3 Colo. App. 17 | Colo. Ct. App. | 1892
delivered the opinion of the court.
W. G. Motley was indebted to the National State Bank of Boulder in 1890 on a promissory note which fell due in December. In the following January the bank brought suit on themote. By a proper proceeding under the statute it sued out a writ of attachment to aid in the collection. The writ ran, however, against W. J., and not against Motley with the middle initial G., or with his first name written in full. The German National Bank of Denver was garnished under that process by a notice which ran against W. J. It answered through its cashier that it was not indebted to W. J. Motlejn The Boulder bank traversed the answer, and this issue was tried before the court, which rendered a judgment against the German National Bank for the money which was on deposit in that institution to the credit of W. G. Motley at the time the process o£ garnishment was served. The judgment was rendered without any amendment of the process or proceedings. The court deemed an amendment entirely-unnecessary, and held the variance to be totally immaterial. The appeal is from this judgment.
The stability of the law depends upon the rigor with which the courts and profession adhere to precedents which in their scope and applicability are decisive of the case in hand. Notwithstanding the universal recognition accorded to this legal aphorism, instances are not infrequent where courts have refused to be controlled by the law as it was anciently written, when it is plainly seen to be inapplicable to the conditions of modern society. It seldom happens that a case is presented
Since the court below rendered judgment in contravention' of this principle and held the bank bound, though its cred-i'tor was erroneously described, its action must be reversed and the cause remanded for a new trial in conformity with this opinion.
Reversed.