Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/307/299/
Timestamp: 2019-04-23 16:55:54+00:00

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Justia › US Law › US Case Law › US Supreme Court › Volume 307 › Rorick v. Devon Syndicate, Ltd.
1. Review is confined to the questions urged in the petition for certiorari. P. 307 U. S. 303.
2. The fact that he is an employee of a corporation of which the plaintiff in the case is president does not disqualify a notary public under § 11532, General Code of Ohio, from taking an affidavit in attachment or garnishment. P. 307 U. S. 303.
3. Under the General Code of Ohio, §§ 11279, 11819, when a civil action for money has been begun by filing the petitioner and issuing summons, an attachment or garnishment is not premature because obtained prior to personal service or before commencement of service by publication. P. 307 U. S. 306.
4. Under R.S. §§ 646 and 915, where an action has been removed to the federal court after the state court had acquired jurisdiction in rem by attachment or garnishment, the federal court, without prior personal service of summons, has the same jurisdiction to extend the attachment or garnishment to other property as the state court would have had under the state law if the case had not been removed. Big Vein Coal Co. v. Read, 229 U. S. 31, limited. P. 307 U. S. 312.
Certiorari, 306 U.S. 626, to review the affirmance of a judgment discharging an attachment and garnishment and dismissing the petition, in an action removed from a state court on the ground of diverse citizenship.
The case is here on a writ of certiorari to the United States Circuit Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit. We granted the writ because the court below had decided an important question of local law in a way probably in conflict with applicable local decisions, and probably had misconstrued certain federal statutes and a decision of this Court thereunder.
has already been acquired, can issue an order of attachment or garnishment against other property of the same defendant.
Court, and moved, inter alia, to dismiss the attachment and garnishment under the supplemental affidavit of February 17, 1936. After removal to the District Court, there was neither personal service, nor, so far as appears, service by publication.
By its motions of January 26, 1931, and April 11, 1936, respondent asserted that the affidavits in attachment and garnishment were defective and void under Ohio law; that there was no property of respondent within the jurisdiction of the District Court or the state court on which any valid attachment could be or was levied; that there was no property of respondent in the possession of any of the garnishees; that the attachment and garnishment and the service of summons were void by reason of incorrect designation of respondent; that there was no lawful service of summons under the supplemental and amended petition made on respondent; that the supplemental attachment and garnishment under the amended petition were also void for lack of personal service, and that the District Court had no jurisdiction over either the respondent or its property appropriate for the maintenance of this action.
issue in a federal District Court until the defendant has been personally served or has voluntarily appeared.
Of the various questions raised below and briefed here, only those urged in the petition for certiorari and incidental to their determination will be considered on review. General Talking Pictures Corp. v. Western Electric Co., 304 U. S. 175; Connecticut Railway & Lighting Co. v. Palmer, 305 U. S. 493.
Before coming to the basic question here involved -- namely, whether the garnishment secured in the District Court under the supplemental affidavit of February 17, 1936, was void -- there are two preliminary questions. These are (1) whether the notary public before whom the affidavits in attachment and garnishment of June 19 and June 27, 1930, were taken was disqualified, thus rendering the garnishment proceedings void and of no effect, and (2) whether the garnishments obtained in the state court were premature and void because they were secured without personal service and prior to the first publication of notice of constructive service.
"The officer before whom depositions are taken must not be a relative or attorney of either party, or otherwise interested in the event of the action or proceeding."
by petitioner with reference to this case, nor was he related to petitioner, nor did he have any financial stake in the outcome of this suit. His sole connection with the case was that he acted as notary on a few papers. Furthermore, the petition in this case alleged a cause of action personal to petitioner, not one on behalf of the corporation by which Drennan was employed or on behalf of its predecessor partnership.
"In a civil action for the recovery of money at or after its commencement, the plaintiff may have an attachment against the property of the defendant"
upon various enumerated grounds. In this case, the petition was filed, summons was issued, and an affidavit in attachment and garnishment was filed -- all on June 19, 1930. It would seem therefore that § 11819 was satisfied. But the Circuit Court of Appeals held that an attachment which issued before personal service was obtained, or before the beginning of publication for substituted service, was premature and void. Under that test, the attachments and garnishments sought in the state court on June 19 and June 27, 1930, were defective, since personal service was never had, and since service by publication was not commenced until several months later.
The Circuit Court of Appeals reached this conclusion in reliance upon its earlier decision in Doherty v. Cremering, 83 F.2d 388, and upon the decision of the Supreme Court of Ohio in Seibert v. Switzer, 35 Ohio St. 661.
"An action shall be deemed to be commenced within the meaning of this chapter as to each defendant at the date of the summons which is served on him or on a codefendant who is a joint contractor, or otherwise united in interest with him. When service by publication is proper, the action shall be deemed to be commenced at the date of the first publication, if it be regularly made."
"An attempt to commence an action shall be deemed to be equivalent to the commencement thereof, within the meaning of this chapter, when the party diligently endeavors to procure service; but such attempt must be followed by service within sixty days."
"It will be observed that the restrictive words 'within the meaning of this chapter' confine the operation of the section to matters concerning the limitations of actions. It seems to us that the legislative intent was to prevent parties from indefinitely prolonging a suspension of the statute by a mere attempt to sue."
"No action was, in fact commenced by the filing of a petition, until some three or four hours after the order of attachment was served and returned."
"The statute does not authorize an attachment except in an action, and the clerk of the court has no authority to issue the order of attachment until an action is brought, and the relation of plaintiff and defendant is established in the case."
causing a summons to issue thereon.Code, § 55. . . ."
The Seibert case and the Bacher case thus seem to be wholly consistent. An order of attachment issued prior to the filing of a petition and issuance of summons is void; an order of attachment issued after filing of the petition and the issuance of summons, but prior to the commencement of service by publication, is valid, though personal service is not had.
where no personal service has been had upon defendant or where defendant has made no personal appearance. One of the earliest antecedents of the Big Vein Coal Co. case, supra, was Toland v. Sprague, 12 Pet. 300. In that case, a citizen of Pennsylvania brought suit in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Pennsylvania against a citizen of Massachusetts who was domiciled abroad. No personal service was had, but an attachment was levied upon defendant's property in Pennsylvania. § 739 of the Revised Statutes then provided that no civil suit should be brought in either the circuit or district court against any inhabitant of the United States by any original process in any other district than that whereof he was an inhabitant or in which he was found at the time of the serving of the writ. This Court, by a divided vote, concluded that an attachment could not be issued except as a part of, or together with, process served upon defendant personally. And, in Ex parte Railway Co., 103 U. S. 794, this Court concluded that, since the defendant was an inhabitant of a state outside the jurisdiction of the federal court and was not found or served with process in that jurisdiction, no attachment could issue from that court against his property. It was on the basis of those two precedents that this Court later made its decision in Big Vein Coal Company of West Virginia v. Read, supra. In that case, plaintiff instituted suit in the federal court. A summons was issued and returned not found. Thereafter, an order of attachment was issued. It was held that, unless jurisdiction in personam is obtained over the defendant, his estate may not be attached in the federal court, an attachment being but "an incident to a suit," and not a means of acquiring jurisdiction. Id., p. 229 U. S. 38. This conclusion was reached in spite of the fact that § 739 had been changed since Ex parte Railway Co., supra, by addition of a diversity of citizenship clause permitting suit "in the district of the residence of either the defendant or plaintiff,"
and in spite of § 915 of the Revised Statutes (28 U.S.C. § 726), discussed hereafter. Nevertheless, this Court held that, since Congress had not explicitly provided for service by publication in such cases, attachment could be obtained only in cases where service was adequate for a judgment in personam.
"compel citizens of the Pacific coast to go to New York to defend their property which happened to be there and would give the great central cities vast power."
as in this case, commonly permits attachment or garnishment where only service by publication can be made.
"In common law causes in the district courts, the plaintiff shall be entitled to similar remedies, by attachment or other process, against the property of the defendant, which were, on June 1, 1872, provided by the laws of the State in which such court is held for the courts thereof, and such district courts may, from time to time, by general rules, adopt such State laws as may be in force in the States where they are held in relation to attachments and other process. Similar preliminary affidavits or proofs, and similar security, as required by such State laws, shall be first furnished by the party seeking such attachment or other remedy."
This section, when read with § 646, indicates to us that, where jurisdiction in rem has been acquired prior to removal, plaintiff may obtain in the federal court after removal such orders of attachment or garnishment as would have been available to him had he been permitted to remain in the state court. Such interpretation merely makes it possible for a lien obtained in a state court prior to removal to be extended by the federal court to other property of the same defendant. It introduces no new element in the statutory scheme, for, as we have said, the lien which § 646 protects may often have been obtained without personal service. The policy which recognizes the validity of a lien preserved by virtue of § 646, though personal service is lacking, permits extension of that lien by a federal District Court under like circumstances to other property of the same defendant by reason of § 915.
This holding can be brought within the rule of the Big Vein Coal Company case, supra, if that decision is narrowly limited. For, in one sense, it can be said that attachment or garnishment is here used only as an "auxiliary remedy." Id., p. 229 U. S. 37. The garnishment effected under the affidavit of February 17, 1936, if valid under Ohio law, would merely extend the proceedings in rem to reach other property of the same defendant. Accordingly, if that extension is permissible under Section 915, it is not defective merely because jurisdiction in personam is absent. Whether or not such extension is permissible is a matter of state law on which we do not pass. Since the case will be remanded, that question and other questions raised by the respondent can be more appropriately disposed of by the District Court.
Paris E. Singer was also named a defendant in the original petition, but died pending the action. Since subsequent proceedings were continued against respondent alone, the cause is treated as if Devon Syndicate, Limited, were the sole defendant.
"The sections of the Code referred to relate to the mode of taking testimony, and are found under part third, title IV, division III, relating to procedure in common pleas court, in chapter 3 in regard to evidence. We think these sections of the Code relate to affidavits to be used in the sense of evidence."
Id., p. 66. Though we are not justified on these authorities in concluding that the prohibitions contained in § 11532 are inapplicable to notaries before whom affidavits in attachment and garnishment are taken, nevertheless they lend support to the view that, in considering whether or not a notary is "otherwise interested" in the event of the action within the meaning of the section, it is appropriate to give some weight to the function which the affidavit in question is to perform in the absence of a contrary ruling by the Ohio courts.
"No banker, broker, cashier, director, teller, or clerk of a bank, banker or broker, or other person holding an official relation to a bank, banker, or broker, shall be competent to act as notary public in any matter in which such bank, banker, or broker is interested."
Respondent claims that the corporation of which petitioner was an officer and by which the notary was employed, as well as the predecessor partnership, was a municipal bond broker; that petitioner, being an officer of the corporation, was himself a broker, and that therefore the notary was a "clerk of" or "other person holding an official relation to" a "broker." Suffice it to note (1) that the notary was not in the employ of petitioner, and (2) that neither the corporation nor its predecessor partnership appears to be "interested" in the action. As alleged, the action seems to be personal to petitioner.
"When any suit shall be removed from a State court to a district court of the United States, any attachment or sequestration of the goods or estate of the defendant had in such suit in the State court shall hold the goods or estate so attached or sequestered to answer the final judgment or decree in the same manner as by law they would have been held to answer final judgment or decree had it been rendered by the court in which said suit was commenced. All bonds, undertakings, or security given by either party in such suit prior to its removal shall remain valid and effectual notwithstanding said removal, and all injunctions, orders, and other proceedings had in such suit prior to its removal shall remain in full force and effect until dissolved or modified by the court to which such suit shall be removed."

References: v. 
 § 11532
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 § 11819
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 § 55
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 § 739
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 § 739
 § 915
 § 726
 § 646
 § 646
 § 646
 § 915
 § 11532