Case ID: tenn_39/html/0177-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "\"WRIGHT, J.,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

W. B. Lillard, Adm’r, v. Reese W. Porter et al.
    
    1. Attachment. Parties. Corporation. Stockholders. Stockholders are distinct parties from the corporation in which they are stockholders, and legal proceedings against them cannot reach it. Hence, if an attachment is sued out in a proceeding in which the stockholders are made parties, hut the corporation not, and is levied upon the effects of the corporation, no lien is acquired by virtue of the levy of said attachment.
    2. Same. Same. Amendment. Effect of. If an attachment is sued out and levied upon the property of a party who is not a defendant in the suit, and the hill is subsequently amended, bringing such party before the court, the lien of said attachment takes effect at the time of the filing of the amended bill, and does not relate back and attach at the time of the levy of the attachment. And if, after the levy of said attachment, but before the filing of the amended bill, said property is attached by another, in a proper proceeding against the owner, a prior lien is, thereby, acquired.
    3. Estoppel. By answer in Chancery. Corporation. If a party, by his answer in Chancery, admits the existence of a corporation byka particular name, he cannot be heard to deny, in said suit, that admission.
    4. Central-Bank of Tennessee. Change of name. Act of 1854, eh. 294, $ 68. The act of 1854, ck. 294, § 68, chartered the Eastern Division Mining Company, with banking powers, and the privilege of changing its name and title whenever deemed necessary. Under the power thus conferred, the name of said corporation was changed to the Central Bank of Tennessee.
    FROM DAVIDSON.
    This cause was heard before Chancellor Frierson, at the November Term, 1857. A transcript of the record was filed with the Clerk of the Supreme Court, and a writ of error obtained by. Dorter.
    
      Bostick, for the complainant.
    
      3. S. Bribe, for Porter.
   "WRIGHT, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The complainant, Lillard, as the administrator of Sum-merhill, and the defendant, Porter, are attachment creditors of the Central Bank of Tennessee — a corporation created under the laws of this State.

A fund belonging to said Bank was attached and placed in the hands of a receiver in the cause.

The only question made here is as to the priority of these two creditors in this fund. The Chancellor decreed in favor of complainant, and we think properly, and affirm his decree.

The hill of Porter was filed, and his attachment levied before that of Summerhill. But he failed to make the Bank, his only debtor, a party. His bill was filed, alone, against Edward Belknap, E. R. Tremain and Samuel L. Haven — the stockholders and owners of said Bank — treating them as his debtors.

It was not until more than eleven months afterwards that, under an order of the Chancery Court, he filed an amended bill, making the Bank a party.

In the meantime, and within two days after the.filing of Porter’s original bill, Summerhill had, by a bill with the proper parties, legally attached the same fund.

We hold it to be too clear for argument, that Porter, by virtue of his attachment, acquired no lien upon the assets of this corporation, until he made it a party by the amendment to his bill. The stockholders were totally distinct persons from .the corporation, and legal proceedings against them, could, in no way, reach it, or attach upon any of its assets.

It is difficult to perceive .what authority an officer could have under a writ in -such a case. How could he lawfully seize or attach the property or assets of the Bank ? Angelí & Ames on Corporations, sections 643, 665, 666, 667, 674, 675, 676. Fay v. Reager, Exr., et al., 2 Sneed, 200, 203.

The amendment of Porter’s hill cannot he made to relate so as to prejudice or overreach the lien previously acquired hy Summerhill under his attachment. 2 Sneed, 492, 203.

It is also insisted by Porter’s counsel, that there never was any such corporation as the Central Bank of Tennessee, 'and that Belknap, Tremain & Haven, merely took upon themselves that name under which to carry on their banking business — without any charter or act of incorporation — and that they are liable to him as partners;. and, therefore, his attachment was properly sued out and levied, and entitled him to the prior lien.

This position has nothing in it; because, in the first place, the bill filed hy Summerhill, and Porter’s answer thereto, and his amended bill, admit the existence of the Central Bank of Tennessee as a corporation. An-gell”& Ames, sec. 635.

And we also find that this corporation was created by the 68th section of the act of 1854, chapter 294, under the corporate style of the Eastern Division Mining Company,” with hanking powers, and the privilege of changing its name and title, whenever it deemed it necessary. And we have in this record, from the pleadings of the parties, sufficient evidence to warrant the conclusion that it did change its name, and do business under the corporate title of the Central Bank of Tennessee. 3 Sneed, 631-2.

Decree affirmed. 
      
      
         The lien of an attachment takes effect from, the time of the levy, and not from the time of its issuance. 1 S. & M., ch. 449; Harvey & New v. Champion, 11 Hum., 569; Snell & McGavock v. Allen, 1 Swan, 208; Wallace v. Hanley, 4 J. J. Marsh., 622; Martin v. Dryden, 1 Gilm., 187. It would seem, therefore, that if an amended hill is filed making a new party, and seeking to subject his property to the payment of a debt, an attachment must be prayed for in said amended bill, in order to acquire a lien on the property. The issuance and levy of an attachment, on the original bill, upon the property of a person not a party to said bill, would create no lien, although the bill is, subsequently, amended, and said party brought before the court.