46 S.C. 1 | S.C. | 1896
The opinion of the court was delivered by
These two cases were heard together, but while the principles upon which they depend are similar, the facts are not identical in the two cases, and hence it will be more convenient to consider them separately.
In the first named case, the plaintiff, who resides in the city of New York, by a formally executed power constituted William C. Brown, a resident of this State, her attorney in fact to commence this action, and to take all necessary steps to obtain a warrant of attachment against the property of the defendant company, which is a foreign corporation, doing business in the town of Beaufort, South Carolina. In pursuance of this power the said W. C. Brown, on the 30th. day of July, 1895, procured a summons and complaint to be issued in the name of the plaintiff against the defendant company, on a certain note alleged to have been executed by the defendant company in favor of the plaintiff; and on the same day sued out a warrant of attachment, which was levied upon the property of the defendant company, u]Don the ground that it was a foreign corporation, the power of attorney having been filed before the warrant of attachment was issued. The sheriff returned, that he had “served on the above named, the American Ginning Company, the summons and complaint in the action, by delivering copies thereof to W. C. Brown, treasurer, personally, and leaving the same with him.” On the 11th. September, 1895, Messrs. Elliott & Elliott, signing themselves “defendant’s attorneys for the purposes of this motion only,” served a notice on Mr. Talbird, as plaintiff’s attorney, in which it was expressly stated that they appeared only for the purposes of this motion; that they would move before his honor, Judge Buchanan, at a specified time and place, “to set aside the service of the summons and complaint in this action upon
From this judgment, as well as from the refusal of the motion to set aside the service of the summons and complaint and to discharge the attachment, defendant appeals upon the following grounds: “Because the service of the summons upon William C. Brown, as an officer of the defendant corporation, he being at the same time the attorney in fact of the plaintiff for the commencement and prosecution of the action, was not a sufficient service of the summons upon the corporation.”
We think, therefore, that the Circuit Judge erred in refusing the motion to set aside the service of the summons and complaint in this action, and consequently that he erred in refusing to vacate the attachment, as well as in rendering judgment for the plaintiff.
In the second case above stated, the plaintiff, W. C. Brown, undertook to commence an action against the defendant company to recover the amount due on two notes which he claimed to hold against said company, by having himself, as treasurer of said company, personally served with copies of the summons and complaint, and on the same day pro
From this judgment, as well as from so much of the order as refused the motion to set aside the service of the summons and complaint, defendant appeals, upon the ground that the service upon said Brown, as an officer of the defendant corporation, he being the plaintiff in the action, was not a sufficient service upon said corporation.
It does not appear from the “Case,” as prepared for argument here, upon what ground the Circuit Judge granted the motion to vacate the attachment, and, at the same time, refused the motion to set aside the service of the summons and complaint; but as there is no appeal from so much of the order as vacated the attachment, we need not consider that matter further. For the reasons given in considering the appeal iirthe first case, we think that the Circuit Judge erred in refusing the motion to set aside the service of the summons and complaint in this case; and that being so, it follows that he erred in rendering judgment against a party who had not been properly made a party by legal service of a summons.
The judgment of this court is, that in the case first above stated, the order of the Circuit Judge refusing the motion to set aside the service of the summons and complaint, and to vacate the attachment and rendering judgment therein, be reversed; and in the second case above stated, the judgment of this court is, that so much of the order of the Circuit Judge as refused the motion to set aside the service of the summons and complaint, as well as the judgment rendered in the second case, be reversed.