Meloy v. Orton

42 F. 513, 1890 U.S. App. LEXIS 2198
CourtU.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Wisconsin
DecidedMay 30, 1890
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 42 F. 513 (Meloy v. Orton) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering U.S. Circuit Court for the District of Western Wisconsin primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Meloy v. Orton, 42 F. 513, 1890 U.S. App. LEXIS 2198 (circtwdwi 1890).

Opinion

Bunn, J.

This is a motion by the complainant, based upon the bill of complaint, for a temporary injunction to restrain the defendant from selling or incumbering, during the pendency of the suit, a certain tract of land which forms the subject of the suit, which is brought to quiet title; and the case turns upon the question of the continuance of an attachment lien upon the property in a suit in the state court during the pendency of an appeal from the circuit to the supreme court, where a judgment on the merits in the case whore the attachment was issued went against the plaintiff in the trial court, and no supersedeas or other bond was given or order made to continue the lien of the attachment during the pendency of such appeal. In Wisconsin, all actions are commenced by the issue of a summons, and in cases upon contract, when (among other specified cases) the defendant is anon-resident of the state, an attachment may issue as a collateral proceeding, to attach and hold the defendant’s property found in the state, to answer any judgment that may be obtained against him in the action. On the 22d of June, 1885, Elizabeth Lamar made an affidavit for an attachment in Enaction against one Prank Scales, stating that he was indebted to her in the sum of $6,000 upon contract, express or implied, and that he was a non-resident of the state of Wisconsin. This affidavit was made before a notary public in Chicago, Ill., and upon it a suit was commenced and an attachment was issued in La Payette county, Wis., two days later, on June 26,1885, and a certain 60 acres of land belonging to the defendant Scales was seized. Afterwards, on August 30,1886, the action was tried by the court with[514]*514out a jury, aud a finding and judgment entered against the plaintiff, dismissing her complaint, and giving costs to the defendant. The record of the judgment was perfected on September 14, 1886. Nothing more was done in the case upon either side until some 14 months afterwards, when, on November 7, 1887, the .plaintiff gave notice of an appeal from the judgment, and gave a bond for costs, as provided by section 3052, Rev. St. Wis. That'section provides that, “to render an appeal effectual for any purpose, an undertaking must be executed on the part of the appellant, by at least two sureties, to the effect that the appellant will pay all costs and damages which may bo awarded against him on the appeal, not exceeding, two hundred and fifty dollars.” Section 3058 provides for the giving of a bond by the appellant in case he wishes to stay the execution of a judgment directing the payment of money. This bond was not given, nor was any step whatever taken by the plaintiff at any time to continue the attachment lien, unless the naked appeal had that effect. On February 28, 1888, the case came on for hearing in the supreme court, when the finding and judgment of the circuit court were reversed, (36 N. W. Rep. 850,) and the cause sent back to that court for further proceedings; and where on September 26, 1888, a judgment was rendered in the circuit court for the plaintiff for $9,000 and upwards. On this judgment an execution was issued, and the interest which the defendant, had in the land attached, was sold on January 12, 1889, and the land bid in by Philo A. Orton, as attorney for the plaintiff. But in the mean time, on June 27, 1888, the defendant Frank Scales sold the land by warranty deed to Edward D. Meloy, the complainant in this suit, who, as appears, was an innocent purchaser, paying full value for the land, unless the lien of the attachment continued during the pendency of the appeal, and until final judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff, and the pendency of the appeal was constructive notice to him of the existence of the attachment lien.

Two questions have been argued as to the sufficiency of the affidavit,— one, whether it is enough to state, in the language of the statute, that the defendant is indebted to the plaintiff upon contract, express or implied; another, whether the machinery of the law in such a case may be set in motion in this state by an affidavit made two days -previous, before a notary public in another state. The courts in Michigan, under a similar statute, seem to have held attachments void, issued upon such an affidavit. I have not found it necessary to decide either of these questions, and shall assume that the attachment was regularly issued, and dispose of the question of the issuance of a temporary injunction upon the main question in the case. Did the attachment constitute a lien upon the land when sold by the defendant in that action to the com-plainantin this action? There seems to be very little authority by way of adjudged cases upon the point, but, upon a careful consideration of all the provisions of the statute, I am satisfied that the contention of the complainant that the attachment lien, if any existed, was lost before the plaintiff in the case took steps to perfect his appeal, is correct.. What has given the court more trouble than anything else in the decision of [515]*515this question is the apparent absence of any express provision in the law for continuing the lien of the attachment during the pendency of the appeal. Section 3061 provides that, “when a party shall give immediate notice of appeal from an order vacating or modifying a writ of attachment, * * * he may, within three days thereafter, serve an undertaking executed on his part, * * * to the effect that if the order appealed from, or any part thereof, be affirmed, the appellant will pay all costs and damages * * * the adverse party may sustain by reason of the continuance of the attachment,” and that, “upon the giving of such undertaking, such court or judge shall order the attachment to be continued,” etc. The contention of the complainant is that this provision applies to a case like this; while that of the defendant is that it clearly has no application to cases of appeal from a judgment on the merits, and that, as there is no other provision for continuing the lien, none was necessary, except the general provision allowing an appeal to be taken within two years from the entry of judgment.

I cannot say I am satisfied with the contention of either party on this question. It seems to me the provision applies in terms only to the case of an appeal from an order vacating or modifying the writ, and has no application, unless by analogy, to the case where the injunction is dissolved by the entry of a judgment against the plaintiff upon the merits. And, the attachment being a proceeding collateral to and depending wholly upon the action, it cannot exist without that; and when the action itself goes down the attachment goes with it, unless continued by special order of the court. And there are other provisions of the statute which seem quite inconsistent with the idea of the lien continuing propria vigore, without such an order. Section 2748, as amended by chapter 157, Sess. Laws 1881, provides:

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Bluebook (online)
42 F. 513, 1890 U.S. App. LEXIS 2198, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/meloy-v-orton-circtwdwi-1890.