Arden Chemical Co. v. Porto Rico Drug Co.
Arden Chemical Co. v. Porto Rico Drug Co.
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
In disposing of this case we said:
“Intervener now appeals from an adverse judgment and says that the district court erred in its failure to distinguish between a bond to dissolve an attachment and the forthcoming or delivery bond, and in treating the bond in question as if it had been executed for the purpose of dissolving the attachment.
*564 “Appellant in its statement of facts says that the Porto Rico Drug Co. delivered to the receiver appointed by the Federal Court all of its assets including the attached [property left in its possession upon execution of the delivery bond. The brief makes no reference to any page of the record in support of this statement. Later, in the course of argument, appellant says that ‘in accordance with the evidence’ the District Court of San Juan had named a receiver and had taken possession of all the propertj1' of the Porto Rico Drug Company. In this connection, reference is made to an order said to have been entered in ‘Civil case number 2548, Antonio Canals et al. vs. P. R. Drug Company, District Court of San Juan’, whereby (as transcribed in the brief) the receiver of the Insular District Court was directed to deliver to the receiver named by the Federal District Court the property of the Porto Rico Drug Company. No reference is made to any page or portion of the record in the instant case. Beyond this there is nothing, even in the brief for appellant, to show that the perfumes and patent medicines attached by plaintiff herein and left in the possession of the Porto Rico Drug Company were ever delivered to either of the two receivers.”
Later, in the said opinion, we said that there was nothing in the brief for appellant to show that it had been prejudiced by the failure of the district judge to distinguish between the bond contemplated by section 15 of the Act to secure the effectiveness of judgments (Comp. Stat. 1911, section 5247) and the bond contemplated by section 10 of that act.
The first ground of appellant’s motion for rehearing is that our previous opinion draws no distinction between the two kinds of bonds provided for by the Act to secure the effectiveness of judgments and especially by sections 10 and 15 thereof. In that opinion we did not question appellant’s theory that the bond before us was the bond contemplated by section 10 rather than the bond referred to in section 15. The ratio decidendi was that, in the absence of anything to show why intervener, in the circumstances of the instant case, should not have been held liable on the bond actually executed by it, any error committed by the district judge in failing to ■ distinguish between such a bond and the bond referred to in section 15 of the act was harmless.
The purpose of the bond authorized by section 10 of the act, like the purpose of the attachment, and like the purpose of the act itself as indicated by the title thereof, is to secure the effectiveness of any judgment that may be rendered in favor of plaintiff. By the express terms of section 10 the bond must cover the value of the attached property. The discretion of the court is as to the sufficiency of the bond for that purpose, not as to whether or not the amount thereof shall be sufficient to cover the value of the attached property. The bond refers to a previous request by defendant that the attached property should be placed in its custody upon the execution of a bond in the sum of $2,500.00 to cover the value of the said property. The obligation assumed by the Porto Rico. Drug Company and by the National Surety Company as set forth in the bond itself was to pay to plaintiff, the Arden Chemical Companjq the value of the said property up to the amount of $2,500.00, “thus securing the said Porto Rico Drug Co. as such judicial depositary of the aforesaid prop
It may be conceded, of course, that ordinarily some court order would precede the enforcement of plaintiff’s claim against the surety. In the instant case, however, the surety insisted upon being made a defendant in the original action, by its answer submitted the question of its liability as a surety and proceeded to trial upon the issues so raised. A judgment by default against the original defendant had been entered long before the trial of the issue between the plaintiff and the surety company as intervener. The first document introduced in evidence by plaintiff, without objection on the part of intervener, wa,s the bond.. Practically the only question of fact before the trial judge was as to whether the attached property pursuant to an order of the Insular'District Court had passed into the hands of a receiver appointed by the Federal Court. The surety company had its day in court, was overruled on every question of law submitted by it, and failed to establish the essential element of its special defense. It can not now complain that the original defendant was not shown to have disobeyed any specific order concerning the attached property or the production thereof as a prerequisite to the judgment.
“Q. You say you received from the District Court of San Juan the articles which had been attached?
“A. I do not know whether they were attached. They were in-the custody of the court.
“Q. Who received them from the court?
“A. I do not know.
“Q. How many attachments were pending in the district court?
“A. I do not know how many attachments, but I know that the-goods belonging to The Porto Rico Drug were in the custody of the; District Court of San Juan.
“Q. All of them?
“A. I do not know how they were there. I went there with Attorney Molina, and Judge Sepulveda directed the marshal to turn' over everything to me.”
In the instant case, the property was attached in March 1926 and placed in the custody of the defendant in May of' that year. The bankruptcy proceeding was commenced in-the Federal Court in October. In the absence of anything, to show a redelivery of the attached property by defendant' to the marshal, the testimony just quoted falls far short of. establishing a delivery of such property by the marshal too
The second ground of appellant’s motion is that in our previous opinion we overlooked the fact that it was incumbent oh plaintiff to establish the value of the attached property and that plaintiff adduced no evidence as to such value. Here also, appellant assumed without attempting to show that the burden was upon the plaintiff to establish the value of the attached property. It might well be argued on the other hand, that the requirement of section 10 as to a “sufficient bond, in the discretion of the court, to cover the value of the said property,” necessarily contemplates at least a tentative appraisal of the property by the court and that the bond itself when introduced in evidence is a sufficient prima facie showing as to the value of the property. The bond introduced in evidence by plaintiff herein recites that: “. . . . Under a writ of attachment issued by this Hon. Court on March 27, 1926, in the above case against the Porto Rico Drug Co., defendant, the marshal of this court has attached patent medicines and perfumery valued at two thousand one hundred dollars.” From this admission as to the valuation of the attached property at the time of the attachment coupled
The motion for rehearing will be denied.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.