Keyser v. Rice

47 Md. 203, 1877 Md. LEXIS 97
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedJune 19, 1877
StatusPublished
Cited by43 cases

This text of 47 Md. 203 (Keyser v. Rice) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Keyser v. Rice, 47 Md. 203, 1877 Md. LEXIS 97 (Md. 1877).

Opinion

Bowie, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court. (Robinson, J., dissenting.)

The second section of the 4th Article of the Constitution of the United States, although construed in-several cases, in the State and Federal Courts, has never (until very recently) as far as we are aware, been considered a restriction on the Legislatures of the several States, in regard to contracts between their own citizens, or the remedies proper for the enforcement of those contracts.

The Courts have been extremely cautious in defining the meaning of a clause couched in such general terms. (See Conner vs. Elliott, 18 How., 593.) In the recent case of Ward vs. The State, 31 Md., 279, this Court collected and cited the definitions of the meaning of this section, from various cases. In Campbell vs. Morris, 3 H. & McH., 554, it was said to mean that the citizens of all the States shall have the peculiar advantage of acquiring and holding real and personal property, and such property shall he protected and secured by the laws of the State in the same manner as the property of the citizens of the State is protected. “ It means such property shall nothe liable to any taxes or burdens, which the property of the citizen is not subjected to. It may also mean that as creditors, they shall be on the same footing with the State creditor, in the payment of the debts of the deceased debtor.” “It secures and protects personal rights.”

In Corfield vs. Corgell, 4 Wash. C. C. Repts., 381, Judge Washington said, it included the right of a citizen of one State to pass through or reside in any other State for the purpose of trade, agriculture, professional pursuits, or otherwise; to claim the benefit of the writ of habeas corpus; to institute and maintain actions of any kind in the Courts of the State; to take, hold and dispose [211]*211of property either real or personal; and an exemption from higher taxes or impositions than are paid by the other citizens of the State.

The opinion of C. J. Daggett, in Crandall vs. The State, 10 Conn., 344, is to the same effect.

All these instances imply that the citizen going from one State to another, shall be entitled to the privileges and immunities of a citizen in the State to which he goes, ■but they do not absolve him from the duties and obligations of a citizen to the State to which he belongs, and from which he went.

As long as a citizen belongs to a State, he owes it obedience, and as between States, that State in which he is domiciled, has jurisdiction over his person, and his personal relations to other citizens of the State.

Jurisdiction in equity, does not depend upon the situs rei,” or the residence or non-residence of the defendant.

Where property in controversy is within the limits of the State, and the claimant resides abroad, the Court of Chancery has undeniable jurisdiction. Carroll vs. Lee, 3 G. & J., 504.

Where the defendant is within the State, and the land or other property in contest is beyond its limits, although the proceeding is “in rem,” there is not a want of jurisdiction : to enforce a decree in a case of this kind, the proceedings may be “in personam,” as well as by injunction, to recover the possession of the thing disputed. Ibid; see also, White vs. White, 7 G. & J., 218; Stansbury vs. Fringer, 11 G. & J., 149; Binney’s Case, 2 Bland, 99; Buchanan vs. Lorman, 3 Gill, 51, 81, 82.

Such being the general authority of Courts of Equity, over persons and things residing or situate within the limits of the State, it necessarily follows, that as to that species of property, which has no habitat,” but follows the person, such as debts or choses in action, jurisdiction as to the person, must include jurisdiction as to the thing.

[212]*212Thus the chose in action following the person of the creditor, the law of his domicil, regulates the disposition of the debt due him.

If he dies, his will executed according to the laws of the State in which he died, determines the disposition of the debt due him; or if intestate, the distribution follows the law of succession prevailing in the State of his domicil.

His assignment, (if living,) carries the debt to the assignee, unless the same has been previously garnisheed.-

So in case of insolvency., the trustee of the creditor becomes by operation of law the assignee of the debt, and as between citizens of the same State, the creditors of the insolvent are concluded by the discharge of the insolvent Court.

The almost universal exercise of this power, by the several States, since the adoption of the Federal Constitution, in the form of Exemption Laws, and other similar legislation, sanctions by common consent its harmony with, the Constitution of the United States.

The 44th section of the Third Article of the Constitution of Maryland, (1867,) declares “Laws shall be passed by the General Assembly, to protect from execution a reasonable amount of the property of the debtor, not exceeding in value the sum of five hundred dollars.”

In the Code of “Public General Laws,” Art. 10, sec. 36, Title Attachments, it was enacted that no attachment should lie against the wages or hire of any laborer or employe, not actually due at the time of the attachment, “and the sum of ten dollars of such wages or salary, should be exempt from attachment on warrant or on judgment.

The Act of 1814, ch. 45, is but an assertion of the same power, in promotion of the same policy. By this latter. Act, the 36th sec. of Art. 10 of the Code, is repealed, and in its place, is the amendment extending the exemption to one hundred dollars.

[213]*213From considerations of public convenience, the Courts have long since decided, that attachments would not lie against the salaries of public or municipal officers, and the same principles enlarged, have determined the Legislature to exempt the wages of employes of private persons and corporations.

The power of the State to compel its citizens to respect its laws, even beyond its own territorial limits, is supported we think by a great preponderance of precedent and authority.

The Supreme Judicial Court of Massachusetts, in the case of Dehon, and others vs. Foster, and others, in a very learned and lucid opinion by Bigelow, C. J., considered this subject in all its bearings and declared the doctrine to be clear and indisputable, that a Court of Chancery, upon a proper case being made, had authority to restrain persons within its jurisdiction from prosecuting suits either in Courts of this State or of other States or foreign countries.

This jurisdiction it affirmed was not founded upon any right to interfere with or control the proceedings of other tribunals in other States, but on the clear authority vested in Courts of equity over persons within their jurisdiction and amenable to process to restrain them from doing acts which will work wrong and injury to others, and are con-1 trary to equity and good conscience.

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Bluebook (online)
47 Md. 203, 1877 Md. LEXIS 97, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/keyser-v-rice-md-1877.