City of Laredo v. Nalle

Citations

• 65 Tex. 359
• 1886 Tex. LEXIS 667

Syllabus

<p>1. Garnishment—Municipal corporations—In the absence of any statute providing that municipal corporations shall be exempt from garnishment, a city, like an individual or private corporation, is subject to the process of garnishment for any ordinary debt it may owe to a third person.</p> <p>2. Same—Fund set apart for a public building—Public policy—Public policy may demand that a sum set apart for erecting a public building, should not be taken during the progress of its construction, for the debt of the person contracting to do the work, for that might prevent its completion; but when the work is finished and the money has been earned, and is standing to the credit of the contractor with the city, it should be subject, like any other property, to the payment of his debts.</p> <p>3. Semble—Execution against a city—There is no statute in this state forbidding an execution against a city, and it may be that a plaintiff who has obtained judgment in garnishment against such corporation, is entitled to the same process to enforce its collection as would be accorded to the creditor upon whose demand against the city the garnishment is founded.</p> <p>4. Cases followed—The cases of Rodman v. Musselman, 12 Bush. 315; Whidden v. Drake, 5 N. H. 13; Bray v. Wallingford, 20 Conn. 416; Mayor v. Horton, 38 N. J. Law, 88; Smart v. Hart, 33 Ala. 69, cited and followed.</p>