11 Ala. 640 | Ala. | 1847
It is true that there we considered a debt due from an estate represented by the garnishee as its executor, was not attached by process of garnishment against the individual, but this decision proceeds on the ground that the debt is not due from him, but from the estste which he represents. Here, on the contrary, the debt is due from the garnishee to one of the debtors, and if instead of a debt, the thing attached was a chattel, there would be no doubt it would be bound, although belonging to one of the debtors only. It can scarcely be supposed that if a garnishee was to answer that he had the personal effects of one of the debtors in his possession, these would not be bound, and why should a different rule obtain when the subject of garnishment is a debt ? We think the reasonable construction of the attachment law is, that the service of garnishee process, where there are joint defendants, has the effect to create a lien on debts due to each of the defendants separately. The consequence of this opinion is, that the answer of the garnishee should have negatived the existence of indebtedness to either of the defendants, and therefore, although it would have been more proper to have required such an answer, there was no injurious error in requiring the garnishee to join in the issue propounded, or in giving judgment on the verdict.
There seems to be no error in the record. Judgment affirmed.