Oklahoma Tool & Supply Co. v. Drumright State Bank

1923 OK 1126, 222 P. 975, 97 Okla. 165, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 914
CourtSupreme Court of Oklahoma
DecidedDecember 11, 1923
Docket14346
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 1923 OK 1126 (Oklahoma Tool & Supply Co. v. Drumright State Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Oklahoma primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Oklahoma Tool & Supply Co. v. Drumright State Bank, 1923 OK 1126, 222 P. 975, 97 Okla. 165, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 914 (Okla. 1923).

Opinion

Opinion by

PINKHAM. O.

The plaintiff in error here was plaintiff below and the defendant i-n error, J. L. Hughes, was defendant below.

This action was begun in the district court of Creek county by the plaintiff, Oklahoma Tool & Supply Company, by filing therein its petition asking judgment against the defendant, J. L. Hughes, for the sum of $2,798.42. On the same day (April 11, 1921) a garnishment affidavit was filed alleging that the defendants in error Foster and the Drumright State Bank had in their possession and under their control certain property belonging to the defendant, J. L. Hughes; alleging therein that the plaintiff’s cause of action is one for the recovery of damages upon contract. On the same day garnishment bond was filed.

On the same day. April 11, 1921, garnishment summons was issued against F. M. Foster and Drumright State Bank.

On the 13th day of April, 1921, a summons was issued out of the district court of Creek county, directed to the sheriff, against the defendant. .T. L. Hughes. The summons against the said defendant, J. L. Hughes, was returned not served, and on the 13th day of June, 1921, 61 days later, the plaintiff filed an affidavit for service by publication, and thereafter on the 6th day of October, 1921, there was filed in the office of the court clerk proof of publication of service, showing that the first publication was had on the 17th day of June, 1921.

On May 2, 1921, the garnishees filed answer in this case, in which F. M. Foster denied having any property, money, or effects in his hands personally belonging to defendant, Hughes, and as vice-president of the garnishee, Drumright State Bank, had $1,543,47 in its possession and under its control belonging to defendant Hughes, and alleging that prior to the service of the garnishee summons in this action, that the Drumright State Bank had been served with a. garnishment in the case of H. B. Walker v. J. L. Hughes, in the. superior court of Creek county, wherein said money was claimed by the plaintiff Walker, against the defendant Hughes, to satisfy a claim of $1,404, and claimed as a set-off the amount against the amount in the hands of (he garnishee.

On the 6th daj of October, 1922, judgment was rendered in the main cause in favor of the plaintiff, Oklahoma Tool & Supply Company, against the defendant, J. L. Hughes, for $2,798.42, and costs.

On April 19, 1923, the issue between the plaintiff, Oklahoma Tool & Supply Company, and the garnishees, the defendants in error herein, was tried and resulted in the court below rendering its- judgment discharging the garnishees from liability under the garnishment proceedings herein.

Upon the same day motion for new trial was filed and overruled.

This appeal has as its object the reversal of the judgment of the trial court upon the issue taken by plaintiff upon the answer of the garnishee.

Tt. is admitted in the record that Mr. Foster, one of the garnishees, was entitled to be discharged, but as to the Drumright State Bank it is insisted there was error in the trial court’s judgment.

A number of assignments of error are set out in the petition in error and in the. brief of plaintiff, and are discussed under several propositions, the first and principal one of which is to the effect that the superior court acquired no jurisdiction of the person of J. L. Hughes, in the Walker Case, and no jurisdiction to require the garnishee, Drumright State Bank, to pay any of Hughes’ money into the hands of the clerk for the purpose of satisfying the judgment attempted to be rendered therein.

The record discloses that on March 31, one H B. Walker began action in the superior court of Creek county, against the defendant, J. L. Hughes, to recover the sum of $1,404 by filing in said court bis petition, and on the same day caused a summons to 'be issued thereon against the defendant Hughes, which was returned showing the defendant Hughes not to have been found. On the date the'petition -was filed the said Walker caused the filing of an affidavit in garnishment and bond therein, alleging in the affidavit that the Drum-right State Bank had in its possession or under its control property or money belonging to the defendant Hughes, and garnishee summons was issued and served upon the Drumright State Bank, service thereon being made on April 23, 1921.

Thereafter, on April 23, 1921, the Drum-right State Bank, as garnishee, filed its answer in the Walker Case reciting that it had in its hands the sum of $1,543.47, which belonged to the defendant, J. L. Hughes.

On the same day that the petition was filed in the Walker case an affidavit for service by publication was made in which the affidavit states: that the defendant, J. L. Hughes, is a non-resident *167 of the state of Oklahoma, and that service of summons cannot be had \ip< n him with due diligence within the state of Oklahoma.

On May 30, 1021, judgment was rendered in Walker’s favor by default in the superior court case for $1,404 and costs, and the Drumright State Bank was ordered to pay into the hands of the court clerk the sum of $1,437.94, which was done.

The record discloses that at the time the plaintiff instituted its action in the district, court and caused garnishment summons to be served upon the garnishee bank, the Walker suit was pending in the superior court and a garnishment summons had been served upon the garnishee bank in that case within the knowledge cf the plaintiff, and it does not appear that any action on the part of the plaintiff 'was taken by intervention or otherwise in the superior court to show that it had a prior right to the funds in the hands of the bank.

"In the case of several garnishments directed against the same persons and subject-matter, the rule is well settled that such garnishment must be given priority in accordance with the time when proceedings were instituted.” 12 R. C. L., tit. “Garnishment,” sec. 91.

In the case of Barton v. Spence, 3 Okla. 270, 41 Pac. 605, the syllabus is as follows:

“Where service of process in garnishment is had, the property found in the possession of the garnishee is in custodia legis, and no rights can be obtained in such property by subsequent attaching creditors as against a creditor causing the garnishment -summons to issue.”

It is clear that at the time of the service of the garnishment summons upon the Drumright State Bank, garnishee herein, an action was pending in the superior court of Creek county, in the case of H. B. Walker v. J. L. Hughes, and that a valid summons had been issued thereon against the garnishee, and the issues having been joined between the garnishee herein and the plaintiff within 60 days after the commencement, of such action it would seem that the lien of the plaintiff Walker upon the moneys in the hands of the Drumright State Bank, garnishee, in that case, was valid and existing, and that the situation must be tested as of the date the issue was made up between the plaintiff herein and the garnishee which was on the 18th day of May. 1921, the time notice was given by the plaintiff that issue was to be taken upon the garnishee’s answer.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
1923 OK 1126, 222 P. 975, 97 Okla. 165, 1923 Okla. LEXIS 914, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/oklahoma-tool-supply-co-v-drumright-state-bank-okla-1923.