4 Mo. App. 522 | Mo. Ct. App. | 1877
delivered the opinion of the court.
This action was commenced by attachment under the Landlord and Tenant’s Act. The suit is on two notes, neither ■of which were due at the commencement of the action, but which had both matured at the date of the return of the ■summons. The issue on the plea in abatement was found for defendant. Defendant then moved to dismiss, on the ground that the suit was commenced before the maturity ■of the claim. The motion was overruled, and such proceedings subsequently had that judgment was entered for plaintiff.
The record presents only one question for determination:
When a man gives a promissory note, he has a right to suppose that, if by the chances of business and inevitable misfortune he cannot meet it at maturity, no process can issue to subject his property to forced sale to meet the obligation until judgment has been obtained, in due course, upon a suit commenced to the return term next succeeding the maturity of the paper, unless he meanwhile leaves the
Peery v. Harper, 42 Mo. 131, was a case in which a plaintiff not residing in Polk County brought suit by attachment, in that county, against a defendant residing iix Saline. This could be done in case of attachment, but when the suit is instituted by summons alone, one of the parties must reside in the county where the suit is brought,in order to confer jurisdiction. The plea in abatement having been found for defendant, it was held that the suit could not proceed to final judgment except as a suit instituted by summons alone ; and that, as a suit instituted by. summons, it was brought in the wrong county, and the judgment entered for plaintiff was reversed. Brackett v. Brackett, 53 Mo. 265.
In an action commenced by summons alone, the Circuit Court has no jurisdiction of the person of defendant, unless the plaintiff reside in the county in which the defendant resides, or is found and served in an action commenced by summons alone the Circuit Court has no jurisdiction of a. cause of action which had not matured when summons was issued in the cause. In either case, where jurisdiction, attaches by attachment, it is lost when the finding' on the-plea in abatement shows that no ground for- attachment existed at the time the writ issued. The suit then stands as if commenced by summons alone.
We are of opinion,, therefore, that the defendants motion.
The judgment of the Circuit Court is reversed, and the •cause remanded.