us, is in no sense a common law remedy. It is a remedy partaking in all the essential features of* an admiralty proceeding in rem. The statute provides that the vessel may be sued, and made defendant, without any proceeding against the owners, or even mentioning their names. That a writ may be issued, and the vessel seized, on filing a petition similar, in substance, to a libel. . That after a notice in the nature of a monition, the vessel may be condemned, and an order made for her sale, if the liability is established for which she is sued.” “ Such,” say the court, “is the general character of the steamboat laws of the western States.”

“ While the proceeding differs thus from a common law remedy, it is also essentially different from what are, in the west, called suits by attachment, and in some of the older States foreign attachments.

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Bluebook (online)
25 Ark. 144, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/eaton-v-pennywit-ark-1867.