Smith v. Montoya

3 N.M. 39
CourtNew Mexico Supreme Court
DecidedOctober 11, 1883
StatusPublished

This text of 3 N.M. 39 (Smith v. Montoya) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering New Mexico Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Smith v. Montoya, 3 N.M. 39 (N.M. 1883).

Opinion

Bristol, J.

The record in this case shows that Feliciano Montoya, the defendant in error, on the twenty-sixth of December, 1878, sued out an attachment against the property of Jerome J. Hinds, George E. Kirk, Ulyses E. Fisher, and George L. McDonaugh, to satisfy his money demand, in the sum of $400. On the following day said Montoya filed his declaration in assumpsit against said Hinds, Kirk, Fisher, and McDonaugh as copartners, and alleging them, and each of them, to be non-residents of the territory, and claiming damages in the sum of $350. On the same day that the declaration was filed,—that is, the twenty-seventh of December, 1878,—the plaintiff in error herein, Gustavus A. Smith, was summoned as garnishee.

The following notice was published in a weekly newspaper at Santa Fe, for four successive weeks, commencing on the fourth of January, 1879, to-wit:

“In the District Court, County oe Santa Fe.
“Feliciano Montoya v. Jerome J. Hinds, Geo. E. Kirk, Ulyses E. Fisher, and Geo. L. McDonaugh.
“The said defendants, Jerome J. Hinds, Geo. E. Kirk, Ulyses E. Fisher, and Geo. L. McDonaugh, are hereby notified that a suit by attachment has been commenced against them in the district court for the county of Santa Fe, territory of New Mexico, by said plaintiff, Feliciano Montoya, for the work and labor, care, and diligence, of the plaintiff, horse-feed, horse and mule hire, corn, hay, meat and drink, rent, wood, board and lodging, had by the said defendants of and from the said plaintiff. Damages claimed, four hundred dollars. That unless you enter your appearance in said suit on or before the next February term of said court, commencing on the tenth day of February, A. D. 1879, judgment by default therein will be rendered against you. John H. Thompson, Clerk.
“C. H. Gildersleeve, for Plaintiff.”

That at some term of the court below, in 1880,—but which term of that year the record does not disclose,—judgment by default to appear was rendered against said Hinds, Kirk, Fisher, and McDonaugh, ■and the damages of the plaintiff assessed by a jury at $373.50, and judgment in assumpsit rendered for that sum and costs, in favor of the plaintiff, Montoya. At the February term of the court below for 1879, the plaintiff, Montoya, filed allegations in the garnishee proceedings against Smith, covering money, property, and effects belonging to the defendants, in his hands or under his control, and at the same term filed and exhibited appropriate interrogatories touching any property, effects, and credits of the defendants in the hands of said garnishee. Some of the answers of the garnishee to the interrogatories were traversed by the plaintiff, Montoya, and upon the issues thus joined a trial was had before a jury, whereby the following facts, among others, seem to have been established:

That on the fourteenth day of November, 1878, the defendants in this “action of assumpsit, by the name of the Fisher Stage-line Company, by Jerome J. Hinds, president and general manager, ” executed to the garnishee, Smith, a chattel mortgage covering all the property of defendants that subsequently came to the possession of said garnishee.

That the consideration of said mortgage purported on its face to be the sum of $2,500, to them at that date advanced by said Smith, the receipt whereof was thereby acknowledged by said defendants, and in the further consideration that said Smith should thereafter advance all money necessary to honor and pay all drafts then drawn and thereafter to be drawn for the benefit of said stage company, and to enable said Hinds, as such president and general manager, to «carry on the business of said stage company.

That the conditions of said mortgage were that the same should be void if said company should pay, or cause to be paid to said Smith, said sum of $2,500, and all moneys advanced and paid by him on draft, or for the benefit of said company, or otherwise.

That the possession and control of the property covered by the mortgage to be in said Smith, but the said company to have the privilege of using and employing the same in its said business, with the understanding that if any other creditor should attach the same, or if any member of said company should attempt to remove or dispose ■of the same, then said Smith was to take the property from the hands of the company for his own use and disposal.

That, notwithstanding the said recitals in the mortgage, no moneys had been advanced to said company at the time of the execution and delivery of the mortgage, or prior thereto.

That from the time of the execution and delivery of the mortgage on the fourteenth of November, 1878, up to the time said Smith was summoned as garnishee, on the twenty-seventh of December of the same year, he had altogether advanced to said company not to exceed the sum of $300, but that he had obligated himself under the terms of the mortgage to pay upwards of $4,000. Up to that date it does not appear how he had obligated himself to pay that sum in the aggregate, except the general obligation under the mortgage to make future advances, except it may be some $500 which he obligated himself to pay by indorsement of a draft drawn on the company in Washington, by said Hinds, in favor of the Second National Bank of Santa Fe, and another draft between the same parties, but not indorsed by Smith, in the sum of $1,000, which he claims he became obligated to pay through some parol agreement and taking charge of the company’s stock. For what particular purpose these drafts were drawn does not clearly appear.

That Smith, after he had been summoned as garnishee, and before answering the interrogatories propounded in the garnishee proceedings against him, had property of said company in his possession under said mortgage, the value of which was much more than enough to satisfy the judgment rendered in favor of the plaintiff, Montoya.

A trial was had on the issues joined in the garnishee proceedings, resulting in a judgment against Smith, as garnishee, in the sum of $424 and costs.

A multitude of errors are assigned upon the record, only a few of which, based upon the foregoing statement of the case, do we deem it necessary to notice. The first question of importance raised is as to whether the court below had acquired jurisdiction to render a judgment in favor of the plaintiff, Montoya, against Hinds et al., in the action of assumpsit, and to order a sale of attached property. As no judgment could be legally rendered against Smith, as garnishee, until after judgment had been rendered against the defendants in the action in which he was summoned as garnishee, it follows that the garnishee had the right as a matter of defense to show either by the record, or, if the record was silent, by other competent proofs, that the judgment was void for want of jurisdiction. Upon the trial between the plaintiff and garnishee the plaintiff offered in evidence the record of the judgment alone rendered fey default in his favor and against Hinds et al. This was objected to on the ground that there was nothing in the record as presented showing that the court had acquired jurisdiction.

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Bluebook (online)
3 N.M. 39, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/smith-v-montoya-nm-1883.