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LEE and OTHERS vs. TABOR and WATSON, Garnishees of AUSTIN

Supreme Court of Missouri1843-07
8 Mo. 322

Summary

Holding. The judgment discharging the garnishees is reversed. Persons holding property or effects belonging to the defendant, even as assignees, may be summoned as garnishees in an attachment suit and are subject to satisfying any judgment obtained if they are found to hold defendant's property.

William J. Austin was sued by attachment, and Lee and others sought to garnish property held by Tabor and Watson. The garnishees answered that they held no property of Austin in their possession and owed him nothing, but admitted they were assignees under deeds of assignment from both the partnership Savage & Austin and from Austin individually, claiming to hold assets for the benefit of creditors. The plaintiffs disputed these assignments as fraudulent. The trial court discharged the garnishees without hearing evidence, apparently relying on precedent from a case involving execution garnishments.

The appellate court disagreed with the discharge. While acknowledging that similar principles might apply to both execution and attachment garnishments, the court found that the attachment statute is broader in scope. The statute authorizes attachments against property and effects in any hands, and the 1839 act specifically contemplates attachments where property has been fraudulently conveyed or assigned. These provisions were sufficient to require the garnishees to be subject to the attachment judgment if they held defendant's property.

Summary generated by law.co from the public-domain opinion. The opinion text itself is public domain.

Key issues

  • Whether garnishees holding property under an alleged fraudulent assignment are subject to garnishment in attachment proceedings
  • Scope of garnishment authority under attachment statutes versus execution statutes
  • Whether assignees of allegedly fraudulent conveyances can be discharged as garnishees without evidentiary hearing

Procedural posture

The trial court discharged the garnishees without hearing evidence; the plaintiffs obtained a writ of error to appeal that discharge.

Authorities cited

No cited authorities resolved to law.co cases yet.

Opinion

majority opinion

Scott, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

Tabor and Watson were summoned as garnishees in a suit commenced by attachment, against William J. Austin. In answer to interrogatories filed, Tabor and Watson, the garnishees, stated they had and have no property or effects of the defendant in their possession, and are not and were not indebted to them.

They also stated, that they were assignees under a deed of assignment made to them by Savage & Austin, (of which firm said Austin is the surviving partner,) for the benefit of their creditors, and admit that there are some effects in their hands, by virtue of said assignment.

They further state, that they are assignees under an assignment made to them by the defendant in the attachment, Austin, of his individual property and effects, for the benefits of his creditors.

To the answer of the garnishees, the plaintiffs filed replications, affirming that there were effects of the defendant, Austin, in the hands of the said garnishees, and that the said deed of assignment was fraudulent and void.

On the trial, the court discharged the garnishees, and the plaintiffs have sued out this writ of error.

It does not appear for what reason the court discharged the garnishees ; it was not, as was alleged, for the want of evidence, for the record states, that without hearing any evidence the order for the discharge was made.

From what fell, upon the argument of this cause, we are warranted in presuming that the garnishees were discharged on the authority of the case of Van Winkle vs. McKee, 7 Mo. Rep., 435.

That case arose on the construction of the statute giving plaintiffs, in execution, a right to garnishee the debtors of the defendant. The reasoning of the court in that case would certainly apply to this; and were the phraseology of the statute concerning attachments as circumscribed as that in relation to executions, we would feel no hesitation in pronouncing a like judgment. Although, in our opinion, the same principles are involved in the two cases, yet such is the breadth of the statute relative to attachments, that we feel ourselves restrained from an application of them to the case now under consideration.

Under the execution law, a garnishment is given against the debtors of the defendant in the execution. The statute concerning attachments, 1835, section 1, gives an original attachment against the lands, tenements, goods, moneys, effects, and credits of the debtor, in whosoever hands they may be. The seventh section directs, that all shall be summoned as garnishees who are named as such in the writ, and such others as the officer shall find in possession of money, goods, or effects of the defendant, not actually seized by the officer and debtors of the defendant, and also such as the plaintiff or his attorney shall direct.

The act of 13th February, 1839, gives an attachment against a debtor who has fraudulently conveyed or assigned any of his property or effects. There is an allegation, that the assignment in this cause mentioned is fraudulent and void. These provisions are sufficient to comprehend all persons whom the plaintiff will direct to be summoned as garnishees ; and if summoned, and it is found that they have money, goods, effects, or credits in their hands belonging to the defendant, the law makes them subject to the satisfaction of the judgment obtained in the suit commenced by attachment.

Judgment reversed.