Source: https://openjurist.org/307/us/299
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 02:22:37+00:00

Document:
See 307 U.S. 650, 59 S.Ct. 1041, 83 L.Ed. —-.
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. 306 U.S. 626, 59 S.Ct. 643, 83 L.Ed. —-.
Petitioner, a resident of Ohio, brought suit on June 19, 1930, in a state court in Ohio against respondent, a nonresident corporation organized under Canadian law, on a contract claim for personal services rendered.1 Summons was concurrently issued, but personal service was never had; and simultaneously, an affidavit in attachment and garnishment was filed. A second affidavit in attachment and garnishment was filed on June 27, 1930, naming additional persons; and shortly thereafter certain funds and property of respondent were garnisheed. Subsequently, service by publication was completed; and soon afterwards, and before judgment, respondent appeared specially and obtained a removal of the cause to the District Court of the United States for the Northern District of Ohio, Western Division. In the District Court respondent also appeared specially and moved to quash the service by publication and to dismiss the attachment and garnishment. Nothing further was done in the cause for over five years. Then, on February 17, 1936, petitioner, with leave of the District Court, filed a supplemental and amended petition repeating in substance the allegations of the original petition; and a supplemental affidavit in garnishment which named as garnishees the same persons designated in the original affidavits of June 1930 in the state court. On the same day, the District Court issued an order of attachment and notices to garnishees. Under the latter additional funds in the hands of one of the garnishees were reached. And on April 11, 1936, respondents again appeared specially in the District 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.
Second. Sec. 11279 of the Ohio General Code provides that 'A civil action must be commenced by filing in the office of the clerk of the proper court a petition, and causing a summons to be issued thereon.' Sec. 11819 provides that '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 Sec. 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.
On that authority we conclude that 'at or after its commencement' as used in Sec. 11819 means the commencement described in Sec. 11279, not the commencement described in Sec. 11230. Additional support for this conclusion is found in Seibert v. Switzer, 35 Ohio St. 661, on which the Circuit Court of Appeals$ relied for the contrary conclusion. There the validity of an order of attachment which had been issued and served prior to the filing of the petition was in issue. At that time Sec. 11279 (then Civil Code, § 55) was identically the same as at present. Sec. 11819 (then Civil Code, § 191) was, so far as material here, substantially the same as it is now; i.e., it allowed the plaintiff in a civil action for the recovery of money to have an attachment 'at or after the commencement' of the action. Sec. 11820 (then Civil Code, § 192) at that time, as now, provided that the order of attachment should be made 'by e clerk of the court in which the action is brought'. And Sec. 11821 (then Civil Code, § 193) required in case of attachment, as it does now, a bond by the 'plaintiff' to the 'defendant' except in case defendant was a non-resident or a foreign corporation. The court in Seibert v. Switzer, supra, held that the order of attachment was unauthorized and void,4 and said: '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.
Third. This brings us to the main issue in the case—whether a federal District Court has the power to issue an order of attachment or garnishment in a removed cause if jurisdiction in rem has been obtained prior to removal. The Circuit Court of Appeals relied upon the rule laid down in Big Vein Coal Company of West Virginia v. Read, 229 U.S. 31, 33 S.Ct. 694, 57 L.Ed. 1053, that an attachment may not issue in a federal District Court 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 Company case, supra, was Toland v. Sprague, 12 Pet. 300, 9 L.Ed. 1093. 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. Sec. 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 Des Moines & M. Railway Company, 103 U.S. 794, 26 L.Ed. 461, 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., 229 U.S. page 38, 33 S.Ct. page 696, 57 L.Ed. 1053. This conclusion was reached in spite of the fact that Sec. 739, 28 U.S.C.A. § 112 had been changed since Ex parte Des Moines & M. Railway Company, supra, by addition of a diversity of citizenship clause permitting suit 'in the district of the residence of either the plaintiff or the defendant', and in spite of Sec. 915 of the Revised Statutes, 28 U.S.C. § 726, 28 U.S.C.A. § 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.
There is Ohio authority for the view that Sec. 11532 of the Ohio General Code under which the notary's disqualification is asserted was intended only to define and regulate the taking of affidavits to be used as testimony in a judicial proceeding. City Commission of City of Gallipolis v. State, 36 Ohio App. 258, 173 N.E. 36. On the other hand, Leavitt & Milroy Co. v. Rosenberg Bros. & Co., 83 Ohio St. 230, 93 N.E. 904, squarely held that an attachment was defective because the affidavit was made before a notary who was the attorney for the plaintiff in violation of Sec. 11532.—then Sec. 5271, Rev.Stat. And though that case, so far as appears, has never been overruled, its holding and Sec. 11532 were nevertheless before the court in Evans v. Lawyer, 123 Ohio St. 62, 173 N.E. 735. There the Court referred to certain sections of the General Code (including Sec. 11532) which relate to execution of affidavits and said '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., 123 Ohio St. page 66, 173 N.E. page 736. Though we are not justified on these authorities in concluding that the prohibitions contained in Sec. 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.

References: v. 
 § 55
 § 191
 § 192
 § 193
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 v. 
 § 112
 § 726
 § 726
 v. 
 v. 
 v.