237 F. 673 | D. Mont. | 1916
In this court in a law action in personam’plaintiff procured an attachment of the defendant water company’s realty, and recovered judgment against said defendant for $9,000. It brings this suit, alleging that execution upon said judgment was fruitless, in that, intermediate judgment and execution, a suit against said defendant was brought in a court of this state to foreclose a mechanic’s lien for $54.70, wherein allegations of insolvency, chaos, and probable damage to' the lien claimant were made, resulting in the appointment of a receiver of all said defendants’ property; the receiver then and at all times hitherto being in possession thereof. Other allegations are that the mechanic’s lien is invalid or inferior to plaintiff’s attachment, that the complaint therein was not sufficient to confer jurisdiction upon the state court to appoint a receiver, that the foreclosure suit was of a scheme to hinder and delay satisfaction of plaintiff’s judgment, and that plaintiff’s attachment and judgment are entitled to priority over a pre-existing $80,000 bond issue of said defendant, security for its debts. The plaintiff in the foreclosure suit, the receiver, the trustee in the trust deed securing the bonds, a trustee holding the bonds, and the latter's beneficiaries are joined as defendants herein. The prayer is a decree establishing priority of said attachment and judgment, a receiver, and further relief.
Defendants deny lack of jurisdiction in the state court, deny invalidity and inferiority of the mechanic’s lien, deny the alleged scheme, deny priority of plaintiff’s attachment and judgment over the bond issue, and allege that subsequent to this suit the trustee in,the trust deed
But, although the mechanic’s lien appears a fiction, and the foreclosure and receivership for ulterior purposes, the suit was within the state court’s equity jurisdiction, and wherein a receiver could be lawfully, even if improvidently, appointed.
This court is without jurisdiction, and decree for defendants.