286 N.W. 169 | Mich. | 1939
This is an appeal from a judgment entered against a garnishee defendant in the sum of $71.11. Leave to appeal was granted because of the importance of the question involved, namely: Is the Federal housing administration, a governmental agency, subject to being sued as garnishee defendant through its State director? Appellant says this cannot be done in the absence of specific statutory consent. *93
Plaintiff held an unsatisfied judgment against one Heffner and George Brooks, doing business as Heffner Brooks. This judgment was obtained on November 5, 1930. The writ of garnishment was served on March 5, 1938. On March 7, 1938, an appearance was entered for the garnishee defendant by the United States attorney for the eastern district of Michigan. The answer and disclosure filed on March 31, 1938, stated that defendant Brooks was no longer connected with the Federal housing administration, he having died on March 8, 1938, and that there was due and owing to him by the garnishee defendant the sum of $71.11. No question is raised in this appeal as to whether or not the entire sum was garnishable, whether or not the money represented wages due Brooks, or the effect of his death.
The Federal housing administration was created by congressional enactment. See
"The administrator shall, in carrying out the provisions of this title and titles II and III, be authorized, in his official capacity, to sue and be sued in any court of competent jurisdiction, State or Federal."
In the recent case of Keifer Keifer v. ReconstructionFinance Corporation,
"In spawning these corporations during the past two decades, Congress has uniformly included amenability to law. Congress has provided for not less than 40 of such corporations discharging governmental functions, and without exception the authority to-sue-and-be-sued was included."
The footnote appearing at this point in the court's opinion contains a list of those referred to, including *94
the "Federal housing administrator (August 23, 1935)
Does the phrase "sue-and-be-sued" include a writ of garnishment?
A writ of garnishment is a civil process at law,Webster v. Bennett,
Buchanan v. Alexander, 4 How. (45 U.S.) 20, holds that money in the hands of a governmental officer cannot be reached by a writ of garnishment, but the question of waiver of immunity is not considered in the Buchanan opinion. Although the question of garnishment was not before the court in Keifer Keifer v.Reconstruction Finance Corp., supra, and waiver of immunity was not expressly stated as to the Regional Agricultural Credit Corporation directly involved and which the Reconstruction Finance Corporation was authorized to create, there seems to remain little doubt from the reasoning of the opinion of the court that, if "congress has embarked upon a general policy of consent for suits against the government sounding in tort *95 even where there is no element of contract," it should follow that, where express consent is given in the Federal act to "sue and be sued" without any limitation upon the permissive language, this provision for suits against the administrator "in any court of competent jurisdiction, State or Federal," must have contemplated the provisions of the law in the several States, including that of Michigan, where it is settled that a writ of garnishment is a civil process.
In Federal Land Bank of St. Louis v. Priddy,
The strength of the Nebraska opinion, which turned upon the question of whether or not the Reconstruction Finance Corporation was engaged in a governmental function, may be questioned in the light of the recent case of Graves v. Peopleof the State of New York, ex rel. O'Keefe,
Appellant quotes the following from Berger v. SchenleyDistillers Corp.,
"The liquor control commission is a State administrative agency, and not a corporate entity of any nature whatsoever within the sense of the mentioned statute (3 Comp. Laws 1929, § 14885 [Stat. Ann. § 27.1883]) and, therefore, cannot be served and proceeded against as a garnishee."
The argument advanced is a distortion of the quoted language of the opinion, because the statute sets up the procedure to be followed where the principal defendant is a nonresident. The meaning of the quoted language is that the State administrative agency does not come within the provisions of the mentioned statute, and that is all.
Appellant urges the controlling value of McCarthy v. U.S.Shipping Board Merchant Fleet Corporation,
The authority to "sue and be sued" must necessarily include garnishment, and the judgment entered below against the Federal housing administration, garnishee defendant, should be affirmed. It is so ordered, with costs to appellee.
BUTZEL, C.J., and WIEST, SHARPE, POTTER, CHANDLER, NORTH, and McALLISTER, JJ., concurred.