91 Ga. 264 | Ga. | 1893
IIow the statutes of the United States stand at the present time on the subject of protecting national banks against the seizure of their effects by virtue of attachments in advance of final judgment, may be seen by reference to U. S. Rev. Stat., §5242. The only words-necessary to be how quoted are these : “And no attachment, injunction or execution, shall be issued againstsueh association or its property before final judgment-
In the case at bar, the attachment was issued under a •law of this State, and was returnable to one of the courts of the State. It was levied, before final judgment, by the service of a summons of garnishment upon one of the debtors of the national bank, the defendant in attachment. This was a seizure of the debt, and the debt was the property of the bank. The seizure was utterly void, and the bond given by the bank to dissolve the garnishment was equally void. Pacific National Bank v. Mixter, 124 U. S. 728, 729 (supra). Certainly it was void as a statutory bond, for as there was no valid .statutory authority for issuing or serving the garnishment, there could be none for taking the bond. In principle, this was ruled in the case of Bruce v. Conyers, 54 Ga. 678. No suit or action has been brought upon this bond, but treating it solely as a statutory bond, and applying to it the spirit of sections 3319 and 3540 of the code, the plaintiff in attachment caused judgment upon it to be rendered against the bank and the sureties who joined with the bank in executing it. The judgment was the outcome of the original suit brought against the bank by attachment. In that suit the sureties on the bond entered no appearance, and had no •right to enter any. They were not heard, and could ■not have been heard had they so desired, save, perhaps, by some collateral motion. It is contended, however, that by giving the bond, the bank did what was equivalent, under section 3328 of the code, to appearing and making defence. Grant this was so, the result would be only that “the judgment rendered against him [the
Judgment reversed.