Morgan v. Ownbey

Citations

• 29 Del. 379
• 6 Boyce 379
• 100 A. 411
• 1916 Del. LEXIS 42

Syllabus

<p>1. Bail—Foreign Attachment—Right to Answer—Requirement of Special Bail.</p> <p>Under the Delaware statutes relating to foreign attachment, where plaintiffs, in suit against an individual, attached shares of stock of a domestic corporation, with direction to the sheriff, indorsed on the writ, that he summon the corporation as garnishee and demand bail in the sum of $200,000, the defendant, although plaintiffs filed a declaration in the suit, could not appear and contest the merits of plaintiffs' claim without entering the special bail demanded, notwithstanding such shares constituted defendant’s entire property and had been deprived of all market value by suit in another jurisdiction, rendering him financially unable to furnish such amount of bail, for his entry of appearance without such bail, if allowed would destroy the lien and advantage of the attachment by changing the action from one in rem to one in personam and making any judgment recovered by plaintiffs a general judgment.</p> <p>2. Attachment—Corporate Stock.</p> <p>Under Rev. Code 1915, § 2009, providing that the shares of any person in any incorporated company, with all the rights thereunto belonging, may be attached for debt, and section 1896, providing that for all purposes of attachment the situs of the ownership of capital stock of all domestic corporations shall be regarded as in the state, in a foreign attachment suit attachment may be made of the stock of a domestic corporation by an officer of the company giving to the sheriff a certificate of the number of shares held by the debtor in such company, and in such case, the corporation itself not being summoned as garnishee, it is not necessary that it be doing business in the state under Section 4120, as to attachment and garnishment.</p> <p>3. Bail—Constitutional Law—Due Process—Foreign Attachment— Statute.</p> <p>The Delaware foreign attachment statutes, in denying^ defendant any right to appear upon attachment thereunder without entering spec