126 Minn. 264 | Minn. | 1914
Appeal by the garnishees from a judgment rendered against them in favor of plaintiff.
The questions raised concern law only, the undisputed facts being
1. The garnishees’ contention that defendant Hutchinson, because of his appointment to defend one accused of crime, was a state and public officer, whose fees for the services mentioned were, therefore, exempt from garnishment, is overruled. As an attorney he was merely an officer of the court, and the appointment in question in no wise enlarged this status.
2. The garnishees maintain that the order for compensation was, in effect, a judgment, and also that it appears from the disclosure that the money involved was in custodia legis and hence not garnish-able. We hold, however, that the order merely created a chose in action; upon which defendant, his assigns, or representatives, became entitled, if no preventing circumstances intervened, to receive its proceeds from the county, and that the latter were not in custodia legis. The amount of the order was a mere county debt and as such
3. Nor can we sustain the point that the municipal court could not override the judgment in the mandamus proceedings in the district court. The former obtained jurisdiction before the latter and, under a familiar principle, retained it, with the right to proceed to final determination without interference by the latter. Jacobs v. Fouse, 23 Minn. 51. Furthermore, mandamus, under our procedure, is in all respects assimilated to an ordinary civil action, including the right to bring in additional parties. State v. County of Chicago, 115 Minn. 6, 131 N. W. 792, Ann. Cas. 1912D, 669; State v. Minneapolis & St. Louis Ry. Co. 39 Minn. 219, 39 N. W. 153. And no attempt having been made to make plaintiff a party to the mandamus proceedings here involved, no greater effect can be accorded the determination therein, so far as he is concerned, than, any other judgment as against one neither party nor privy. Plaintiff was not bound thereby, and the municipal court was right in ignoring it and ordering judgment for him. The mandamus must be regarded as within the rule of First National Bank of Culbertson v. State Bank of Climax, 125 Minn. 262, 146 N. W. 1093, where, because of an undetermined garnishment, plaintiff therein was denied a money recovery to which he was otherwise entitled.
Judgment affirmed.