Hilborn v. Pennsylvania Cement Co.

145 A.D. 442, 129 N.Y.S. 957, 1911 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 1810
Appellate Division of the Supreme Court of the State of New York·Decided June 2, 1911·No. No. 1; No. 2·Published·Cited by 5 cases

Opinion

Ingraham, P. J.:

There was presented to a justice of the Supreme Court the summons and complaint and an affidavit of one Hilbom, and upon that complaint and affidavit a warrant of attachment was granted under which the sheriff has levied upon certain property, of the defendant. Subsequently the defendant appeared in the action, and upon an affidavit of the defendant’s president, which stated the issuing of the summons and complaint, the granting of the attachment on March 1, 1911 the appearance on the same day of the defendant; that an undertaking had been given discharging the attachment; that the defendant desires to vacate and set aside said attachment on the ground that the same was irregularly issued and on insufficient papers and that the court Was with[444] out. jurisdiction to grant the. same for the reasons stated in the notice of motion, and that no previous application had been made to set aside the attachment. That motion coming on to he heard, the plaintiff claimed the right to sustain the attachment by additional affidavits and submitted those additional affidavits to the court; that in reply the court said that it would accept the affidavits and determine whether of not they could be read in opposition to the motion ■ to vacate the attachment. Subsequently the court denied the motion to vacate the attachment but at the same time held that the affidavits would not be received, and an order was thereupon entered denying the motion without reciting the tender of the additional affidavits by the plaintiff to support the attachment or containing any reference to them. The plaintiff then made a motion to resettle this order so that the same should recite the papers as read and filed on the motion, which resulted in the order, or that the said order contain a recital that the said affidavits were submitted and tendered by plaintiff upon the hearing of the motion and. filed, but that the same were not considered by the court. The court denied this .motion to resettle the order and from that order denying the motion to resettle the plaintiff appealed, and the defendant also appealed from the order denying the motion to vacate the attachment, and these appeals were both submitted. •

We think the plaintiff was entitled to have the order state the fact that he had submitted these affidavits in opposition' to the defendant’s motion to vacate the attachment and that the court had refused to receive them; but we think the court below was clearly right in refusing to receive these affidavits or to consider the facts therein stated upon.the motion to vacate the attachment. ' By section 682 of the Code of Civil Procedure the defendant or a person who has acquired a subsequent lien upon his property after it was attached may at anytime before the application of the attached property, or the proceeds thereof to the payment of a judgment recovered in the action apply to vacate or modify the. warrant. And section 683 provides that ah application specified in section 682 may be founded only upon the papers upon which the warrant was, granted, in which case it.must be made to the court, or if the warrant was granted by [445] a judge out of court to the same judge in court or out of court and with or without notice as he deems proper. Or it may be founded upon proof by' affidavit on the part of the defendant; in which case it must be made to the court, or, if the warrant was granted by a judge out of court, to any judge of the court upon notice; and it may be opposed by new proof by affidavit on the part of the plaintiff tending to sustain any ground for the attachment recited in the warrant and n© other. Under this section it is only where the motion to vacate the attachment “ be founded upon proof by affidavit on the part of the defendant ” that it may be opposed by new proof by affidavit on the part of the plaintiff, This motion was made, as expressly stated, both in the notice of motion and in the affidavit which was annexed to the notice of motion, upon the ground that the attachment- vvas irregularly issued' and on insufficient papers and that the court was without jurisdiction to grant the same for the reasons stated in the notice of motion. There was no proof by affidavit or otherwise upon which the motion was made, the affidavit of the defendant’s president merely stating the proceedings in the action, and that the motion was made not upon proof, but upon the insufficiency of the papers upon which the attachment was granted. While we think the trial judge should have resettled the order so as to allow it to appear that these affidavits were actually submitted to him, at the same time as we have the papers all before us on this appeal it; would he a useless ceremony to reverse the order and require a resettlement when neither the court at Special Term nor this court on the appeal would have the right to receive the affidavits in support of the attachment.

We have then to determine whether the court below correctly denied the motion to vacate the attachment. To entitle the plaintiff to a warrant of attachment he must show by affidavit that one of the causes of action specified in section 635 of the Code of Civil Procedure exists against the defendant. (Code Civ. Proc. § 636, subd. 1.) There are two causes of action alleged in the complaint. . Por a first cause of action plaintiff alleges that on or about October 18,1910, one Hookey made and delivered to the defendant his promissory note in writing, a copy of which is set forth in the complaint. That instrument [446] is dated New York, Oct. 18, 1910,” and is as follows: “ Four months after date I promise to pay Ten hundred forty-four '71/100 dollars at 23 Wd. Bank. Value received” (signed) Wm. T. Hookey. It is then alleged that the defendant thereafter and before maturity indorsed and delivered said note to the Taylor Iron and Steel Company, a corporation duly organized and existing, for value; that at maturity said note was duly presented for payment hut the 'same was not paid, whereupon it was duly protested for non-payment, due notice of. which was given to the defendant; and that before ⅛6"com-mencement of the action'the Taylor Iron and Steel. Company duly assigned and transferred to plaintiff all its right, title and interest in and to said note and all claims in its favor arising out of the non-payment thereof. This complaint was verified by the plaintiff who also made an affidavit upon which the attachment was granted in which he stated that he had in his possession the promissory note referred to in the first cause of action and also letters written by the defendant to the Taylor Iron and Steel Company, letters written by the Taylor Iron and Steel Company to the defendant, the statement of the said Taylor Iron and Steel Company, admissions made by the defendant in said letters and statements made to deponent over the long distance telephone.. What those letters and statements were is not stated. Plaintiff was not a party to the transaction.

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Hilborn v. Pennsylvania Cement Co., 145 A.D. 442, 129 N.Y.S. 957, 1911 N.Y. App. Div. LEXIS 1810 (N.Y. Ct. App. 1911).

145 A.D. 442 (Hilborn v. Pennsylvania Cement Co.) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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