Harmon v. Best

91 N.E. 19, 174 Ind. 323, 1910 Ind. LEXIS 113
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 8, 1910
DocketNo. 21,380
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 91 N.E. 19 (Harmon v. Best) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Harmon v. Best, 91 N.E. 19, 174 Ind. 323, 1910 Ind. LEXIS 113 (Ind. 1910).

Opinion

Jordan, J.

Appellee, a resident of Indianapolis, Indiana, instituted this action against Judson Harmon, as receiver of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad Company. The railroad of this company runs from Indianapolis, Indiana, to Cincinnati, Ohio. The receiver was appointed by the United States circuit court for the southern district of Ohio. Appellee was an employe of the receiver in the operation of said railroad, and sued to recover $81, which amount he alleged in his complaint the receiver was indebted to him for labor performed.

The action was commenced before a justice of the peace of Center township, Marion county, Indiana. The receiver filed in said court a plea in abatement, alleging therein that plaintiff’s wages, which he sued to recover, had been garnished in a proceeding brought before a duly qualified commissioner of the United States circuit court for the southern district of Ohio, appointed by the court in the matter of said receivership -to hear and determine all garnishment proceedings, and the pleading alleged a previous tender of the amount due to plaintiff, after deducting therefrom the [325]*325amount garnished,, and this tender was kept good by paying the money into court.

The justice sustained the receiver’s plea in abatement, and rendered judgment against plaintiff. From this judgment he appealed to the Superior Court of Marion County. In the latter court the parties entered of record an agreement that the case should be tried on the plea in abatement, and if the court decided against defendant, on the issues formed upon said plea, the court should then treal the ease, as if defendant had filed a general denial and also a special plea in bar setting up the same facts contained in the plea in abatement, and should then finally decide the ease as if the issues were so framed, and base its decision on the same evidence without rehearing it.

Upon a trial the Superior Court of Marion County decided against defendant on the plea in .abatement and rendered judgment in favor of plaintiff for the sum of $50, and directed the clerk of the court to pay to plaintiff the amount tendered and paid into court by defendant.

Defendant moved for a new trial, assigning as reasons therein that the court erred in the assessment of the amount of recovery- — that it was too large, that the decision was not sustained by sufficient evidence and was contrary to law. This motion, over defendant’s exception, was denied, and he has appealed to this court under §1391 Burns 1908, Acts 1901 p. 565, §8, for the purpose of securing the proper construction of the third section of an act of congress known as the judiciary act (25 Stat. p. 436), which is as follows: “That every receiver or manager of any property appointed by any court of the United States may be sued in respect of any act or transaction of his in carrying on the business connected with such property, without the previous leave of the court in which such receiver or manager was appointed ; but such suit shall be subject to the general equity jurisdiction of the court in which such receiver or manager [326]*326was appointed, so far as the same shall be necessary to the ends of justice. ’ ’

Appellant claims that certain rights guaranteed by the federal Constitution have been denied to him under the decision of the lower court. There is no material dispute in respect to the evidence, and the facts thereby established may be said to be as follows: Judson Harmon, the receiver and appellant herein, was on December 5, 1905, in a proceeding in. equity before the United States circuit court for the southern district of the State of Ohio, western division, appointed receiver of the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad Company. At the February term, 1906, of said court, which was held at the city of Cincinnati, Ohio, the court made and entered the following order in the matter of said receivership: It is now ordered by the court that Aaron A. Ferris be, and he hereby is, made a commissioner of this court in this case, for the purpose of hearing, considering and determining all garnishment and attachment proceedings taken or intended to be taken against any employe or other creditor of the receiver heretofore appointed herein in this cause, where the object is to attach or garnish property in the hands or custody of said receiver*, or moneys due from him as such to his employes or other creditors. It is further ordered that, where it is desired or intended to institute such attachment or garnishment proceedings, all such claims shall be presented to said commissioner, and that upon said commissioner’s giving notice of such claim to said receiver he shall forthwith notify said employe, or person against whom said claim is presented, of said claim, and shall withhold from said employe or other creditor, from moneys due to him, a sufficient amount to satisfy said claim, and that upon the order of said commissioner such amount shall be paid to said employe or other creditor of the receiver, or to said claimant as said commissioner may direct and adjudge, and that said commissioner, in case said claim or the right to maintain such attachment or garnish[327]*327ment proceedings be contested by said employe or other creditor of the receiver, shall fix a time and place for the hearing thereof, giving due notice thereof to said claimant and said employe or other creditor of the receiver, and further that the receiver do not appear to answer any garnishment or attachment proceeding against any employe or other creditor of his, except as herein provided. It is further ordered that persons wishing to prosecute such claims against employes or other creditors of the receiver shall transmit to said commissioner a statement thereof, verified under oath, setting forth the nature of said claim and the date wdien, and the cause for which, it was incurred, and the ground for attachment or garnishment, together with a fee of $2, which amount shall be deducted as costs from any money due to said employe or amount due such other creditor of said receiver, and shall be returned to said claimant in case his claim and attachment be established; but in case said claim or attachment be not established said sum of $2 shall be retained by said commissioner as his costs; and said receiver is hereby directed to give notice, by circular or otherwise, of the entering of this order, so that any persons desiring to institute such attachment or garnishment proceedings hereunder may have opportunity to avail themselves hereof. It is further ordered that if anybody desires to institute legal proceeding’s against said receiver for any cause of action, claim or demand against the Cincinnati, Hamilton and Dayton Railroad Company, accruing prior to December 5, 1905, it shall be brought only by intervening petition in tliis cause, and that no proceeding in attachment, execution, or other final process whatever may be issued against said receiver, otherwise than by leave first granted upon intervening petition in this cause. ’ ’

A duly certified copy of this order by the clerk of the court, under the seal of the court, was introduced in evidence. The judge of the court certified that the attestation of the order Avas in due form of laAV and Avas by the proi>er [328]*328officer, the clerk of said court. The clerk also certified that Albert C. Thompson was judge of said federal court, and that full faith and credit were due to all of his official acts as such; all of which ivas duly attested by the seal of said court.

Aaron A.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
91 N.E. 19, 174 Ind. 323, 1910 Ind. LEXIS 113, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/harmon-v-best-ind-1910.