Case ID: minn_43/html/0191-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Vanderburgh, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Byron G. Segog vs. John H. Engle.
    April 25, 1890.
    Garnishment — Excessive Judgment by Default — Bemedy of Garnishee. If a garnishee suffers judgment to go against him upon default of his appearance, his remedy must be taken in the same proceeding. If it turns out that the judgment is in excess of the amount due from him to the principal debtor, he cannot, after satisfying the judgment, seek indemnity from the latter in a suit against him.
    Appeal by plaintiff from an order of the municipal court of Duluth, sustaining a demurrer to the complaint in an action for $111.68.
    
      Sherwood & Powell, for appellant.
    
      Mahon & Howard, for respondent.
   Vanderburgh, J.

In an action against this defendant, the plaintiff was summoned as a garnishee, and judgment was thereafter duly recovered against him upon default of his appearance to make disclosure, which judgment he was thereupon compelled to pay; and he now brings this action to recover the amount thereof of the defendant as money paid out for him, on the ground that he did not, as he alleges, in fact owe the defendant anything when the judgment was recovered against him as such garnishee. The action cannot be maintained. The plaintiff’s remedy was exclusively in the proceeding in which the judgment was rendered. He is as effectually concluded by the judgment, as respects the question of his indebtedness to the defendant, as if it had been taken upon his confession or admission, upon full disclosure, of the fact of such indebtedness. It was his own act or negligence, for which the defendant is not responsible, and there is no implied obligation on his part to indemnify the plaintiff garnishee. The judgment remaining in full force, under the circumstances of the case, the plaintiff, in legal contemplation, simply satisfied his own debt, established on his own admission.

Order affirmed.