Hurd v. Jarvis
Hurd v. Jarvis
Opinion of the Court
A writ of error is prosecuted in this case to reverse the judgment of the district court rendered herein, on a motion by the defendant to dismiss the proceedings in the cause for reasons assigned, at the November term of said court in 1843.
The ground taken in the motion by defendant to dismiss, was, “that the facts set up in the affidavit of the plaintiff were not sufficient in the law to authorize the issuing of the writ of attachment.”
The plaintiff asserts in his affidavit “ That the defendant Jarvis is justly indebted to him, in the sum of $700 arising out of a contract under seal; that he
We need not look any further than the affidavit in tMs cáse, no authority can sustain it. The patent defects, glaring upon its face condemn it, and no support in reason and law can be found for it. When the fact, “that a defendant is about fraudulently to remove, convey or dispose of his property to hinder or delay Ms creditors,” is a ground for proceeding in attachment; the facts stated to sustain the position, should show that the defendant is so acting with his property, out of its ordinary and necessary use, as to produce the reasonable conviction that a fraudulent disposition thereof is intended. To state in the affidavit, circumstances showing that defendant is using Ms property in the only way in wMch it could be of any value whatever, and strictly conforming to the usages and customs observed in that line of business by persons so engaged, furnishes no ground whatever to authorize the writ of attachment. As well might you say that the same position can be maintained against a merchant by stating the fact that he is daily making large sales of his merchandise in the customary way, by sending it to the best markets, and has no other property to the knowledge of the affiant. Such a construction would put a stop to some of our most useful and necessary branches of business, and deprive debtors of the means of meeting their contracts, by the exercise of enterprise and industry, the only capital which a poor man possesses.
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