131 P. 697 | Okla. | 1913
The only question involved in this case is the sufficiency of the petition. The petition alleges that the plaintiff is a married man, residing with his family in Woodward county, state of Oklahoma; that the defendants, J. W. Holmes and A. W. Anderson, also reside in that county; that during the months of January and February, 1908, plaintiff was employed by the Atchison, Topeka Santa Fe Railway Company; that a line of that company's road extends into the state of Missouri; that it maintains offices in both Oklahoma and Missouri, and has officials in each state upon whom service of summons may lawfully be made; that plaintiff was a resident of the state of Oklahoma at the time he was employed *173 by the railroad company, and that his contract of employment was made in said state; that all the labor he has performed by reason of such employment has been within the said state; that prior to the month of January, 1908, plaintiff was indebted to the defendant J. W. Holmes in the sum of $50, which indebtedness was incurred in the state of Oklahoma; that the defendant A. W. Anderson is an attorney, admitted and practicing in said state, and that the said defendants, J. W. Holmes and A. W. Anderson, combined and confederated together to defeat and defraud the rights of the plaintiff under the exemption laws of the state of Oklahoma by bringing an action in the state of Missouri upon the said indebtedness so owing by plaintiff to the defendant Holmes, and that they seized the wages due the plaintiff from said railroad company for the months of January and February, 1908, by garnishment proceedings; that the time said action was brought is not definitely known by the plaintiff, but it was about the 1st of March, 1908, and that the wages so taken by garnishment proceedings were earned by the plaintiff in his capacity as fireman for said railroad company within 60 days prior to the commencement of said action; that no service of summons was made personally upon the plaintiff, and if any service was made it was made by publication. This count of the petition prayed for a restraining order prohibiting the defendants from maintaining said action in the state of Missouri, or taking the wages due the plaintiff by garnishment process in the courts in the state of Missouri or the courts of any foreign jurisdiction. The second count of the petition adopts all the allegations of the first count, and alleges that the plaintiff has been damaged by reason of the garnishment, and prays judgment for damages. The trial court overruled the demurrer to the petition and rendered judgment against Anderson for the amount of plaintiff's wages. There was no service on Holmes. The evidence is not brought up, so it will be presumed that it sustains the allegations of the petition. *174
It is well settled that the courts of a state may enjoin one of its citizens from bringing a suit in a foreign jurisdiction against another of its citizens, for the purpose of preventing that other citizen from claiming exemptions to which he would be entitled under the law of the state of his residence.Snooks v. Snetzer,
The exemption laws are intended for the protection of the family, and embody the public policy of the state on the question. It seems clear that as between her citizens the state has the right to make her exemption laws effective, and ought not to deny to one of her citizens a remedy against another of her citizens, who has brought suit in a foreign jurisdiction for the purpose of evading her exemption laws, and of depriving the party sued of the protection which the law of the state of his residence gave him. Section 3346, Comp. Laws 1909, provides that:
"The following property shall be reserved to every family residing in the state exempt from attachment or execution and every other species of forced sale for the payment of debts, except as hereinafter provided. * * * Sixteenth, all current wages and earnings for personal or professional services earned within the last ninety days." *175
No other item in the list of exemptions is as important as the item of wages. The purpose of the exemption laws is to preserve families from want and to make them independent. When the wage-earner cannot collect his wages, he immediately becomes dependent on the kindness of others. He must immediately "go borrowing," and therefore "go sorrowing." Without means to provide for the daily wants of his family, he is forced to ask for additional credit at the very time when his credit is most impaired, or else to see his family suffer for lack of necessaries. The statute was intended to prevent this.
The question involved has been before the courts, and there is diversity of opinion among them. In the case of Harwell v.Sharp,
The contrary rule has been laid down in Nebraska. It was held in Albrecht v. Trieschke,
"It would be a lasting reproach to our jurisprudence, armed as it is in its admirable combination, with all the powers and attributes of both law and equity, to hold that while a creditor may be enjoined from sending a claim into another jurisdiction for the purpose of evading our exemption laws, yet if he should do so successfully, without the knowledge of the debtor, or if the debtor, on account of his poverty, be unable to furnish the necessary undertaking for the restraining order, the law will afford him no redress. In many instances creditors could assign or transfer claims against our citizens to citizens of other states for the purpose of facilitating their collection before a restraining order could be obtained, and no order of injunction, after such assignment or transfer, could interfere with the nonresident assignee and prevent him from prosecuting proceedings in the tribunals of his own state. The 'strong arm of chancery' would afford very inadequate protection under such circumstances."
In the case of Stark v. Bare,
It is contended, however, that though the creditor might be liable his attorney is not. An attorney is not ordinarily liable for the acts of his client. The fact that through ignorance he gives his client bad advice, on which he acts to the hurt of another, will not make the attorney liable to that other. But where the attorney is actuated by malicious motives or shares the illegal motives of his client he becomes responsible. In the case of Burnap v. Marsh,
"It is not denied that, in order to render the attorneys liable for suing out a writ and causing the plaintiff to be arrested thereon, something more must be shown than would be required, were the action brought against the party in whose behalf the writ was sued out. The rule by which attorneys may be held liable for malicious prosecutions is clearly laid down by Tindal, C. J., in Stockley v. Harnidge, 34 Eng. C. L. R. 276. It was there held that if the attorneys who commenced the suit alleged to be malicious knew that there was no cause of action, and knowing this 'dishonesty and with some sinister view, for some purpose of their own, or for some other ill purpose which the law calls malicious, caused the plaintiff to be arrested and imprisoned,' they were liable. To protect attorneys beyond this would be authorizing those who are the most capable of mischief to commit the grossest wrong and oppression. It is true that when the attorney acts in good faith in prosecuting a claim which his client believes to be just, and is actuated only by motives of fidelity to his trust, he ought not to be held liable, although he may have entertained a different opinion as to the *178 justice or legality of the claims. When the client will assume to dictate a prosecution upon his own responsibility, the attorney may well be justified in representing him, so long as he believes his client to be asserting what he supposes are his rights, and is not making use of him to justify his malice. But when an attorney submits to be made the instrument of prosecuting and imprisoning a party against whom he knows his client has no just claim or cause of arrest, and that the plaintiff is actuated by illegal or malicious motives, he is morally and legally just as much liable as if he were prompted by his own malice against the injured party. If he will knowingly sell himself to work out the malicious purposes of another, he is a partaker of that malice as much as if it originated in his own bosom."
In Bicknell v. Dorin, 16 Pick. (Mass.) 478, Justice Shaw said:
"Upon the other ground I am not prepared to say that if a person applies to an attorney and wishes to have a groundless suit commenced for the purpose of detaining the property or person of another under the form of legal process, and the attorney yields to such a request, that they would not render themselves liable to an action at the suit of the party thus injured. It would be very different from the case where the client requested an action to be brought on his responsibility, however groundless the attorney himself may think it to be, and though he explicitly declared to the client that he cannot maintain the action."
See, also, Hoosac Tunnel D. E. Co. v. O'Brien,
In the case of Bishop v. Middleton,
The petition in this case alleges that Holmes and Anderson combined and confederated together, in order to defeat and defraud the rights of the plaintiff under the exemption laws of the state of Oklahoma, by bringing an action in the state of Missouri. It stated a cause of action.
It is urged that to allow the plaintiff in this case to recover would be to refuse full faith and credit to the judgment rendered in the state of Missouri. This contention cannot be maintained. No personal judgment was obtained against the plaintiff in Missouri. He was never served with process. He did not appear there. The judgment there would not be the basis for a cause of action in the state of Oklahoma.
No attack is made on the judgment in Missouri, so far as it purported to be valid; but there was no judgment against the plaintiff, because he was not served with process and was not before the court. There was no adjudication in that court binding upon him under any construction of the Constitution, except to the extent that his money was taken. The very purpose of bringing the suit was to prevent the defendant from claiming his rights. His rights were not adjudicated. O'Connor v.Walter,
The judgment of the trial court should be affirmed.
By the Court: It is so ordered. *180