Longwell v. Hartwell

Citations

• 164 Pa. 533
• 30 A. 495
• 1894 Pa. LEXIS 1116

Syllabus

<p>Attachment execution—Practice, G. P.—Judgment—Act of June 13,1836.</p> <p>In attachment execution as in foreign attachment if the garnishee fails to appear after service of the attachment, with clause of summons, but no specific attachment of goods or credits, plaintiff will be entitled to a judgment by default. But such judgment will be interlocutory only, and plaintiff cannot liquidate it, or have execution, without first, by writ of inquiry or before the prothonotary, as the rules of court or the practice in cases of default may prescribe, establishing his claim by evidence of the garnishee’s possession of goods or credits of the defendant; and the measure of his damages will be the value of such goods.</p> <p>If the attachment is levied upon specific goods, the default may be taken as an admission of the possession of such goods, but the plaintiff must, by writ of appraisement or otherwise, establish their value.</p> <p>If the attachment is of money, or a debt, and the amount appears in the sheriff’s return, the default is an admission of all the requisite facts, and no further evidence or inquiry is necessary.</p> <p>The proper form of the judgment is for plaintiff against the garnishee, and that the garnishee has in his hands certain goods, effects or credits, to wit, (naming them,) of the value, etc., or that the garnishee is indebted to the defendant in the sum of, etc.</p> <p>Plaintiff’s measure of damages, which determines the amount of the judgment against the garnishee, is the value of the goods attached, of course not exceeding the amount of Ms judgment, interest and costs against the defendant. The single exception is when the garnishee neglects or refuses to answer interrogatories, in which case, by the express terms of section 57 of the act of June 13, 1836, P. L. 582, the judgment against Mm is that he has goods or effects of the defendant sufficient to satisfy the plaintiff’s demand, and execution may issue against Mm as for his own proper debt.