Rice v. Wheeling Dollar Savings & Trust Co.

163 Ohio St. (N.S.) 606
CourtOhio Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 6, 1955
DocketNo. 34304
StatusPublished

This text of 163 Ohio St. (N.S.) 606 (Rice v. Wheeling Dollar Savings & Trust Co.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Ohio Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rice v. Wheeling Dollar Savings & Trust Co., 163 Ohio St. (N.S.) 606 (Ohio 1955).

Opinion

Matt-fit a», J.

The determinative question in this appeal is whether the special statutes found in Chapter 2715, Revised Code, “Attachment,” Sections 2715.47 and 2715.48, apply to the setting of a bond on an appeal from a final judgment which orders the release of attachments and garnishments as a consequence thereof, or whether the bond on an appeal from such a judgment should be set under the general statutes found in Chapter 2505, Revised Code, “Procedure on Appeals,” Sections 2505.06, 2505.09 and 2505.14.

It follows that we must examine the purpose and scope of such chapters of the Revised Code in order to determine which sections prescribe the conditions for the setting of a bond upon appeal under the facts herein presented.

Sections 2715.47 and 2715.48 are found in that chapter of the Revised Code entitled “Attachment.” That attachment proceedings are ancillary to a civil action for the recovery of money, at or after its commencement, is unquestioned.

Attachment is a procedure unknown to the common law, and Section 2715.01, Revised Code, provides the only grounds on which an order of attachment may legally and rightfully be obtained in Ohio.

[612]*612Sections 2715.02 through 2715.10, Revised Code, provide the mechanics by which an order of attachment is obtained and an actual attachment by seizure accomplished.

Section 2715.11 states:

“When the plaintiff * * * makes oath in writing that he has good reason to believe, and does believe, that any person * * * named in the affidavit has property of the defendant in his possession, describing it, if the officer cannot get possession of such property, he must leave with such garnishees a copy of the order of attachment, with a written notice that he appear in court and answer * * V’ (Emphasis added.)

It is seen that this section provides, as an alternative to physical seizure of a defendant’s property, a method of obtaining control of such property which is in the hands of a third person.

Garnishment is, then, the obtaining of control by the court before judgment of property belonging to a defendant which is in the possession of any person, partnership or corporation and must, in order to be rightful and lawful, be based upon an order of attachment issued on one of the grounds for attachment provided in Section 2715.01, Revised Code.

Thus, a plaintiff in a civil action for the recovery of money, at or after its commencement and before judgment, is provided by law with two methods of bringing property belonging to the defendant under the control of the court in which the action was instituted, i. e., by actual attachment or by garnishment, either of which must be based on a valid order of attachment.

Ample provisions are made for the defendant to question the validity of the order of attachment by Section 2715.44 et seq., Revised Code.

Section 2715.44 provides:

[613]*61311 Before judgment * * * the defendant may move to discharge an attachment as to the whole or any of the property attached. * * *” (Emphasis added.)

Section 2715.46 provides:

“A party to a suit affected by an order discharging or refusing to discharge an order of attachment may appeal on questions of law to reverse, vacate, or modify it as in other cases: and the original action shall proceed to trial as though no appeal had been taken.” (Emphasis added.)

Section 2715.47 fixes the maximum number of days within which such appeal may be filed by a plaintiff from an order discharging an attachment.

Section 2715.48 provides:

“The party who appeals under Section 2715.47 * * * must give a bond * * * in double the amount of the appraised value of the property attached, conditioned to pay * * * all damages sustained * * * in consequence of filing such appeal, in the event of the discharge of the order of attachment by the court in which it is filed because the order was wrongfully obtained.” (Emphasis added.)

All the sections of this chapter must be read in pari materia as they deal with a special statutory proceeding, attachment, which is ancillary to a civil action.

It becomes apparent, then, that Section 2715.44, providing for a “motion to discharge an attachment,” and the provision of Section 2715.48 for a bond in double the appraised value of the property attached in order to insure the payment of damages in the event the attachment is found to have been wrongfully obtained, both relate back to Section 2715.01, which provides the sole legal, or rightful, grounds for the obtaining of an order of attachment.

Thus, the appeal provided for by Section 2715.46 is one “on questions of law,” the sole question to be de[614]*614termined upon such appeal being whether the order of attachment was “wrongfully obtained.”

From this discussion it becomes apparent that Sections 2715.47 and 2715.48, Revised Code, are special provisions applying only to an appeal on questions of law by a plaintiff or plaintiffs from an order sustaining a motion to discharge an attachment made before judgment, pursuant to Section 2715.44, Revised Code, for the reason that it is based upon an order of attachment which was wrongfully obtained.

The appeal herein was not made from an order arising from such circumstances, and, thus, Sections 2715. 47 and 2715.48, Revised Code, can have no application to the facts before us.

A motion was previously made by the defendants in this action under Section 2715.44, and this court held that the order of attachment upon which the garnishments herein are based was rightfully and lawfully obtained pursuant to one of the grounds set out in Section 2715.01, Revised Code. See Rice v. Wheeling Dollar Savings & Trust Co., Exr., supra.

Sections 2715.47 and 2715.48, Revised Code, were not, of course, pertinent to that appeal .since the appeal was from an order refusing to discharge, rather than an order discharging, an attachment.

It remains to be determined whether .the trial court properly applied Sections 2505.06, 2505.09 and 2505.14, Revised Code, in setting the bond for the appeal in this ease.

Section- 2505.06 provides:

“Except as provided in Section 2505.12 of the Revised Code [the contents of which are not relevant here], no appeal shall be effective as an appeal upon questions of law and fact until the order, judgment or decree appealed from is superseded by a bond in the amount and with the conditions provided in Sections 2505.09 and 2505.14 of the Revised Code, and unless [615]*615such bond is filed at the time the notice of appeal is required to be filed.”

Section 2505.09 provides:

“No appeal shall operate as a stay of execution * * * until a supersedeas bond is executed by the appellant to the adverse party with sufficient surety and in such sum, not less than the amount of the judgment and interest, as is directed by the court making the order which is sought to be superseded or by the court to which the appeal is taken. Such bond shall be conditioned as provided in Section 2505.14 of the Revised Code.”

Section 2505.14 provides:

“The supersedeas bond required by Section 2505.09 * * *

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Bluebook (online)
163 Ohio St. (N.S.) 606, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rice-v-wheeling-dollar-savings-trust-co-ohio-1955.