Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/243/269/
Timestamp: 2019-04-24 12:59:13+00:00

Document:
The power of the states to seize tangible and intangible property and apply it to satisfy the obligations of absent owners is not obstructed by the federal Constitution.
The power is the same whether the obligation sought to be enforced be admitted or contested, liquidated or unliquidated, inchoate or mature.
The only essentials to its exercise are the presence of the res, its seizure at the commencement of proceedings, and the opportunity of the owner to be heard.
Where these essentials exist, a decree for alimony will be valid under the same circumstances and to the same extent as a judgment on a debt, i.e., valid as a charge upon the property seized. So held where the property was the divorced husband's bank account.
Property not subject to attachment at law may be reached in equity; an injunction entered at the commencement of proceedings for divorce and alimony may operate as a seizure, in the nature of a garnishment, of defendant's account in bank.
92 Ohio St. 517 affirmed.
brought to this Court for review, Pennington still claiming that his constitutional rights had been violated.
The Fourteenth Amendment did not, in guarantying due process of law, abridge the jurisdiction which a state possessed over property within its borders, regardless of the residence or presence of the owner. That jurisdiction extends alike to tangible and to intangible property. Indebtedness due from a resident to a nonresident -- of which bank deposits are an example -- is property within the state. Chicago, Rock Island & Pacific Ry. Co. v. Sturm, 174 U. S. 710. It is, indeed, the species of property which courts of the several states have most frequently applied in satisfaction of the obligations of absent debtors. Harris v. Balk, 198 U. S. 215. Substituted service on a nonresident by publication furnishes no legal basis for a judgment in personam. Pennoyer v. Neff, 95 U. S. 714. But garnishment or foreign attachment is a proceeding quasi in rem. Freeman v. Alderson, 119 U. S. 185, 119 U. S. 187. The thing belonging to the absent defendant is seized and applied to the satisfaction of his obligation. The federal Constitution presents no obstacle to the full exercise of this power.
It is asserted that these settled principles of law cannot be applied to enforce the obligation of an absent husband to pay alimony without violating the constitutional guaranty of due process of law. The main ground for the contention is this: in ordinary garnishment proceedings, the obligation enforced is a debt existing at the commencement of the action, whereas the obligation to pay alimony arises only as a result of the suit. The distinction is, in this connection, without legal significance. The power of the state to proceed against the property of an absent defendant is the same whether the obligation sought to be enforced is an admitted indebtedness or a contested claim. It is the same whether the claim is liquidated or is unliquidated, like a claim for damages in contract or in tort.
Enforcement of allowance of alimony from property of absent defendant, seized at the commencement of the suit by attachment or similar process. Hanscom v. Hanscom, 6 Colo. App. 97; Thurston v. Thurston, 58 Minn. 279; Wood v. Price, 79 N.J.Eq. 1, 9, 10. See Bailey v. Bailey, 127 N.C. 474; Twing v. O'Meara, 59 Iowa, 326, 331. Cf. Bunnell v. Bunnell, 25 F. 214, 218.
The wife's inchoate right to alimony makes her a creditor of the husband under the statutes against fraudulent conveyances. Livermore v. Boutelle, 11 Gray, 217, 220; Thurston v. Thurston, 58 Minn. 279; Murray v. Murray, 115 Cal. 266, 274; Hinds v. Hinds, 80 Ala. 225, 227.
An injunction issued against a resident debtor of a nonresident defendant is a sufficient seizure of the defendant's property to give jurisdiction. Bragg v. Gaynor, 85 Wis. 468, 487. See Murray v. Murray, 115 Cal. 266, 276. See Tyler v. Judges of Court of Registration, 175 Mass. 71, 77.

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