Hunter v. Daze

170 P. 788, 19 Ariz. 310, 1918 Ariz. LEXIS 82
CourtArizona Supreme Court
DecidedFebruary 16, 1918
DocketCivil No. 1545
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 170 P. 788 (Hunter v. Daze) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Arizona Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hunter v. Daze, 170 P. 788, 19 Ariz. 310, 1918 Ariz. LEXIS 82 (Ark. 1918).

Opinion

ROSS, J.

This is a proceeding to try “the right of personal property” as between an attaching creditor and a claimant thereof under the provisions of title 6, chapter 11, of the Civil Code. The issues, as made up under the directions of the court, showed, on the part of the plaintiff, appellee, that he had caused the property to be attached as the property o'f one T. J. Compton, against whom he had instituted a suit to recover a debt in the sum of $294.75; and on the part of the defendant, appellant, that he was the owner and entitled to the possession of the property in controversy. The property consisted of a span of horses, one wagon, one set of harness, and a cow. The case was tried to a jury, which found the issues in favor of the plaintiff and against the defendant. The defendant has appealed from the judgment, and assigns 32 errors.

Many of these assignments are clearly without merit, and some of them we cannot review because of the condition of [312]*312the record, as we shall hereafter show. The only properly certified and authenticated part of the record in this court are the transcript of the testimony and the minutes of the court. We find, among the files, what purports to be, or may have been, the instructions given to the jury by the court. However, they are not indorsed by the judge as given or refused. They have not attached to them any certificate of the clerk showing that they were the instructions of the court. Therefore any assignments based upon the instructions are without any legal basis, and will not be considered.

The question involved was as to the ownership of the property at the time that the levy of the writ of attachment was placed on it; that is, as to whether it was the property of the attachment debtor, Compton, or the property of the defendant, claimant, and this issue was determined in favor of the plaintiff or attaching creditor.

A review of the evidence satisfies us that it was amply sufficient to support the verdict and judgment. The defendant complains, however, that the court erred in the admission of certain evidence. The plaintiff, as part of his ease, offered in evidence the return of the sheriff indorsed upon the writ of attachment. It was objected to by the defendant on the ground that it recited that it was levied “on the property of the defendant.” The ruling of the court upon this objection was sustained in the following language:

“The court will instruct the jury not to take into consideration that that determines the rights of the property.”

Again: “The court will instruct the jury that this return will not be any evidence determining the title of this property.”

The plaintiff now complains that this promised instruction was never given to the jury. We think it immaterial whether it was or not. The jury evidently understood from the court’s statement that it was not to take into consideration the recital of the return as to the ownership of the property. At any event, we have not before us the instructions.

Some time before this case was tried, in the action against the attachment debtor, Compton, plaintiff had obtained a judgment for the full amount of his claim, but in the judgment the attachment lien had not been foreclosed nor the attached property ordered sold to satisfy the judgment. When this judgment was offered in evidence for the pur[313]*313pose of showing Compton’s indebtedness to the plaintiff, the defendant objected on the ground that it was immaterial, irrelevant, and incompetent. The court admitted the judgment “as being the basis on which the attachment was issued.” The specific objection that the judgment did not foreclose the attachment lien and order the sale of the property was not made by the defendant until after the evidence on both sides had been closed, and during the closing argument of the counsel for plaintiff. The defendant does not question the regularity of the issuance and levy of the attachment upon the property in dispute, nor that the lien attached and continued up to the time of the entry of the judgment, but he asserts that when the judgment was entered containing no order of sale of the property, the plaintiff, in law, abandoned his attachment lien.

The issue as made by the pleading, as we have seen, was between the attachment creditor and the claimant, and not between a judgment or execution creditor and claimant. Under this issue, it was immaterial as to whether the creditor had obtained a judgment or not. His right to maintain his attachment lien as against the claimant did not depend upon a successful prosecution of a suit to judgment against the debtor, or upon an order foreclosing his lien and directing a sale of the property, but upon the question as to who was the owner of the property, the debtor or claimant. If the claimant was not the owner of the property, he cannot be heard to complain because the judgment did not contain a foreclosure of the lien and order of sale. Our statute provides that the levy of the writ of attachment upon property creates a lien from the date of such levy, unless the writ should be quashed or otherwise vacated. Section 1421; Wartman v. Pecka, 8 Ariz. 8, 68 Pac. 534. We do not understand that the mere omission to foreclose an attachment lien, or the omission of an order of sale from the judgment at the time of its rendition, would quash or necessarily vacate the writ.

The plaintiff, after notice to the attachment debtor, Compton, obtained an order from the court permitting the amend.ment of the judgment in the case of Daze v. Compton, foreclosing the attachment lien and ordering the sale of the property in satisfaction of the judgment. The defendant complains because the court permitted this amendment. Whether, under the showing made, the court was right or [314]*314not in allowing the amendment, we are not able to say, but if it was an error, it occurred in another and separate lawsuit, which is not before us and cannot be considered in this appeal.

The property, at the time of the levy of the writ of attachment, was in the possession of the attachment debtor, and the officer who levied the writ, and one or two other persons who were present, were permitted to testify, over the objection of the defendant, to certain statements made by the attachment debtor concerning the property, its use and ownership. This is assigned as error. The rule with reference to such evidence is, as we understand it, properly stated as follows:

“The acts or declarations of attachment defendant while in possession, tending to indicate or explain the character of his possession, are admissible, it would seem, as a part of the res gestae; but declarations of defendant, after he has parted with his possession, or subsequently to the levy and interposition of claimant’s claim, are inadmissible.” 6 C. J. 396, § 888.

Under this rule, the evidence was properly admitted.

The defendant complains that the court committed error in permitting the jury to take with them the instructions and a copy of the statutes. In the transcript of the testimony we find this memorandum made by the court reporter:

“When the jury are retiring one of the jurors, Mr. Campbell, requests the court to permit the jury to take the statutes into the jury-room to read the sections just read to them by the court.

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Bluebook (online)
170 P. 788, 19 Ariz. 310, 1918 Ariz. LEXIS 82, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hunter-v-daze-ariz-1918.