Jenks v. Richardson

71 F. 365, 35 W.L.B. 120, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 3274
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern Ohio
DecidedOctober 12, 1895
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 71 F. 365 (Jenks v. Richardson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Northern Ohio primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Jenks v. Richardson, 71 F. 365, 35 W.L.B. 120, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 3274 (circtndoh 1895).

Opinion

RICKS, District Judge.

This case comes before the court upon a motion Jiled by the defendant, Mark Bichardson, to discharge the attachment heretofore issued in this case; against the property of the said Bichardson. Ten reasons are assigned why this attachment should be dissolved. Many of those go to the sufficiency of the facts set forth in the petition to entitle the plaintiffs to maintain their cause of action, and it therefore becomes important, in the first place, to consider how far these 10 grounds for dissolving the attachment can be considered on such motion.

It is well settled in Ohio upon what grounds and in what sort of an action an attachment may issue. Section 5521, Rev. St., provides:

“In a civil action for the recovery of money, the plaintiff may at or after iho commencement thereof have an attachment against the property of the defendant upon the grounds herein stated.”

Then follow nine grounds upon which such attachments may issue, the first one of which is that the defendant is a nonresident of the slate. Section 5522 of the same statutes provides:

“An order of attachment shall he made by the clerk of the court in which the action is brought in any ease mentioned in the preceding section when there is iiled in his office an affidavit of the plaintiff, his agent or attorneys, showing, first, the nature of the plaintiff’s claim; second, that it is just; third, the amount which the affiant believes the plaintiff ought to recover; fourth, the existence of one of the grounds for an attachment enumerated in the preceding section.” , ,

Now, it is well settled in Ohio that an affidavit and order of attachment form no part of the pleadings in an action, and the grounds for [366]*366an attáchment should not be stated in the petition. Harrison v. King, 9 Ohio St. 388. It is further well settled that a demurrer to the declaration does not reach to the question of the propriety of the attachment, and this is probably the correct doctrine, though the. attachment would fall with a case dismissed on demurrer to the petition süstainéd. Wade, Attachm. par. 290. The sainé law would apply to any motion which was directed to the sufficiency of the petition, as showing that the plaintiffs had a just cause of action.

Counsel for the defendant has presented a very able and exhaustive brief, most of which relates to the sufficiency of the petition as showing the cause of action on behalf of the plaintiffs. But, as before stated, it is well settled under the law of Ohio that these grounds for the 'dissolution of attachment cannot be considered upon a simple motion to; dissolve. The affidavit upon which the alias order of attachment which was levied upon the property of the defendant, Mark' Richardson, was issued, in substance "stated that a suit had been brought against the defendants by the plaintiffs to recover money which belonged to them, lost at gambling, and paid to the defendants by John C. Campbell, cashier and trusted agent of the plaintiffs, after he had taken same from plaintiffs’ cash drawer, and funds intrusted tó him;, that said claims are just, and that plaintiffs ought to recover $7,600; and that the defendant, Mark Richardson, is a nonresident of the state of Ohio. A motion to discharge this attachment should be supported by an affidavit traversing the facts set out in the affidavit of the plaintiffs upon which the attachment was issued. But. the traverse can relate only to so much of said affidavit as purported to recite the statutory reasons why the attachment should issue. We can, therefore, look to this affidavit only so far as it denies that a civil action for the recovery of money was instituted by the plaintiffs, the nature of the plaintiffs’ claim, that it is just, the amount which affiant believes plaintiffs ought to recover, and the existence of any one of the grounds for attachment enumerated in section 5521.

The only ground alleged upon which the plaintiffs claimed their attachment was the nonresidence of the defendant, Mark Richardson. This he not only does not deny in his traverse to the plaintiffs’ affidavit, but admits it. The only remaining question, therefore, to which the traverse can go, is whether the plaintiffs’ action was a civil action for the. recovery of money. The petition alleges that Campbell was in the employ of the plaintiffs; that while in their employ, as their trusted agent and cashier, handling all their money, he unlawfully appropriated a large sum of money belonging to them, at various times set out in their petition; that this money, belonging to the plaintiffs, so unlawfully appropriated by him, he lost in gambling to the defendants, Lawrence J. Washington and Sarah E. Washington, in gámbling rooms kept by them, which belonged to the defendant, Mark, Richardson; that the said defendant well knew that said rooms were being used for gambling, and, that he failed to fake steps to recover the possession of his premises, and to prevent such use.' Is this a civil action for the recovery of money only? . It is immaterial to .consider whether this suit is brought under the statute pf Ohio or under the common-law right to reclaim this money as money [367]*367had and received by the defendants. It is well settled by tbe English, authorities that money lost to the defendants by gambling or by a lottery can be recovered by the loser in an action of assumpsit for money had and received. Clarke v. Johnson, Lofft, 759. This English doctrine was affirmed in the case of Mason v. Waite, 17 Mass. 560; in the case of Burnham v. Fisher, 25 Vt. 514; and in the case of Caussidiere v. Beers, *41 N. Y. 198. In the latter case the court say:

“Whore a clerk to whom moneys of his employer have been intrusted used and lost the same at a gambling house, held, that an action for money had and received could be maintained by the employer of such clerk against the proprietor of the gambling house where such moneys were lost.”

The statutes of Ohio (section 4276) provide that the person who leases premises for gambling, knowingly permits them to be used, and fails to prosecute in good faith an action for the recovery of the premises, shall be considered in all cases, civil and criminal, as the principal. Lt is contended on behalf of counsel for the plaintiffs that this action can, therefore, be maintained both against the proprietor of the gaming house, who occupied the same as tenant, and against the landlord, who knew the unlawful purposes for which the premises were being used. But it is not necessary to determine the correctness of (his proposition in disposing of this motion. The action, as it stands upon its face, is a civil action for the recovery of money. The affidavit upon which the attachment was issued makes averments sufficient to show that, a.nd the nonresidence of the defendant, Mark Biehardson, is conceded. These, in my judgment, are the only two questions that are reached by this motion. The other matters traversed in defendant’s affidavit relate to the sufficiency of the petition, and can only he disposed of on demurrer or other motion provided by statute. There is a good reason for observing this practice. The relief afforded to the defendant by a motion,to discharge the attachment is intended to be a summary one. If the defendant’s property has been incumbered by an attachment improperly or improvidently allowed, the burden upon him is often very great, and causes great embarrassment. The statute intends to afford such defendants a speedy method by which such burden can be removed.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
71 F. 365, 35 W.L.B. 120, 1895 U.S. App. LEXIS 3274, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/jenks-v-richardson-circtndoh-1895.