Logan v. Goodwin

104 F. 490, 43 C.C.A. 658, 1900 U.S. App. LEXIS 3939
Court of Appeals for the Eighth Circuit·Decided October 15, 1900·No. No. 1,387·Published·Cited by 9 cases

Opinion

SANBORN, Circuit Judge,

after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

The garnishment proceedings in this case were taken and the rights of the parties were adjudicated in the court below under chapter 151 of the Laws of Kansas of 1889 (2 Gen. St. Kan. 1897, c. 95, §§ 227-247). The two questions presented and decided in that court were: Does the service of a notice on the garnishee by the plaintiff that he elects to také issue on his answer, and will maintain him to be liable as garnishee, put the allegations of his answer at issue, [493] and entitle the plaintiff to a trial of his action against the garnishee, under section 232? And is the plaintiff entitled to maintain garnishment proceedings upon a judgment or decree before the issue of an execution thereon, under section 228 of these statutes? Counsel for the defendants in error seek in this court to avoid a consideration of these questions upon various grounds, which are entitled to little consideration. They say that the judgment below should be sustained because the bond in garnishment hied in April, 1897, recited that an order of garnishment had already been issued, while the affidavit for garnishment upon which the summons was issued was not filed until September 13, 1897. But the bond was approved by the clerk of the court, the garnishee summons was issued and served on the garnishee and the defendants, the case against the defendants was tried, and judgment was rendered against two of them, and the action between the plaintiff and the garnishee and the defendants then proceeded to judgment, without any objection or exception to the bond; and it is now too late for them to object to such judgment for the insufficiency of security, which the court could have permitted the plaintiff to remedy at any time, by giving a new or additional bond.

It is said that the judgment is right because the order of September 15, 1898, gave the defendant Into Goodwin leave to file a bond, in pursuance of section 4299 of the Statutes of Kansas, and directed the discontinuance and discharge of the garnishment proceedings upon the giving of that bond. But the bond there given was conditioned only to pay to the plaintiff the amount of the judgment which might be recovered against the defendant Imo Goodwin, and it had no effeqt to discharge the garnishee from his liability on account of property or money in his control belonging to the other defendants in the action.

It is contended that the judgment in favor of the garnishee rendered on August 30, 1899. cannot be reviewed, because it was a part of the judgment against the defendants rendered on June 9, 1899, and the writ of error was not sued out until more than six months after the latter date. But section 238, c. 95, of the Statutes of Kansas provides that:

“The proceedings against a garnishee shall be deemed an action by the plaintiff against the garnishee and defendant as parties defendant and all the provisions for enforcing judgment shall be applicable thereto: but where the garnishment is not in aid of an execution no trial shall be had of the garnishee action until the plaintiff shall have judgment in the principal action, and if the defendant have judgment the garnishee action shall be dismissed with costs.”

The action against the garnishee, therefore, was a separate civil action, which it was necessary to try at a different and subsequent time from that occupied by the trial of the main case against the defendants, and judgment in it was necessarily rendered at a later date. The plaintiff in error had a right to challenge the judgment against the garnishee by a writ of error within six months after its rendition, and he has done so.

[494] It is said that the judgment in favor of the garnishee cannot be here reviewed, because it was not superseded under section 1007 of the Revised Statutes, and because the statutes of Kansas provide that a petition in error to review an order discharging or modifying an attachment or temporary injunction must be filed within 30 days after the date of the order, to prevent the latter from becoming operative. Gen. St. Kan. 1897, c. 95, § 595. But the failure to supersede a judgment or to stay the process upon it, under section 1007 of the Revised Statutes, in no way affects the right of the plaintiff in error to a review of the proceedings which resulted in it, or to its reversal; and the statute of Kansas to which reference is made is not applicable to proceedings by writ of error or by appeál in the federal courts, because congress has established a complete system governing their action in that regard. Logan v. Goodwin (C. C. A.) 101 Fed. 654.

Finally it is contended that the plaintiff was not entitled to any garnishment proceeding under chapter 151 of the Laws of Kansas of 1889, because that chapter was not in force in 1873, when sections 915 and 910 of the Revised Statutes of the United States were last enacted. These sections read:

“Sec. 915. In common-law causes in the circuit and district courts the plaintiff shall he entitled to similar remedies, by attachment or other process, against the property of the defendant, which are now provided hy the laws of the state in which such court is held for the courts thereof; and such circuit or district courts may, from time to time, by general rules, adopt such state laws as may he in force in the states where they are held in relation to attachments and other process: provided, that similar preliminary affidavits or proofs, and similar security, as required by such state laws, shall he first furnished by the party seeking such attachment or other remedy.
“Sec. 916. The party recovering a judgment in any common-law cause in any circuit or district court, shall he entitled to similar remedies upon the same, by execution or otherwise, to reach the property of the judgment debtor, as are now provided in like causes by the laws of the state in which such court is held, or by any such laws hereafter enacted which may he adopted by general rules of such circuit or district court; and such courts may, from time to time, by general rules, adopt such state laws as may hereafter he in force in such state in relation to remedies upon judgments, as aforesaid, by execution or otherwise:”

The argument is that the remedy by garnishment which was provided by the laws of the state of Kansas in 1873, when section 915 was last enacted, consisted of sections 200-219, c. 80, of the Compiled Laws of Kansas of 1879, and that the plaintiff has not proceeded in accordance with the provisions of those statutes. Counsel for the defendants in error inform us in their brief that they have searched the records of the court below, and that they have found no rules by which that court has adopted the Kansas act of 1889. But the first question presented in this case does not arise under these sections of the statute, but is a question of pleading and practice, governed by section 914, which provides that:

“The practice, pleadings, and forms and modes of proceeding in civil causes, other than equity and admiralty causes, in the circuit and district courts, shall conform, as near as may be, to the practice, pleadings, and forms and modes of proceeding existing at the time in like.causes in the courts of record [495] of the state within which such circuit or district courts are held, any rule of court; to the contrary notwithstanding.”

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Logan v. Goodwin, 104 F. 490, 43 C.C.A. 658, 1900 U.S. App. LEXIS 3939 (8th Cir. 1900).

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