Pollard v. Mobile Savings Bank
Pollard v. Mobile Savings Bank
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court:
The Mobile Savings Bank summoned.in garnishment Pollard & Co., as the debtors of Bush, Yates & Co.
The garnishees answered, admitting an indebtedness not yet due of about $4,200, but stating that they had been informed
Upon the filing of this answer, Harrison, the claimant of the debt garnished, withdrew his claim and in open court consented that judgment for the amount due might go in favor of the attaching creditor, the Mobile Bank, and such judgment was thereupon entered. The garnishees appeal. Their contention is that by their amended answer they had denied all indebtedness at the time of garnishment, and were therefoi-e entitled to be discharged in the absence of any traverse of the answer. This position is not borne out by the record. By their original answer they admitted an indebtedness which they had heard had been transferred to Harrison. Bjr their amended answer they declare that they have now learned positively that such transfer to wit, the transfer to Harrison, had taken place before thejr were garnished, and therefore they argumentatively deny that they owed the defendants anything at the time of the garnishment. This is plainly equivalent to saying that they had owed the defendants a debt which by transfer they now owe to Harrison. When, therefore, Harrison came in and released his claim, and consented that the attaching creditor might have judgment the garnishees cannot complain.
Judgment affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- O. Pollard & Co. v. Mobile Savings Bank
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- ■Garnishment. Answer. When traverse not necessary. Case in ¿judgment. The Mobile Savings Bank, attaching creditors, summoned in garnishment P. & Oo., as the debtors of the defendants B., Y. & Oo. The garnishees answered admitting an indebtedness not yet due, but stated that they were informed that the debt had been transferred to H., whom they asked to be cited to appear. H. appeared and propounded his claim to the debt under an assignment .anterior to the garnishment. The garnishees then obtained leave, and filed an amended answer in which they stated that at the time of the filing of their original answer they had been informed that the debt due by them to B. Y. & Oo. had been transferred, and that “they had since learned as a fact that such transfer had really been made by B., Y. & Oo. for value before the service of the writ of garnishment upon them, so they saj' upon their baths that they were not indebted to B., Y. & Oo. in any sum whatever.” Thereupon H., the claimant, withdrew his claim, and in open ■court .consented that judgment might be rendered for the amount due in favor of the attaching creditors and judgment was accordingly rendered. The garnishees appealed to this court, contending that their amended answer, not havingbeen traversed by the plaintiff in garnishment, they should have been discharged. Held, that the original and amended answers taken together do not constitute such a denial of indebtedness as would demand a traverse, and when H. withdrew Ms claim the judgment was properly rendered for the attaching creditors.