Fox v. Mackenzie

47 N.W. 386, 1 N.D. 298, 1890 N.D. LEXIS 39
CourtNorth Dakota Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 29, 1890
StatusPublished
Cited by8 cases

This text of 47 N.W. 386 (Fox v. Mackenzie) 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
Fox v. Mackenzie, 47 N.W. 386, 1 N.D. 298, 1890 N.D. LEXIS 39 (N.D. 1890).

Opinion

Corliss, C. J.

The defendant and appellant, haying given the statutory undertaking to discharge the attachment under which his property had been seized, now insists that his right to have the attachment dissolved because improvidently issued is nevertheless unimpaired. The ground of the attachment was the non-residence of the defendant, and on the motion to dissolve it the defendant presented affidavits showing that the attachment affidavit was in that respect false. These affidavits, on the motion of the plaintiff, were stricken from, the files, the court below ruling that the right of defendant to move to dissolve on the ground that the attachment had been improvidently issued was lost by his giving the undertaking to discharge the attachment under the statute. Was this error? The statute-provides two distinct modes of securing the discharge of an attachment. One is on motion, because of irregularities in the proceedings, or on account of the falsity of the attachment affidavit; the other is by the giving to the plaintiff of an undertaking to pay the judgment. §§ 5009-5011, Comp. Laws.

It is clear that a successful motion to discharge an attachment, culminating in an order to that effect, is the utter annihilation of the proceeding. Everything from the seizure back to and including the false affidavit is swept aside. The language of the statute is that the defendant may move to “discharge the attachment.” The same language is employed in the section providing for the giving of an undertaking by the defendant. Such an undertaking operates to “discharge the attachment.” The same language is employed in the section providing for the giving of an undertaking by the defendant. Such an undertaking operates to discharge the attachment.” These words must have the same construction when used to describe the effect of the giving of such undertaking as when employed in the section relating to motions to dissolve, unless we can see good reason for giving them different interpretations in the different sections. If the only effect of the giving of an undertaking by the defendant was designed to be the release of the particular property seized from the levy, if the writ nevertheless was to remain in its full vigor, why did not this section limit such effect in express terms to a discharge of the lien of [300]*300the attachment, and why did it declare that the consequence would be a discharge of the attachment itself, using the very language which, in the same statute, was employed to express the legal extinction of the writ? One of the principal reasons urged to support the doctrine that the affidavit may be traversed although the defendant has rebonded is that the other rule would result in great injustice to the defendant, who might suffer damages through delay, for which the law would afford him no redress, or which the penalty of the plaintiff’s undertaking would not equal; that the law intended that he should have the speedy mode of securing possession of his property by bonding to prevent such irreparable injury; and that it would be unjust to hold that he could secure this right only at the expense of the other right to assail the truth of the attachment affidavit.

The whole force of this argument depends upon a false assumption. So far from securing his property more speedily by rebonding, the fact is that a motion to dissolve on the ground of the falsity of the affidavit may result in the defendant’s securing a more speedy return of his property than he would by re-bonding. The plaintiff has three days after the execution of such undertaking in which to decide whether he will except to the sufficiency of the sureties. § 5010 Comp. Laws. Luring this time the sheriff has the right to and usually will hold the property. The plaintiff may then except to the sureties, and the defendant can thereafter have them justify, upon not less than five days’ notice. § 5010 Comp. Laws. It is, therefore, always in the power of the plaintiff to prevent the defendant from securing a return of the attached property in less than eight days from the execution of the undertaking. But the defendant may, in a proper case, in a case where he will suffer irreparable damage from the delay, in any case of great hardship, apply to the court to shorten the time in which to move to vacate the writ, and the court will, in the exercise of its discretion, shorten, by an order to show cause, the time in which to make such motion, forcing the plaintiff to sustain his attachment in much less than eight days; and, if it be said that it may require time for the defendant to prepare his papers for such a motion, it is no less true that it may and often will take time for him to secure sureties [301]*301to sign, his discharge undertaking. It is thus apparent that the defendant gains nothing in the point of time by rebonding; nolis there anything in the contention that to bar his right to traverse the attachment affidavit because he has rebonded is unjust, even on the assumption that he can more quickly secure his property by giving a discharge bond than by motion. Counsel for appellant has taken it for granted that in this jurisdiction the defendant has only these two modes of saving or regaining his property from the grasp of the attachment. They have overlooked or misconstrued § 4997, Comp. Laws, which provides that the warrant of attachment shall require the sheriff to seize and safely keep defendant’s property “unless the defendant give him security by the undertaking of at least two sufficient sureties in an amount sufficient to satisfy such demand, besides costs, or in an amount equal to the value of the property which. has been, or is about to be, attached, in which case to take such undertaking.” It was urged-on the argument of this cause by counsel for the appellant, who made an oral argument, that the bond provided for in this section is the same as the bond specified in § 5010, and that if the execution of one will bar the motion to discharge the attachment so will the execution of the other. To this view we cannot assent. The bond referred to in § 4997, as we construe it, is a mere substitute for the levy made or about to be made. That bond we will designate as the “substitute bond”’ the other as the “discharge bond,” in the course of this opinion. The latter runs to the plaintiff in the writ, while the former is given to the sheriff. The discharge bond is in double the amount of the claim, or of the appraised value of the property seized, while the penalty of the substitute bond is only commensurate with the amount of the claim, or of the appraised value of the property attached. The substitute bond can be given before seizure to prevent it, or immediately after a levy, without an appearance in the action. The discharge bond can only be executed after seizure, and after the defendant has appeared in the action. It is presented to the court or the clerk, and the sureties thereon must justify if the plaintiff so demands. The other bond is delivered to the sheriff, and no justification of sureties is required. The condition of the discharge bond is [302]*302that the amount of the judgment recovered by plaintiff shall be paid. The statute does not provide in express terms what the condition of the substitute bond shall be. It is expressly provided that the giving of the discharge bond shall “discharge the attachment.” No such provision is found in connection with the substitute bond. If the plaintiff omit to except to the sureties in the discharge bond, he cannot after judgment look to the sheriff, as the law has given him the bond in lieu of the attachment and levy thereunder.

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

Related

Ravely v. Isensee
221 N.W. 38 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1928)
Minneapolis Threshing MacHine Co. v. Warner
203 N.W. 197 (North Dakota Supreme Court, 1925)
St. Louis Cordage Mills v. Western Supply Co.
1916 OK 80 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1916)
Leusch v. Nickel
113 P. 595 (New Mexico Supreme Court, 1911)
Moffitt v. Garrett
1909 OK 61 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1909)
Brady v. Onffroy
79 P. 1004 (Washington Supreme Court, 1905)
Anvil Gold Mining Co. v. Hoxsie
125 F. 724 (Ninth Circuit, 1903)
Anvil Gold Min. Co. v. Hoxie
1 Alaska 604 (D. Alaska, 1902)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
47 N.W. 386, 1 N.D. 298, 1890 N.D. LEXIS 39, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fox-v-mackenzie-nd-1890.