St. Joseph Stock Yards Co. v. Love

195 P. 305, 57 Utah 450, 25 A.L.R. 569, 1921 Utah LEXIS 75
CourtUtah Supreme Court
DecidedJanuary 21, 1921
DocketNo. 3553
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 195 P. 305 (St. Joseph Stock Yards Co. v. Love) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Utah Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
St. Joseph Stock Yards Co. v. Love, 195 P. 305, 57 Utah 450, 25 A.L.R. 569, 1921 Utah LEXIS 75 (Utah 1921).

Opinion

FRICK, J.

The plaintiff, a nonresident corporation, commenced this action in the district court of Weber county, Utah, against Ed. Love and Otto Meek as principals and H. W. Dunn and M. L. Harbison as sureties on a certain undertaking in attachment. The object of the action was to recover damages for an alleged wrongful suing out of an attachment against the plaintiff and for wrongfully attaching certain of its property. There were additional parties to this action, but, in view that they were not served with process, the action was dismissed as against them, and they will not be further referred to in this opinion. In view that the pleadings are [452]*452quite long, and tbat the facts and issues are sufficiently reflected in the findings of the district court, we shall merely I’efer to the findings and to such parts only as are deemed necessary to a full understanding of the questions decided.

The district court, in substance, found that on the 7th day of August, 1917, in an action for the recovery of money then pending in the district court of Weber county, wherein the defendants Love and Meek were plaintiffs and the plaintiff herein was defendant, said Love and Meek applied for and obtained a writ of attachment against the plaintiff herein pursuant to our statute; that in conformity with said statute said Love and Meek, as principals, and Dunn and Harbison, as sureties, duly executed the undertaking required by our statute in the sum of $6,000, after which the writ of attachment aforesaid was issued (a copy of the undertaking is set forth in the findings) ; that as commanded by said writ of attachment the sheriff of Weber county duly levied upon certain mules, the property of the plaintiff herein, and took the same into his possession; that after said sheriff had held said mules for a period of four days the plaintiff, with a competent surety, duly made and delivered to said Love and Meek an undertaking as provided by our statute for the release of said mules from said attachment, whereupon said mules were by the sheriff released and returned to the possession of the plaintiff herein; that said writ of attachment was wrongfully obtained, in that upon a trial of the issues in said action it was determined that the plaintiff herein was not indebted to said Love and Meek in any amount whatever, and, further, that if any indebtedness ever existed in their favor the same had been released before the bringing of said action, and judgment was duly entered in said action in favor of plaintiff herein and against said Love and Meek, from which judgment they appealed to the Supreme Court, which court duly affirmed the judgment; that the plaintiff herein was compelled to and did expend the sum of $35 to pay the premium for the undertaking aforesaid and the sum of $800 as attorney’s fees to defend said action in the district court and a further sum of $300 as attorney’s fees to defend said [453]*453appeal in the Supreme Court and the additional sum of $80 for feed for said mules by reason of the four days delay (in transporting said mules) caused by said attachment, and $129.60 for costs taxed in the district court and $46.75 for costs taxed in the Supreme Court, the whole aggregating the sum of $1,391.75, with legal interest. The question of interest will be referred to in this opinion later. The court also found that plaintiff herein, at the time the attachment proceedings were commenced, was a corporation organized under the laws of the state of Missouri, and not subject to service of process within the state of Utah; that jurisdiction over the plaintiff herein was obtained solely by reason of said attachment; that the costs, expenses, and attorney’s fees allowed by the court as aforesaid were incurred by the plaintiff herein for the purpose of releasing its property from said attachment. As a conclusion of law the court found that the plaintiff herein was entitled to judgment for the aggregate amount aforesaid with legal interest from the 1st day of January, 1918. Judgment was accordingly entered, from which the defendants appeal.

While the findings of the court are assailed in various ways, there are in reality but two propositions presented for decision: (1) That the court erred in allowing counsel fees as before stated; and (2) that iferred in allowing interest.

The first proposition is the principal one in the case and upon which counsel on both sides have devoted much space in their respective briefs. The question is of first impression in this jurisdiction, and, in view of the authorities, is not free from difficulty. In order to present the question in its various aspects, it will be necessary to refer som'ewhat at length to our statute, to the decisions of the courts, and to the various enactments upon which many of the decisions are based.

Our statute, Comp. Laws Utah 1917, § 6704, provides that an attachment may issue against any party who is a nonresident upon the sole ground that he is such nonresident. Section 6706 provides what must be stated in the affidavit for a writ of attachment and section 6707 provides that before a writ can issue the party demanding the same must enter into [454]*454a written undertaking with proper sureties in an amount not less than $200, and not to exceed the sum of $10,000, conditioned “that if the defendant recover judgment, or if the attachment be wrongfully issued, the plaintiff will pay all costs that may be awarded to the defendant, and all damages which he may sustain by reason of the attachment, not exceeding the sum specified in the undertaking.” (Italics ours.) Section 6725 provides that the defendant may have the attached property released from attachment by giving, with proper sureties, what is commonly designated a redelivery bond, and we shall, in this opinion, refer to the same by that designation. Section 6726 reads as follows:

“The defendant may also, at any time, either before or after the release of the attached property, or before any attachment shall have been actually levied, upon reasonable, notice to the plaintiff, apply on motion to the court in which the action is brought, or to the judge thereof, for the discharge of the writ of attachment, on the ground that the same was improperly or irregularly issued.”

We have referred to section 6726 for the reason that it is contended by defendants’ counsel that under statutes like ours damages can only be recovered in a proceeding instituted to resist the attachment or to have the attached property released therefrom, and not for defending the action in which the writ of attachment was issued.

It is further urged that, in ease a redelivery bond is given by the defendant in the action, and his property is released therefrom and delivered to him, he waives his right to an action for damages for issuing the writ of attachment. Such is the holding of the Supreme Court of Washington in the case of Gutter v. Joiner, 56 Wash. 202, 105 Pac. 457, under a statute precisely like our statute, section 6726, supra. The decision is by a divided court, however, and in our judgment the law is correctly stated in the dissenting opinion of Mr. Justice Parker, which is concurred in by Mr. Justice Dunbar. The majority opinion seems to follow the case of Brady v. Onffroy, 37 Wash. 482, 79 Pac. 1004. We are not prepared to concede that the law, under a statute like ours, is correctly stated in the majority opinion in the Washington case. We think the [455]*455law is correctly reflected in the dissenting opinion of Mr.

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Bluebook (online)
195 P. 305, 57 Utah 450, 25 A.L.R. 569, 1921 Utah LEXIS 75, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/st-joseph-stock-yards-co-v-love-utah-1921.