Zinn v. Dzialynski

14 Fla. 187
CourtSupreme Court of Florida
DecidedApril 15, 1872
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 14 Fla. 187 (Zinn v. Dzialynski) 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
Zinn v. Dzialynski, 14 Fla. 187 (Fla. 1872).

Opinion

RANDALL, C. J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This cause was submitted on briefs by the respective counsel. At the time of submitting the cause, Mr. L’Engle, •■for Sanderson & L’Engle, and as counsel for Dzialynski, en[194]*194tered a motion to strike the cause of Sanderson & L’Engle vs. Dzialynski from the docket, because it purports to be an appeal taken by said firm of Sanderson & L’Engle, whereas in fact neither they nor the survivor took or desired an appeal, and that no appeal has been ta,ken in the cause of Sanderson & L’Engle vs. Dzialynski; and for the further reason that neither party to said cause is willing that said cause should remain on the docket.

The cause upon the docket is entered therein under the double title of the two causes referred to, as the same appears upon the order from which the appeal was taken. The appeal, however, was taken only by Zinn, Aldrich & Co., and their right to appeal from the order, as it affects their interests, has not been questioned.

The objection raised by the motion to strike from the docket, is to the use of the names of Sanderson & L’Engle in the title of the proceeding. As the appellants, Zinn, Aldrich & Co., were affected by the order, they had a right to appeal, and the use of the names of the other parties was proper. This peculiarity in the form of the order creates no embarrassment, and indeed the use of the names of the parties in both suits for the purposes of this appeal is made necessary by the peculiar form adopted in framing the order.

The order is an adjudication in favor of Sanderson & L’Engle and against the appellants. It appropriates a fund to Sanderson & L’Engle, which, it is claimed by the appellants, belongs to the latter. The fund is the money realized by ths sale of the property of the party who was the defendant in both suits in the Circuit Court, which fund must be applied upon the execution of one or both of the plaintiffs.

We think that L’Engle, survivor, &c., is an indispensable party to the appeal, as he was a party to the order, and his relative position is that of a respondent. The appeal was properly perfected by serving the notice upon him as a party and as the attorney of Dzialynski. Neither Mr. L’Engle, [195]*195as survivor, nor Sanderson & L’Engle, purport to be appellants. ,

The appellants are entitled to be heard, and have taken the only course left to them by the law to obtain their alleged legal rights. The motion to strike the cause from the docket, therefore, cannot be granted.

The appellants seized the goods of Dzialynski by means of a writ of attachment levied in Mjxy, 1870. The defendant made an issue by a traverse of the affidavit upon which the writ issued, and upon trial of this issue the writ and the suit were dismissed. Whereupon the plaintiffs appealed from the judgment of dismissal, and the judgment being reversed, the suit was restored to the docket of the Circuit Court and stood as though no trial had been had. No subsequent trial of the traverse was had, but a final judgment upon the merits in favor of the plaintiffs, for $1,788.65 and costs was rendered by the Circuit Court, as we understand the record. It is insisted that the judgment was taken without notice to the defendant or his. attorneys, and therefore was irregularly entered. This may have been the ease, but still it is a judgment of a court of record, and the regularity of the proceedings cannot be called in .question in this manner, the court having had jurisdiction of the parties and oí the subject matter. If there were cause for setting aside the judgment or reversal on accoxxnt of irregu-' larities, the parties had their remedy by motila to the proper court. While it stands xxnreversed, a mere irregularity in a matter of practice cannot be inquii’ed into collaterally as in this proceeding.

The more important question, however, is, whether the appellants are entitled to the proceeds of the property attached by them. Sanderson & L’Engle commenced their suit by summons against the same defendant in December, 1870, and obtained their judgment in January, 1871, several months before the appellants obtained their judgment, which latter was taken in June, 1871.

[196]*196The appellants claim that they had an exclusive lien upon the proceeds of the property attached, and that such proceeds- should be applied to the payment of their judgment and execution; while L’Engle, survivor, &c., insists that Sis judgment and execution must be first satisfied, as the latter judgment, having been first entered, created alien prior in right to that of the appellants, and so-held the Cir-e'«it Court.

Section 9 of the act of February 17, 1833, (found in Thompson’s Digest, 368,) reads as follows : “ The service of a writ of attachment shall not operate to- dispossess the tenant of any lands or tenements, but such service shall bind the property attached, except against pre-existing liens; but the judgment in a suit commenced by attachment shall be satisfied in the same manner as other judgments obtained at the same term of the court are, or shall be satisfied out ®f the lands and tenements, goods and chattels generally of the defendant in attachment; provided, however, that judgment-rendered against any garnishee or garnishees in said suit shall be appropriated exclusively to the satisfaction of the judgment rendered against the defendant, commenced fey attachment as aforesaid.”

Counsel for the respondent insists that the attached property was not to be appropriated, under this statute, to the payment of the judgment obtained by the attaching creditor,’unless such judgment be older than others, but that all judgments were to be satisfied, according to priority the only effect of the attachment being-to hold the property for the payment of debts according to priorities to be after-wards establishedand reference is made to the case of Post & Carpenter, 3 Fla., as establishing the construction thus contended for.

In that case the conflicting claimants were all attaching creditors, and their judgments were all obtained at the same term. We do not see that the court gives such a construction to the act as that the terms “ pre-existing liens ” re[197]*197ferred to the-date of the judgments to be thereafter recovered and gave to such judgments a priority of lien over that of an attaching creditor whose writ was levied before any judgment was obtained. The terms “ pre-existing liens” must refer to liens existing prior to the levy of the attachment.

In the cases mentioned in the section quoted, - the writ of attachment, duly levied, created a lien upon the property-seized, .and this lien must be enforced in favor of the attaching creditor, to the exclusion of all subsequent liens, except, perhaps, as to such judgments as might be “ obtained at the same term of the court.” It does not in express terms or by implication yield any right to a judgment creditor whose judgment may be obtained at any other term or tima The court remarks in Post & Carpenter that this law of attachment being in derogation of the common law, we are not disposed to extend its provisions bdyond the manifest meaning of its terms; and we should be loth so to extend them as to give a preference to attaching creditors over those who pursue the ordinary process of law, unless the statute contained clear and unequivocal words to that effect.”

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Bluebook (online)
14 Fla. 187, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/zinn-v-dzialynski-fla-1872.