Fulton v. Okes

262 N.W. 570, 195 Minn. 247, 1935 Minn. LEXIS 838
CourtSupreme Court of Minnesota
DecidedOctober 11, 1935
DocketNo. 30,576.
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 262 N.W. 570 (Fulton v. Okes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Minnesota primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fulton v. Okes, 262 N.W. 570, 195 Minn. 247, 1935 Minn. LEXIS 838 (Mich. 1935).

Opinion

I. M. Olsen, Justice.

The appeal is by the defendants Margaret Ellen Hanlon and James W. Hanlon, as representatives of the estate of Edward J. Hanlon, deceased, from an order denying their motion to discharge the garnishees and dismiss the garnishment proceeding in the action on the ground that the district court was without jurisdiction in the matter. The other defendants in the action are Day Okes and Sidney R. Okes, as surviving partners of the firm of Hanlon & Okes. The partnership consisted of Edward J. Hanlon, Day Okes, and Sidney R. Okes, and was dissolved by the death of Edward J. Hanlon on March 11, 1934. His estate is being probated, and the appellants are the executrix and the administrator with the will annexed of the estate. The affidavits of garnishment charge that the garnishees, the First National Bank of St. Paul and the Midland National Bank & Trust Company of Minneapolis, each has *249 property and money in its hands and under its control belonging to each of the defendants and is indebted to each of the defendants, and that the value of the property and money so held and the amount of such indebtedness in each instance exceeds the sum of $25.

1. The action is for recovery of money on contract and for damages for breach of such contract, which was entered into on February 21, 1934. The contract is one whereby the plaintiffs agreed to furnish certain materials and construct for Hanlon & Okes a cofferdam on the Mississippi River. It was partly performed by plaintiffs during the lifetime of Hanlon and Avas thereafter completed by them. This cofferdam Avas part of Avhat was designated as Lock No. 10 on the river, for the construction of which lock the firm of Hanlon & Okes had a contract AATith the federal government. Under the subcontract Avith plaintiffs, Hanlon & Okes agreed to do a number of things to facilitate the construction of said cofferdam and provide working conditions therefor.

There is a motion by plaintiffs to dismiss the appeal on the ground that the order appealed from is not appealable. The clear statement in Krafve v. Roy & Roy, 98 Minn. 141, 143, 107 N. W. 966, 967, 116 A. S. R. 346, determines the motion here made and sustains the appeal. It is there said:

“It is clear that an order refusing to discharge a garnishee in an action in which the court has jurisdiction of the parties is not appealable. It is equivalent to an order for judgment against him, and the appeal must be taken from the judgment. Croft v. Miller, 26 Minn. 317, 4 N. W. 45; Pillsbury v. Foley, 61 Minn. 434, 63 N. W. 1027. But here the defendant, by his motion to discharge the garnishee and to dismiss the action, challenges the jurisdiction of the court to proceed further in the action, and the order is appeal-able. Plano Mfg. Co. v. Kaufert, 86 Minn. 13, 89 N. W. 1124. The appeal in McKinney v. Mills, supra, Avas from a similar order.”

Plaintiffs contend that Avhere the court has jurisdiction over the parties personally an order refusing to discharge the garnishee and dismiss the garnishment is not appealable and, inferentially, that *250 jurisdiction over the subject matter of the action or property garnished is not important. They rely upon Duxbury v. Shanahan, 84 Minn. 353, 87 N. W. 944. The appeal there was from an order refusing to discharge the garnishee. But, on appeal here, both parties insisted that the order was appealable and sought here only the construction of the will there involved. The court in its opinion was strongly of the impression that the order was not appeal-able, but did not decide that question, and, in its syllabus, said: “Whether such order is appealable is questioned, and left undetermined.” The question of jurisdiction is not mentioned in the opinion, but the facts in the case were such that jurisdiction of the subject matter, the property sought to be reached by the garnishment, could well have been raised and decided.

2. Two essential elements necessary to authorize a court to proceed in a civil action such as this are jurisdiction over the parties and over the subject matter of the suit. Without jurisdiction over the persons of the defendants and over the property sought to be garnished, the court would have no authority to sustain the garnishment proceeding as to them. This court, in Sache v. Wallace, 101 Minn. 169, 175, 112 N. W. 386, 388, 11 L.R.A. (N.S.) 803, 118 A. S. R. 612, 11 Ann. Cas. 348, approved the general principle laid down in Black on Judgments, “that, in addition to jurisdiction of the parties and subject matter of the action, it is necessary to the validity of a judgment that the court should have had jurisdiction of the precise question which the judgment assumes to decide, or the particular remedy or relief which it assumes to grant.” Granting relief beyond the issues presented by the complaint was there held a jurisdictional defect and the judgment, to that extent, held void. In that case defendant had not answered. In the present case appellants appeared specially and moved to dismiss the garnishment proceeding. They are in the same position as a defendant who has not answered, as far as the garnishment proceeding is concerned. By the appeal here they challenge the jurisdiction over the property sought to be impounded by the garnishment, as to them. That presents a jurisdictional question, and the motion to dismiss the appeal is denied.

*251 3. Coming then to the merits of the appeal, the inquiry is whether the appellants have shown, or can on this record show, lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter of the garnishment, the property garnished. We start out with the well established principle that the jurisdiction of the district court over the parties and subject matter in a case entertained by it will be presumed unless want of jurisdiction affirmatively appears on the face of the record or is shown by extrinsic evidence in a direct attack on the judgment or order. 2 Dunnell, Minn. Dig. (2 ed. & Supp. 1932) § 2347; Wilkowske v. Lynch, 124 Minn. 492, 145 N. W. 378; Leland v. Heiberg, 156 Minn. 30, 194 N. W. 93; Roscoe Black Co. v. Brown, 164 Minn. 440, 205 N. W. 438.

On the record before us, lack of jurisdiction over the subject matter of the garnishment does not affirmatively appear, and there is no extrinsic evidence. The record consists of the summons, complaint, affidavits for garnishment, garnishee summons and notice to defendants, proof of service of summons, garnishee summons and notice, motion by appellants to discharge garnishees and dismiss garnishment proceeding as to them on the ground of lack of jurisdiction, and the order denying the motion, followed by notice of appeal to this court. There has been no disclosure by the garnishees. Jurisdiction of the persons of appellants is conceded.

4. It is argued that the property of appellants sought to be reached is the property of the estate of Edward J. Hanlon, now being administered by the probate court, and that the probate court has exclusive control of that property during administration; hence the district court has no jurisdiction over it, and garnishment thereof cannot be sustained. The appellants are sued as representatives of the Edward J. Hanlon estate, and the garnishment is against them as such.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
262 N.W. 570, 195 Minn. 247, 1935 Minn. LEXIS 838, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fulton-v-okes-minn-1935.