Case Name: Staples vs. Staples & trustee
Court: Maine Supreme Judicial Court
Jurisdiction: Maine
Decision Date: 1827-05
Citations: 4 Me. 532
Docket Number: 
Parties: Staples vs. Staples & trustee.
Judges: 
Reporter: Maine Reports
Volume: 4
Pages: 532–534

Head Matter:
Staples vs. Staples & trustee.
An attorney who has collected debts for his client, is not liable to an action for the money, till it has been demanded of him.
But where an attorney, in the exercise of his profession, has received money in satisfaction of a demand in favor of his client, it may be attached in his hands in a foreign attachment ; though it was received in bank bills ; and though it has not been demanded.
The question in this case was upon the liability of Mr. Adams, an attorney and counsellor of this court, as the trustee of Jacob Staples, the defendant. He had prosecuted a suit, and obtained execution, in favor oí Jacob, against Jeremiah Staples, the present plaintiff; who paid the amount to Mr. Adams, as the creditor’s attorney, and in about ten minutes afterwards caused him to be summoned in this suit as the trustee of Jacob. The money was paid to him in bank bills, solely in his capacity of attorney in the suit; and no demand of the money had been made on him hy the creditor, previous to the service of this writ.
Adams, pro se,
resisted the claim of the plaintiff to charge him, 1. Because he had not in his hands any specific goods of the principal whichcould.be exposed, and sold in execution ; the debt being paid in bank bills, which are mere dioses in action ; Maine Fire & Marine Ins. Co. v. Weeks 7 Mass. 438. Perry v. Coales 9 Mass. 537. Clark v. Brown 14 Mass. 271 ; 2. because the defendant had no right of action against him, no demand of the money having been made, before the present process was served. Brooks v. Cook 8 Mass. 246. 3 Mass. 289.

Opinion:
Mellen C. J.
delivered the opinion of the court.
It was decided in Maine Fire and Marine Insurance Company v. Weeks & als. & trustees 7 Mass. 438, that promissory notes, and in Perry v. Coates 9 Mass. 537, that promissory notes and bank bills, in the hands of the supposed trustee, belonging to the principal debtor, did not render the trustee chargeable under the statute relating to the subject. But the present case differs from those, inasmuch as Mr. J.Mams states in his disclosure that he, as the attorney of Staphs the defendant, received of the plaintiff the bank bills in question in full satisfaction of an execution in his hands in favor of the defendant against the plaintiff. Therefore, if the mere possesion of those bills by the trustee, would not render him chargeable as trustee, though belonging to the principal debtor, on the ground that they are not goods and effects, still such receipt of them by the trustee in full .satisfaction of the judgment and execution, rendered him the debtor of the defendant Staphs. The question then is, whether, at the time of the service, he was such a debtor of the principal as to be chargeable in this process. His liability to be so charged is denied on the ground that the money had not been demanded before the service, aud that so the principal had at that time, no right of action against him. We admit the principle to be correct, that until after demand made, the attorney in this case was not liable to the action of the principal ; aud it appears that no such demand had been made ; but it does not follow,that he was not liable to this process at the suit of the plaintiff under the circumstances disclosed. In Coburn v. Ansart & trustee 3 Mass. 319,and Thayer v. Sherman & trustee 12 Mass.441, it was decided that money collected by an attorney may he attached in his hands by a trustee process j and it does not appear in either of those cases that any demand had been made of the money collected. It was also decided in Frothingham v. Haley & al. & trustees 3 Mass. 68. Davis v. Ham & trustees, Ib. 33. Willard v. Sheafe & trustee 4 Mass. 234. Wood v. Partridge 11 Mass. 488, and Clark v. Brown & trustee 14 Maas. 271; that a debt due in presentí, but sohendum in futuro, is attachable by this mode of process ; though by several of these cases it was also .ettled that contingent debts are not so attachable. The case before us differs from that of a sheriff or other officer, who has sollected money on execution ; who is not liable to the suit of the judgment creditor, or as his trustee upon this kind of process, until after demand made, or until the officer has been guilty of gome official neglect, by which he has deprived himself of his official protection, and the mosey has ceased to be in the custody of the law. Wilde v. Bailey & al. 2 Mass. 289. Pollard v. Ross & al. & trustees 5 Mass. 319. While the officer lawfully, and consistently with his duty, holds the money collected, it is considered as in the custody of the law, and therefore protected from attachment. So it is protected in several otheij cases, as in the hands of an administrator; Brooks v. Cook & trustee 8 Mass. 246, and in the hands of a public officer. Barnes v. Treat & trustee 7 Mass. 271.
In addition to what has been stated, we would observe, that no injury can result to the trustee by sustaining this kind of process against him under such circumstances, and calling the money out of his hands ; because he is not liable to any costs of suit. On the facts disclosed, we are all of opinion that the trustee is chargeable.