Court Opinion

ID: 9455822
Source: CourtListenerOpinion
Date Created: 2023-08-04 19:34:38.343055+00
Date Added: 2024-06-11T17:34:45.093741
License: Public Domain

GANEY, Circuit Judge
(concurring in part and dissenting in part).
I am in agreement with the majority opinion which remands the case to the district court to pass on the question of the unearned premiums paid on the policy; that the court should likewise pass on the answer to interrogatory No. 4 as to any asset belonging to the defendant with respect to the automobile collision; that the defendant, under the facts and circumstances of this case was not doing business in Pennsylvania, and thus could not be properly served under § 1011 of the Pennsylvania Business Corporation Law, 15 P.S. § 2011, and that the attachment-garnishee process would not lie under civil process in Pennsylvania, because the amount was unliquidated. Girard Fire & Marine Insurance Co. v. Field, 45 Pa. 129,133.
However, I have a more compelling reason for remand in that the policy of insurance, which is the major point of difference by the court in this case, was never offered in evidence and therefore is not a part of the record. Accordingly, I do not think any competent judgment can be rendered with respect to the maritime process hereinafter adverted to without its being so offered and received and a critical analysis made of all its provisions.
The majority has ruled on this record that the maritime attachment resorted to by the .appellant is invalid. I disa*88gree and briefly set forth my views thereon, reserving to myself, absent the policy of insurance, any finality with respect thereto until after remand.
However, when we turn to the admiralty side of the case, I hold that there is sufficient in the statement of claim to identify the cause of action as a maritime one, as provided in Rule 9(h), Moore’s Federal Practice Rules Pamphlet. Rule B(3) (a) of the Federal Supplemental Rules in Admiralty1 speaks directly of “debts,” as well as “credits and effects,” as being subject to attachment-garnishment. This rule has an exact counterpart in McKinney’s Consolidated Laws of New York, Book 7B, Section 5201.2
While intensive research has not disclosed any case in a maritime cause of action in which a defendant may resort to attachment under an accident insurance policy containing clauses which would grant to a defendant the right to indemnify and defend him, nevertheless I am presently inclined, though, as I have previously indicated, withholding final judgment until after remand, to look with favor on any possible procedure validating the process. Accordingly, I would turn to the highest court in the State of New York, which construed that the word “debt” has within its connotation something of value to the defendant and I would likewise construe the admiralty rule concerning attachment-garnishment proceedings, herein-above set forth, containing the word “debt,” as being valid here in conformity with the New York holding. See Seider v. Roth, 17 N.Y.2d 111, 269 N.Y.S.2d 99, 216 N.E.2d 312, 313 (1966). This landmark case in the construction of contractual clauses in an accident insurance policy caused no little concern in the insurance world and also among text writers, and the court was asked to reconsider the matter, and in Simpson v. Loehmann, 21 N.Y.2d 305, 287 N.Y.S.2d 633, 234 N.E.2d 669 (1967), affirmed the holding in Seider v. Roth, supra, setting forth its conclusions thereon at page 672.
This position was buttressed in Minichiello v. Rosenberg, 410 F.2d 106 (2 Cir., 1968), and later in 1969, on rehearing en banc, in an opinion written by Judge Friendly, wherein it was held in a like ease that the rule of law laid down in Seider, supra, and Loehmann, supra, did not offend the due process clause of the Fourteenth Amendment imposing an undue burden on interstate commerce or impair the contractual obligations of the policy.
On the record presently before this court, I am inclined to hold though, as I have indicated, I am withholding final judgment until after remand, that the service of process under the Rules in Admiralty, as hereinabove set forth, provides a valid basis for obtaining personal jurisdiction of the defendant.

. This rule reads: “By Garnishee. The garnishee shall serve his answer, together with answers to any interrogatories served with the complaint, within 20 days after service of -process upon him. Interrogatories to the garnishee may be served with the complaint without leave of court. If the garnishee refuses or neglects to answer on oath as to the debts, credits, or effects of the defendant in his hands, or any interrogatories concerning such debts, credits and effects that may be propounded by the plaintiff, the court may award compulsory process against him. If he admits any debts, credits, or effects, they shall be held in his hands or paid into the registry of the court, and shall be held in either case subject to the further order of the court.”

. This section provides: “ (a) Debt against which a money judgment may be enforced. A money judgment may be enforced against any debt, which is past due or which is yet to become due, certainly or upon demand of the judgment debtor, whether it was incurred within or without the state, to or from a resident or nonresident, unless it is exempt from application to the satisfaction of the judgment. A debt may consist of a cause of action which could be assigned or transferred accruing within or without the state.”