7 Md. 209 | Md. | 1854
delivered the opinion of this court.
In the present instance the affidavit being in due form, and according to the requirements of the acts of Assembly, makes a
Kennedy, the defendant in this case, it appears, was an unnaturalized Irishman, residing and doing business in Baltimore at the time he absconded, and the question for us to determine is, whether those circumstances are sufficient to constitute him a citizen in contemplation of our attachment laws, inasmuch as we have shown that he could not be proceeded against as a non-resident debtor?
It certainly never could have been the intention of our legislature to have made such an invidious distinction in favor of foreign citizens residing in our State, over our own resident citizens, as to exempt the former from being proceeded against as absconding debtors, while the latter were to be held subject, to all the penalties of the attachment laws against debtors absconding to evade their creditors.
We are of the opinion, that as the debtor was residing and doing business in Baltimore, he was, in contemplation of our attachment laws, a citizen of this Slate} and as such, having
We do not wish to be understood as deciding, that the debtor in this case was a citizen for every purpose and in every sense. A party may not be a citizen for political purposes, and yet be a citizen for commercial or business purposes. In the present instance we simply determine, that Kennedy, for commercial objects, was a citizen of this State in contemplation of our attachment system.
For the reasons expressed, the judgment of the court below was erroneous and must be reversed. Story’s Confl. Laws, sec. 48. 1 Kent, 74, 75, 76. Wilson vs. Marryat, 8 Term, 31, 36. McConnell vs. Hector, 3 B. & P., 113. 3 Wash. C. C. Rep., 553, Cooper vs. Galbraith.
Judgment reversed, and judgment for appellant.