Source: https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/114/654/
Timestamp: 2019-04-19 08:19:51+00:00

Document:
(1) The affidavit was sufficient for a removal under subdivision 3 of § 639.
(2) The petition made out a case for a removal under the act of 1875.
(3) The absence of an oath to the petition was at most only an informality, which the defendant waived by not taking the objection on the motion to remand.
H, having obtained a money judgment against the City of New Orleans in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Louisiana, filed in that court a supplemental petition and interrogatories, in accordance with the second paragraph of Article 246 of the Code of Practice of Louisiana, added by the Act of March 30, 1839, against a street railroad corporation, as a debtor to the city, praying that it be cited as garnishee and answer the interrogatories and pay the judgment. The corporation was cited to answer, and did so, to the effect that it owed nothing to the city but some taxes. A filed a traverse to the answers in law and in fact, and it was tried before a jury, which found a verdict for the plaintiff for a sum of money, on which judgment was rendered. Before it was signed, the corporation moved to expunge it and to arrest it for specified reasons. The motion was overruled, a bill of exceptions was taken thereto, and judgment was signed. No bill of exceptions was taken in regard to the trial. Held that the motion in arrest had no more effect than a motion for a new trial, and could not be reviewed on a writ of error.
The garnishment proceedings were warranted by § 916 of the Revised Statutes, being authorized by laws of Louisiana in force when § 916 (formerly § 6 of the act of June 1, 1872, c. 255, 17 Stat. 197) was enacted.
The remedies supplementary to judgment adopted by § 918 were those then provided by the laws of Louisiana in regard to judgments in suits of a like nature or class, and not the provisions of the Act of the Legislature of Louisiana, passed March 17, 1870, Sess.Laws of 1870, Extra Session, Act No. 5, p. 10, in regard to judgments against the City of New Orleans.
Questions not raised on the trial before the jury, and saved by a bill of exceptions, cannot be considered by this Court on a writ of error.
On the 3d of March, 1882, Judah Hart obtained a judgment in the Circuit Court of the United States for the Eastern District of Louisiana against the City of New Orleans for $121,697.18, with five percent per annum interest thereon until paid and costs, in a suit commenced by him in the Civil District Court for the Parish of Orleans and State of Louisiana against the city to recover the amount of sundry debts due by the city for labor done, services rendered, and materials furnished, which debts the creditors had assigned to him. The suit was removed into the circuit court of the United States by the plaintiff, and a motion made to that court to remand it was denied.
person, and prayed that it be cited and ordered to answer under oath the annexed interrogatories, and, after due proceedings, be condemned to pay the amount of the judgment and costs. The interrogatories, three in number, inquired in various forms as to whether the corporation was indebted to the city or had any of its property. The court made an order that the corporation be made a garnishee, and be cited to answer the interrogatories, under oath. A citation was issued by the court and served on the corporation, requiring it to declare, on oath, what property or effects belonging to the city it had in its possession or under its control, or in what sum it was indebted to the city, and also to answer the interrogatories in writing, under oath, within ten days after service of the citation, and stating that otherwise judgment would be entered against it for the amount claimed by the plaintiff, with interest and costs. It was also served with copies of the petition, interrogatories, and order of court, and with "notices of garnishee."
"The Canal and Claiborne Streets Railroad Company, made garnishee herein, now comes into court, and for answer to the interrogatories propounded, by and through its President, E. J. Hart, says:"
"To first interrogatory, 'No; except taxes of the year 1882.'"
"To second interrogatory, 'No; except taxes of the year 1882.'"
"And for a full and correct statement of the facts upon which the above answers are made, respondent, further answering, says that the privilege of the right of way of the said Canal and Claiborne Streets Railroad Company was granted for and in consideration of a bonus of two-sixteenths of a cent per passenger, payable monthly; the rate of fare is five cents per passenger; that the total receipts of the company from 1st March, 1870, to 15th March, 1882, are: "
"Your respondent further says that the receipts from the 15th March, 1872, to the 15th March, 1882, amount to the sum of $1,046,918. Your respondent, further answering, says that he is informed and believes that the bonus was in lieu and place of the license; that the city could not claim both; that it has ceased to demand the bonus, but has imposed a license on the company, and the company has paid the same in 1880, based on the receipts of 1879; in 1881, based on the receipts of 1880, and in 1882, based on the receipts of 1881, viz., $375 each year, making in all $1,125, thereby releasing the company from any obligation to pay any bonus for said years. And respondent further says that he is informed and believes that any claim for the bonus based on the receipts of preceding years is prescribed. Respondent further swears that the said Canal and Claiborne Streets Railroad Company has already been garnished in the suits of Myra Clark Gaines, Samuel Smith, Subrogee v. City of New Orleans, No. 2,695 of the United States circuit court, and of Charles Parsons v. City of New Orleans, No. 8,088 of same court, and that, should judgments be rendered against said company, they will amount to more than the company can in any event owe. "
Respondent further says that the company has claims against the City of New Orleans for damages caused by overflows in 1869, 1871, and 1881, and against which it should have been protected by the city, and that the amount due for said damages exceeds any amount which would be due for the bonus, if any was due. For this and other reasons, the city has not required the bonus.
On March 30, 1882, the plaintiff, according to the practice in Louisiana, filed a traverse of the answers, and the court made an order, which set forth that on motion of the plaintiff and on suggesting to the court that the answers were false, and that the corporation was indebted to the city in larger sums than stated in the answers, and that the plaintiff traversed the answers, in law and in fact it was ordered that the corporation show case, on April 5, 1882, why the interrogatories should not be taken for confessed, and why judgment should not be rendered against it for the amount of the plaintiff's claim, with interest and costs. On March 31, 1882, a copy of this order was served on the corporation.
On the 5th of April, 1882, a stipulation in writing between the plaintiff and the city was filed, agreeing that all sums paid by the corporation should be deposited in the registry of the court, to await the decision whether the money was subject to seizure under the plaintiff's execution.
that the amount, with interest, be deposited in the registry of the court, subject to the terms of the foregoing stipulation. The judgment was, on the 19th of April, 1882, amended nunc pro tunc, so as to order that the garnishee pay that amount, with interest, into the registry of the court, "subject to the rights of all parties concerned." The entire judgment was signed April 26, 1882.
The corporation made a motion for a new trial, which was refused on April 21, 1882. It also filed and made a motion that the proposed judgment written upon the minutes and record against it as garnishee be expunged therefrom, and be never signed and made operative, and that any judgment by reason of the verdict be arrested, for ten specified reasons. This motion was overruled on April 26, 1882, and then the judgment was signed. To reverse this judgment, the corporation has brought a writ of error.
The record contains a bill of exceptions, which states that at the same term at which all the foregoing proceedings took place, and before any final judgment against the corporation as garnishee had been signed and become final, the corporation made the motion in writing for arrest of the judgment, and both parties appeared, and the court overruled and refused the motion, and the corporation excepted to the ruling and judgment of the court in that particular.
"He is the plaintiff in the case of Judah Hart v. The City of New Orleans, No. 4,414, Civil District Court, Parish of Orleans, State of Louisiana, and that he has reason to believe and does believe that from prejudice and local influence he will not be able to obtain justice in said state court."
The state court, on consideration of the petition, affidavit, and bond, made an order removing the cause. In the motion to remand the cause made in the circuit court by the city, one of the grounds of the motion which was overruled was that there was no legal affidavit, because the suit named in it was filed ten days after the affidavit was made. This ground is urged here, but we do not regard it as of any force. The affidavit sufficiently identified the suit and was, in this case, as effective for the purposes of the statute as if made after the suit was brought. Besides, the petition for removal made out a case for removal under § 2 of the Act of March 3, 1875, 18 Stat. 470, and the reference to the prior statute did not impair the efficacy of the facts. Removal Cases, 100 U. S. 457, 100 U. S. 471. The absence of an oath to the petition was at most only an informality, which could be and was waived by the city. It made no such objection in its motion to remand. This view is in accordance with the ruling in Ayers v. Watson, 113 U. S. 594, 113 U. S. 598, as to modal and formal matters under § 3 of the act. We have considered the question of removal because it goes to the jurisdiction of the circuit court, and is raised for our consideration by the record.
filed till April 21, 1882, and had no more effect than a motion for a new trial, and therefore, under our settled practice, cannot be reviewed here, on this writ of error, although there is a bill of exceptions in regard to it.
"The party recovering a judgment in any common law cause, in any circuit or district court, shall be entitled to similar remedies upon the same, by execution or otherwise, to reach the property of the judgment debtor, as are now provided in like causes by the laws of the state in which such court is held, or by any such laws hereafter enacted which may be adopted by general rules of such circuit or district court, and such courts may, from time to time, by general rules, adopt such state laws as may hereafter be in force in such state in relation to remedies upon judgments, as aforesaid, by execution or otherwise."
That section of the statute was considered by this Court in Ex Parte Boyd, 105 U. S. 647, and was held to apply to proceedings supplementary to execution, to examine the judgment debtor in regard to his property under a judgment rendered in a common law cause. We are also of opinion that it covers the proceedings had in this case to reach the property of the city. Those proceedings were authorized by laws of the State of Louisiana in force when § 6 of the Act of June 1, 1872, c. 255, 17 Stat. 197, now § 916 of the Revised Statutes, was enacted.
"When the judgment orders the payment of a sum of money, the party in whose favor it is rendered may apply to the clerk and obtain from him a writ of fieri facias against the property of his debtor."
It is this provision, and the garnishee proceedings consequent upon it, provided by the laws of Louisiana in respect to judgments generally, of a like nature or class with those in the present case, which the act of Congress adopted as remedies for the judgment creditor in a common law cause in the circuit court. And such has been the uniform ruling in the circuit court at New Orleans. New Orleans v. Morris, 3 Woods 115; Hart v. New Orleans, 12 F. 292; New Orleans v. Pickles, decided by MR. JUSTICE WOODS in 1879, unreported. The exception made by the state as to the City of New Orleans may be of force as to suits in the courts of the state, but it is not an exception which operates proprio vigore in the circuit court.
allowed and erroneously computed. These questions not having been raised on the trial before the jury, and saved by a bill of exceptions, cannot be considered by this Court on a writ of error.
The proceedings of record appear to have been entirely regular, and in accordance with the statutes and practice of Louisiana.

References: § 639
 § 916
 § 916
 § 6
 § 918
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 § 2
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 § 3
 § 6
 § 916
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