Moore v. Coats
Moore v. Coats
Opinion of the Court
This suit was commenced by attachment against W. G. Crumpton, returnable to the August term, 1867, of the circuit court of Lauderdale county. Attachment was not served on Crumpton, but B. F. Moore was “ summoned ” as garnishee. Judgment was obtained at the August term, 1868, of that court, against the garnishee for want of an answer. This writ of error is prosecuted by the garnishee. The only error assigned is the insufficiency of the sheriff’s return, which is- in the words and figures following: “ Executed August 3,1867, by summoning B. F. Moore, jr., to answer as garnishee. W. G. Crumpton not found in my county.”
(“Signed)
Jos. Eakins, Sheriff,
By J. Means, Deputy.”
The uniform doctrine of the decisions since 1857 is, that the Bevised Code has made a material change in the requirements of the return of service of process. The mere return of “ executed,” “ summoned,” etc., is held to be only a “ legal conclusion,” and insufficient. The sheriff must endorse on all process a written statement of his proceedings and such statement must show that his proceedings or service conformed to the requirements of the Code as to the particular process. The case of Crizer and wife v. Gorren, 41 Miss., 563, was commenced by attachment as in the case under consideration. After denying the right of the garnishee to question the regularity of the judgment against the origi
Several cases involving the sufficiency of sheriff’s returns have been decided at the present term,
Nelson v. Nye, supra, 124; Mullins et al. v. Sparks, admr. etc., supra 129; Bustamente v. Bescher et al., supra, 172; Rankin v. Dulaney, supra, 197. — [Rep.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.