City of Wichita v. Rock Island Lumber & Manufacturing Co.
City of Wichita v. Rock Island Lumber & Manufacturing Co.
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This action has been considered by this court once before (63 Kan. 768, 66 Pac. 1024), and, in addition to the facts in the former decision, only such will herein be noted as- are necessary to a full understanding of the questions now raised.
George K. Spencer and J. M. Furnish, who, with S. E. Jocelyn, constituted the board of police commissioners at the time the money garnished came to-the hands of Jocelyn, interpleaded and were permitted to file an answer in their own behalf. Upon the trial the court held the bank liable as garnishee and directed the application of the funds,m its hands to the payment of the claim which the lumber company had against Jocelyn. Spencer and Furnish are here-alleging this as a ground of error in their own behalf. So far as they are concerned their answer discloses no right in themselves, either as a board or as individuals, to the fund in question. The answer discloses the fact that the board had been dissolved, and was no longer in existence ; so if it ever had any right to ■ the fund in question it certainly did not at the time-of the filing of their answer. So far as they are concerned, we need spend no time upon the question of the correctness of the court’s ruling against them..
These questions are necessarily much intermingled, and we find it best to discuss them together. Upon the first trial the issues were formed as between the lumber company, the bank and the city in the following manner : The bank had filed a general denial — that is, it denied having any funds whatever belonging to S. E. Jocelyn. Upon this question the lumber company took issue. When the investigation of this issue had progressed far enough to show that the bank had funds on deposit belonging to S. E. Jocelyn the city interpleaded, claiming that these funds had been collected by the board of police commissioners, of which board Jocelyn was president, and that the same were deposited by him as president, and “were and are funds belonging to the city of Wichita,” being in the hands of Jocelyn only in course of transmission to the city treasurer. To this interplea the lumber company replied, admitting that Jocelyn had deposited the funds, but denying that they belonged to the city, denying that they were collected as fines for the violation of any ordinance of the city or as license fees collected under any ordinance of the city, and averring that they were moneys belonging to Jocelyn and subject to garnishment. After the filing of this interplea and answer the bank replied, neither admitting nor denying that the funds on deposit belonged to the city of Wichita, but requesting that the city be required to make strict proof of the fact in order that the bank might be amply protected in the matter. It was upon these issues that the former judgment of the court was entered by which it was found that the city was not entitled to the funds, and upon which judgment was entered in favor of the bank for its costs.
It further appears that the board had been abolished for a considerable time prior to the former trial, and that whatever rights that fact might have conferred upon the city existed, and might have been pleaded and relied upon, at the time of the. former hearing. The substantial question then is, whether the issues presented under the answers tendered by the bank ■ and the city were substantially different from those already passed upon and adjudicated against the city.
Under our present procedure in garnishment a judgment rendered is of the same nature, governed by the same rules and as binding upon the parties thereto as a judgment rendered in a more formal proceeding. (Harwi v. Klippert, 67 Kan. 743, 74 Pac. 254.)
We are of the opinion that the answers tendered
No issue of merit was tendered by the amended answers sought to be filed beyond what had already been tried, and we are of the opinion that the court
In view of the fact that we find no authority for the police board during its existence to make the collection of the money in question, we are not disposed to take issue with the intimation found in the former opinion of this court that neither the city nor the bank had any right to the funds in question as against Jocelyn or his garnishing creditor, and find nothing in the case of The State v. Patterson, 66 Kan. 447, 71 Pac. 860, in opposition to this view. So, from any standpoint, we conclude that the court below committed no error.
The judgment is affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.