West v. Woolfolk

21 Fla. 189
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedJanuary 15, 1885
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 21 Fla. 189 (West v. Woolfolk) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Florida primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
West v. Woolfolk, 21 Fla. 189 (Fla. 1885).

Opinion

Mr. Justice VanValkenburgh

delivered the opinion of the court:

The question is, did the Circuit Court of Jackson county acquire jurisdiction by virtue of the affidavit and other proceedings to issue the writ of attachment? Tt is a case where the court acquires special jurisdiction derived from and exercisable only according to statute, and has the power to take such judicial action only through the modes of procedure prescribed by the statute. In other words, the jurisdiction is extraordinary, “ that is, such as is provided by statute for exceptional cases, and are available only under particular circumstances designated by statute;” “ where a court or officer exercises an extraordinary power under a special statute prescribing the occasion and mode of its exercise the proceedings will be held illegal unless they be according to the statute, and the facts confirming jurisdiction appear affirmatively.” Drake on Attachment, §85.

The writ of attachment in this case was issued under and by virtue of sections 18, 14 and 15 of chapter 7, MClellan’s Digest, p. 113. Section fourteen provides as follows:

“ Such writ shall in no case be issued unless the party applying for' the same, or his agent or attorney, shall first [198]*198make oath in writing that the amount of the debt or demand claimed and charged against the opposite party is actually an existing debt or demand, stating also in said oath in writing the time when said debt or demand will actually become due and payable; and also that the party against whom the said writ of attachment is applied for is actually removing his or her property beyond the limits of this State, or (as the case maybe) is fraudulently disposing of, or secreting the same for the purpose of avoiding the payment of his or her- just debt or demand, satisfactory proof of which shall be demanded and produced to the officer granting the attachment.”

Section fifteen provides that “ no attachment shall issue until the party applying for the same, by himself or by his agent or attorney, shall enter into bond with at least two. good and sufficient securities payable to the defendant, in at least double the debt or sum demanded, conditioned to-pay all costs and damages the defendant may sustain in consequence of improperly suing out said attachment; Provided, nevertheless, That the bond taken in case of attachment shall not, on account of any informality in the sáme, be adjudged void as against obligors, nor shall they be discharged therefrom, although the attachment be dissolved by reason thereof.”

The statute nowhere provides that the affidavit, or the bond upon which the attachment issues and which gives, to the court its jurisdiction in the case, shall be entitled in the cause. No praecipe is required. Upon filing with the court from which an attachment is asked the prescribed affidavits and bond, the writ is issued and the suit is then inaugurated. In this case, however, the affidavit of the creditor is entitled “State of Florida, Jackson county,” arid is sworn to before “ Frank Philips, Clerk,” and is en-[199]*199(Horsed-:' “ 'Filed ;21st Dec., 1883, Frank Philips, Clerk-Circuit Court.”

On-the same day the affidavit of West and Burke, showing that the defendant was disposing of his property, was filed. The same day the bond was filed and at the same time the writ of attachment was issued. That writ is entitled “ First Judicial Circuit of Florida, Circuit Court of Jackson county,” and is directed to “Andrew Scott, Sheriff of Jackson county,” commanding him to return the same to the Circuit Court of the county of Jackson on the 7th day of January, A. D. 1884. This writ was duly executed1 by the sheriff and was returned as appears by the record' on the 5th day of January, 1884,. to the clerk’s office in the county of Jackson. The necessary papers under the statute were all filed on the same day and the writ was issued at the same time. It is a rule of law, “ that where two or more aids are done at the same time, that will take effect first which ought in strictness to have been done first in order to give it effect.” The affidavits and bond each comply with the requirements of the statute, in all respects, and consequently the motion to dissolve should not have been granted, and the attachment ought not to have been dismissed. In Kinney and Goodrich vs. Heald, 17 Ark., §97, which was an action, of assumpsit, commenced by attachment, the affidavit upon which the writ issued was as follows:

“We (plaintiff’s attorneys) do depose and say that the defendants (naming them) are justly indebted to John EL Healdin the sum of $836.19, which sum is now due, and that the said defendants (naming them) are not residents of- the State of Arkansas.” The affidavit was written on a separate piece of paper, not “ entitled,” nor connected with, or; attaehed'tb, any of the-original papers in the cause. The< court in their opinion-say :• “As far as we can-judge from'[200]*200the face of the affidavit, on which the attachment issued, it contains all the substantial requirements of the statute. The mere fact of its having been written on a detached piece of paper and not “ entitled,” though a loose and irregular mode of procedure, in such cases is not so to such an extent as to authorize this court to say that the court below should have sustained the exception of the plaintiffs in error taken to the affidavit on this account.”

In the case of Cheadle vs. Riddle, 6 Ark., 480, which was an action of debt by attachment, a motion was made to dissolve the attachment- upon three grounds, the first of which being that the affidavit upon which it was issued “ was not entitled of. the court in which it was intended to be used, nor of the names of the parties to said action.” The court, Johnson, O. J., delivering the opinion says, “the affidavit filed by the plaintiff below is conceived to be a substantial compliance with the requisitions of the statute, and consequently the Circuit Court properly overruled the exception to it.”

In the case of Livingston vs. Wofford, 4 Ill., 3 Scammon, 576, the appellant moved to reverse the judgment and assigned for error, among others, that “the affidavit on which the attachment issued was not sworn to before an officer authorized to take it.” The court say: “By reference to. the record it appears that the writ of attachment issued on the same day is tested in the name of and signed by Henry L. Webb as clerk of the Alexandria Circuit Court, The court will presume that the affidavit was sworn to before the same officer, and as the clerk is by law in such cases authorized to take affidavits, the affidavit in this case was properly made.” They decide that where the jurat to an affidavit for a writ of attachment showed that the affidavit was sworn- to before “ Henry L. Webb,” and the writ was tested and signed by “Henry L. Webb, Clerk of the [201]*201Alexandria Circuit Court,” that the court would presume that the affidavit was sworn to before the clerk. Stout vs. Folger, 34 Iowa, 71.

In this court in Branch vs. Branch, 6 Fla., 315, which was an action in replevin, this court say: “ It is said again that the jurat to the affidavit is defective, and that the bond is not approved as required by the statute. • This is because the officer who put his jurat to the affidavit, and approved the bond, signed merely “ Robert Bullock, clerk,” and it is urged that this does- not show that he was Clerk of Marion C'reuit Court, where the suit was instituted.

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Bluebook (online)
21 Fla. 189, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/west-v-woolfolk-fla-1885.