In re Ransford

194 F. 658, 115 C.C.A. 560, 1912 U.S. App. LEXIS 1202
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
DecidedMarch 13, 1912
DocketNo. 2,147
StatusPublished
Cited by31 cases

This text of 194 F. 658 (In re Ransford) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
In re Ransford, 194 F. 658, 115 C.C.A. 560, 1912 U.S. App. LEXIS 1202 (6th Cir. 1912).

Opinion

SATER, District Judge.

The petitioner seeks a review of an order made by the District Court in a bankruptcy proceeding enjoining him from the collection of his garnishee judgment.

Ransford sued the Fleming Company, a Michigan corporation, in the state court, on its indebtedness to him, and at the same time garnished the National Eumberman’s Bank of Muskegon, Mich, (hereinafter called the bank), in which the Fleming Company had deposited its funds. Judgment was rendered in his favor on October 22, 1910, against the principal defendant for $568.85, and two days later he obtained judgment against the bank, as garnishee, for the same amount. He thereupon caused an execution to issue against the bank. Before any action was taken thereon and within four months of the time Ransford brought his action against the Fleming Company, an involuntary petition in bankruptcy was filed against such company in the District Court of the Western District of Michigan, and at or about the same time Ransford was restrained from proceeding further against the bank. 0.n a final hearing, the District Court adjudged that the right to the possession of the funds in the bank passed to the bankrupt’s estate on the adjudication of bankruptcy, and that the trustee was authorized and directed to collect the same. Ransford was at the same time enjoined from further prosecution of his garnishment proceedings. He then brought the case here for review.

The petitioner’s insistence is that by virtue of his judgment against the bank he was substituted for the principal defendant as its creditor to the amount of his judgment against it, in the place and to the exclusion of the Fleming Company, and remitted solely to the bank for the satisfaction of his claim — in short, that the garnishee judgment resulted in a novation. He bases this contention on the rule announced in Neely v. Rood, 54 Mich. 134, 19 N. W. 920, 52 Am. Rep. 802, that, “where money is deposited in a bank, it becomes the money of the bank, and the bank is then the depositor’s debtor for its amount,” and on the provisions of the Michigan statute which authorize personal judgment against the garnishee, if his disclosure shows an indebtedness from him to the principal defendant, whereas, if his disclosure reveals goods and chattels belonging to the principal defendant, the creditor, broadly stated, must exhaust such property and not that of the garnishee, to satisfy his debt, unless the garnishee refuses to deliver the defendant’s property as required by statute. His position is necessarily untenable, if, as was held by the trial judge, garnishment of and judgment against the bank created only a qualified lien in his favor on the debt owing by it to the Fleming Company to an extent sufficient to satisfy his judgment.

[1, 2] We concur in the conclusion reached by the court below. In the strict legal sense, a lien is a right in one person to detain that which is in his possession belonging to another, until certain demands [661]*661of such person so in possession are satisfied. Jones on Liens, § 3. Jn that sense, an attachment on mesne process does not constitute a lien (Jones on Liens, § 12), but the charge or incumbrance created by-seizing property under an attachment to await the result of a suit is denominated a lien (Peck v. Jenness, 7 How. 612, 622, 12 L. Ed. 841), and such is its usual designation (Drake on Attachments, § 532 [7th Ed.] ; 20 Cyc. 1058; Jones on Liens, § 2; 14 Am. & Eng. Law, 867).

[3] Subdivision “c” of section 67 of the Bankruptcy Act, however, includes an attachment upon mesne process among liens created by or obtained in or pursuant to any suit or proceedings at law or in equity. Subdivision “f” provides:

“Tlmt all levies, judgments, attachments, or other liens, obtained through legal proceedings against a person who is insolvent, at any time within four months prior to the filing of a petition in bankruptcy against him, shall be deemed null and void in case he is adjudged a bankrupt”

An attachment is thus specifically designated as a lien.

Garnishment process accomplishes in effect the same result as an attachment. In Bethel v. Judge of Superior Court of Detroit, 57 Mich. 379, 24 N. W. 112, it was held that garnishment process is in the nature of an equitable attachment of assets belonging to the principal defendant, but held by a third person, the purpose of which process is to apply such assets in the discharge of the defendant’s debt. The phrase “legal proceedings,” occurring in subdivision “f,” applies to proceedings in garnishment and includes any proceeding in a court of justice by which a party pursues a remedy which the law affords him, and the charge or incumbrance created by garnishment proceedings is one of the “other liens” mentioned in such subdivision, and such it has been held to he. Re McCartney (D. C.) 109 Fed. 621; Re Beals (D. C.) 116 Fed. 530; Bank of Commerce v. Elliott, 109 Wis. 648, 85 N. W. 417; Klipstein & Co. v. Allen-Miles Co., 136 Fed. 385, 69 C. C. A. 229 (C. C. A. 5): Loveland on Bank. (3d Ed.) 545. Garnishment does not create a lien upon effects or credits in the same sense that attachment by direct seizure creates a lien upon properly, but it does create a lien of such a character that, so long as it continues and the garnishee seeks to preserve his own rights, he cannot pay to the principal defendant, nor can the principal defendant collect his debt from him. The inchoate lien created by it takes effect from the time of service and can be perfected only by judgment, on the rendition of which the garnishee becomes a judgment debtor of the creditor; but the lieu is not absolute, but a qualified one, which might at any time he divested by the payment of the judgment by the debtor or by any one acting in his interest. As between the judgment creditor and the hank, while the judgment against the latter remained in force, the indebtedness from the bank could not be appropriated to the payment of the Fleming Company’s debts as against the rights of the judgment creditor, but it had not absolutely become his property. The sheriff had been commanded to enforce payment of sufficient of the indebtedness to satisfy the petitioner’s judgment; but the time within which that was to be done had not elapsed, and the execution was still in his hands unexecuted. The rights of the petitioner were still subject to interception. The case thus falls within the rule [662]*662announced in Clarke v. Larremore, 188 U. S. 486, 23 Sup. Ct. 363, 47 L. Ed. 555. Under section 67f of the Bankruptcy Act, the lien acquired by the petitioner was voided and wholly discharged by the institution of the bankruptcy proceedings, and the property passed to the trustee in bankruptcy as a part of the bankrupt’s estate.

[4] Aside from the fact that the operation of the garnishee judgment as a qualified lien precludes the existence of a novation, there is another aspect of the case which overthrows the petitioner’s contention in this respect. “Novation” is defined to be:

“The substitution, by mutual agreement of one debtor or of one creditor for another, whereby the old debt is extinguished, or the substitution of a new debt or obligation for an existing one, which is thereby extinguished.” 29 Cyc. 1130; Guichard v. Brande, 57 Wis. 534, 15 N. W. 764; Fuller & Rice Lumber Co. v. Houseman, 117 Mich. 553, 76 N. W. 77; Dean v. Ellis, 108 Mich. 240, 65 N. W. 971.

[5]

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Bluebook (online)
194 F. 658, 115 C.C.A. 560, 1912 U.S. App. LEXIS 1202, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/in-re-ransford-ca6-1912.