Case Name: J. DESPAIN et al. v. W. P. CROW et al.
Court: Oregon Supreme Court
Jurisdiction: Oregon
Decision Date: 1887-01-18
Citations: 14 Or. 404
Docket Number: 
Parties: J. DESPAIN et al. v. W. P. CROW et al.
Judges: 
Reporter: Oregon Reports
Volume: 14
Pages: 404–404

Head Matter:
[Filed January 18, 1887.]
J. DESPAIN et al. v. W. P. CROW et al.
Garnishment oh Judgment Debtor.—Stare Decisis.—The doctrine announced in Norton v. Winter, 1 Or. 47, that a judgment debtor cannot be garnished by a creditor of the judgment creditor, adhered to upon the principle of stare decisis.
Umatilla County. Defendants appeal.
Affirmed.
L. JB. Gox, for Appellants.
G. W. Walher, for Respondents.

Opinion:
Strahan, J.
This is an agreed case under the statute, and its sole purpose is to determine whether or not the defendant in a judgment can be garnished by a creditor of the plaintiff therein. The case has been argued with much learning and research by counsel on each side, and our attention has been drawn to the conflicting authorities; but the question was considered and settled at an early period of our judicial history, and we decline to reopen it. (Norton v. Winter, 1 Or. 47.) Courts will sometimes overrule their own decisions, where they plainly appear to have been wrong in principle, or where a correct principle has been improperly applied, but not where the authorities are simply in conflict. In such case, stare decisis applies with peculiar force.
Let the decree be affirmed.