Steele v. Parker
Steele v. Parker
Opinion of the Court
Byther brought suit in a justice’s court against Steele, and garnished the latter’s employers. He obtained judgment against the defendant, and also judgment by default against the garnishees. The garnishees paid to Parker, a constable, the amount of the judgment against them, and Steele thereupon brought a rule against Parker, alleging that the money paid was exempt from garnishment as it was his daily wages as a laborer, and praying that Parker be required to turn it over to him. The justice of the peace issued a rule nisi against Parker, and ordered that Byther, the judgment creditor, be made a party to the rule. Making the judgment creditor a party was one of the grounds of a petition for certiorari, which the'superior court refused to sanction. We agree with the court below that the magistrate did not err in making Byther a party to the rule. As was said by the learned judge of the superior court in refusing to sanction the petition for certiorari, it appeared “ that the real contestant was not the officer but the judgment creditor. . . It would be wholly wrong to require an officer who holds a fund to which two persons lay claim to litigate with them separately. . . The constable had a right to have [the judgment creditor] before the court and to be protected by the judgment, as he prayed in his answer.” It is the policy of the law in cases of this character to avoid a multiplicity of actions. Where it is possible and proper, it is always best to have all interested parties before the court, and in one action to determine the respective rights of all. This is especially true where one of the parties lays no claim whatever to the fund in controversy but stands rather in the position of a stakeholder in possession of a fund claimed by the others. We therefore think it was not-erroneous, but right and proper, that the judgment creditor should have been made a party to the rule. ■
In the answers of the constable and of the judgment creditor it was stated that they could not, for want of sufficient informa
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.