Seattle Crockery Co. v. Haley

Citations

• 6 Wash. 302
• 33 P. 650
• 1893 Wash. LEXIS 288

Syllabus

<p>ATTACHMENT — ACTION ON BOND — LIABILITY OE SURETIES — ESTOPPEL— WRONGFUL ATTACHMENT — REASONABLE CAUSE — DAMAGES.</p> <p>Where the principal on a bond is a non-resident and has no property in the state liable to attachment, the sureties on the bond cannot require the obligee, by notice in writing, to forthwith institute an action against the principal.</p> <p>In an action against the sureties upon an attachment bond, the complaint does not state facts sufficient when it alleges the execution of the bond by the principals, without alleging that the sureties joined in its execution, although it may set out a copy thereof in the complaint, to which the names of the sureties are appended. (Hoyt, J., dissents.)</p> <p>Sureties upon an attachment bond may be liable for damages, without prior demand upon the principal, or suit against him to adjudicate the damages.</p> <p>The principal and sureties giving bond for the attachment of property of a corporation are thereby estopped to deny its corporate existence.</p> <p>In order for the sureties upon an attachment bond to avoid liability for actual damages, reasonable cause for the attachment must exist as a fact; credible information of facts sufficient to warrant a belief in the existence of reasonable cause tends merely to disprove malice and thereby relieve from exemplary damages.</p> <p>In an action upon an attachment bond for damages for wrongful levy the plaintiff may show want of reasonable cause for the levy by proof as to the conduct of his affairs and the good faith of his transactions.</p> <p>Liability upon a bond for malicious attachment accrues, if the agent whose direct act caused it to be issued was actuated by malicious motives, although without the knowledge of the principal, unless it is shown that the agent had no authority to attach, and that his act in doing so was affirmatively repudiated as soon as known by his principal.</p> <p>In an action for damages for malicious attachment, injury to commercial