Source: https://caselaw.findlaw.com/us-supreme-court/198/554.html
Timestamp: 2019-04-21 19:11:22+00:00

Document:
'1. Is the defendant exempt from attachment before judgment under 5242, U. S. Rev. Stat. U. S. Comp. Stat. 1901, p. 3517?
The court of appeals, in affirming the judgment of the court below, answered the first question in the affirmative and the second question in the negative. The case was then brought to this court upon writ of error.
Mr. James W. M. Newlin for plaintiff in error.
[198 U.S. 554, 556] Messrs. Percy S. Dudley and George B. Woomer for defendant in error.
'It is clear to our minds that, as it stood originally as part of 57 [13 Stat. at L. 116, chap. 106], after 1873, and as it stands now in the Revised Statutes, it operates as a prohibition upon all attachments against national banks under the authority of the state courts. . . . It stands now, as it did originally, as the paramount law of the land, that attachments shall not issue from state courts against national banks, and writes into all state attachment laws an exception in favor of national banks. Since the act of 1873 all the attachment laws of the state must be read as if they contained a provision in express terms that they were not to apply to suits against a national bank.' [198 U.S. 554, 559] Since the rendition of that decision it has been generally followed as an authoritative construction of the statute holding that no attachment can issue from a state court before judgment against a national bank or its property. Freeman Mfg. Co. v. National Bank, 160 Mass. 398, 35 N. E. 865; Planters Loan & Sav. Bank v. Berry, 91 Ga. 264, 18 S. E. 137; First Nat. Bank v. La Due, 39 Minn. 415, 40 N. W. 367; Safford v. First Nat. Bank, 61 Vt. 373, 17 Atl. 748; Rosenheim Real-Estate Co. v. Southern Nat. Bank (Tenn. Ch. App.), 46 S. W. 1026; Garner v. Second Nat. Bank, 66 Fed. 369. It is argued by the plaintiff in error that the decision in the Mixter Case, 124 U.S. 721 , 31 L. ed. 567, 8 Sup. Ct. Rep. 718, should be limited to cases where the bank is insolvent; but the statement of facts in that case shows that, at the time when the attachment was issued, the bank was a going concern and entirely solvent so far as the record discloses. The language of Chief Justice Waite, above quoted, is broad and applicable to all conditions of national banks, whether solvent or insolvent; and there is nothing in the state, which is likewise specific in its terms, giving the right of foreign attachment as against solvent national banks. We find nothing in the case of Earle v. Pennsylvania, 178 U.S. 449 , 44 L. ed. 1146, 20 Sup. Ct. Rep. 915, which qualifies the decision announced in the Mixter Case. We therefore conclude that the Mixter Case is applicable here, and the decision therein announced meets with our approval.
There is nothing in this section enlarging the right of attachment against national banks. Before the passage of this section circuit courts of the United States had jurisdiction of suits against national banks because they were corporations of Federal origin. It was the purpose of this legislation to deprive such banks of the right to invoke the jurisdiction of the Federal courts simply upon the ground that they were created by and exercised their powers under the acts of Congress. Petrie v. Commercial Nat. Bank, 142 U.S. 644 , 35 L. ed. 1144, 12 Sup. Ct. Rep. 325; Continental Nat. Bank v. Buford, 191 U.S. 119 -123, 48 L. ed. 119, 120, 24 Sup. Ct. Rep. 54. It regulated the jurisdiction of the courts to entertain such actions against corporations of this character, and had nothing to do with the kind and character of remedies which could be had against them. Certainly there is nothing in the act repealing the prior provisions of 5242, above quoted.
It is further insisted that, whether or not the lien is absolute upon the property of the bank, jurisdiction is obtained of it by the issuing of the attachment; but we cannot take this view. There was no personal service in the court of original jurisdiction, and the attachment being without the power of the court by reason of the terms of the Federal statute, no jurisdiction was acquired in the case, either over the person or property of the defendant. We see no error in the judgment of the Court of Appeals of New York, and the same is affirmed.

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