103 A.D. 490 | N.Y. App. Div. | 1905
This action was tried before a referee. A large part of the record is taken up by objections taken and the arguments thereon by the defendants’ counsel, most of which are absolutely frivolous, repeated again and again, and now insisted on; the appellants’ brief stating, “ Therefore, the appellants note the fact here that every objection in the case is good ground for reversal.” It would be a waste of time to discuss most of these objections, and all that I shall attempt to do is to point out what appears to be the real questions in the case.
The action was originally brought by one Allen as an attachment creditor impleaded with the late sheriff of the county of New York under section 677 of the Code of Civil Procedure to recover a demand attached by the sheriff under a warrant of attachment. The plaintiff having by mesne assignments succeeded to the rights of Allen was substituted as plaintiff herein. It is alleged that about the 1st day of March, 1890, the defendants were indebted to Perlman, Manson & Libman, copartners doing business in the city of New York, and that on the same day a warrant of attachment was duly issued out of the City Court directed to the sheriff of the city and county of New York, commanding him to attach the property of the defendants Perlman and Manson in that county, and deliver to the sheriff who, by virtue of the said warrant of attachment, levied upon an indebtedness in favor of Perlman, Manson & Libman from the defendants. The answer is in substance a denial of the allegations of the complaint, except the copartnership of the defendants, and alleges that there is a defect' of parties plaintiff in the omission of Perlman, Manson & Libman.
It is strenuously claimed by the defendants that the decision of the former appeal required a dismissal of the complaint, but I think that upon the evidence upon the new trial the City Court had jurisdiction to issue the warrant of attachment. It appeared that the action in the City Court had been commenced against the defendants in that action prior to February 14, 1890, at which time the defendants JPerlman and Manson appeared and answered. The third defendant in that action does not appear to have been served, nor did he appear in the action. The court thus having jurisdiction of the parties and -of the subject-matter of the action, the plaintiffs, on the 1st of March, 1890, obtained from, a justice of the City Court a warrant of attachment against the property of the defendants Perlman and Manson upon the complaint in the action and upon the affidavits of one of the plaintiffs, the plaintiffs’ attorney and of one Symons, an advertising agent in the city of Hew York. The ground upon which the attachment was obtained was that the defendants Perlman and Manson were about to assign, dispose of or secrete property with intent to defraud their creditors. I think these affidavits were sufficient to give the justice jurisdiction to issue the warrant, and he having jurisdiction to issue the warrant, his action could only be reviewed by a direct attack upon it, and the validity of the warrant cannot be questioned collaterally. There were facts sworn to, as to the action of the defendants in regard to their property, which bore upon an intention on the part of the defendants in that action to collect what was owing to them, in the meantime refusing to apply what they collected to the payment of their debts. It is quite true that the evidence was not convincing, and upon a direct attack upon the attachment it might have been vacated; but there was evidence tending to show the facts which
On this appeal the defendants also seek to review an order substituting the present plaintiff as the assignee of the former plaintiff in the action, to whom the cause of action had been assigned and who had been substituted as one of the plaintiffs in the place of the original plaintiff, who was the plaintiff in the attachment action. This order seems to have been made by the Special Term of the Supreme Court on September 30,1901. No appeal was taken from this order until the appeal from the judgment, and it is now attempted to review the order under section 1316 of the Code of Civil Procedure. It is there provided that “ an appeal, taken from a final judgment, brings up for review an interlocutory judgment, or an intermediate order, which is specified in the notice of appeal and necessarily affects the final judgment; and which has not already been reviewed upon a separate appeal therefrom by the court or the term of the court to which the appeal from the final judgment is taken.” I do not think that this order falls within the class specified in this section of the Code of Civil Procedure. The order was interlocutory and determined the person in whose name the action should be continued. It had no relation to the final judgment and did not in any way affect it. The defendants not having appealed from that order and having proceeded with the trial before the referee, waived any defect in the papers upon which it was granted.
I have thus indicated my views upon what I consider to be the only questions of any consequence in this case. As before stated, the case is full of objections and exceptions to rulings upon evidence, but none of them are of importance upon the main questions presented and which have been here indicated. The substantial facts necessary to determine the action were proved before the referee by evidence that was entirely competent, and about which there is no substantial dispute, the sole effort of the defendants being to prevent the plaintiff from proving the facts which when proved, were not denied in any substantial manner by the defendants.
Vax Brunt, P. J., Pattejbsox, McLaughlix and Laughlix, JJ., concurred.
Judgment affirmed, with costs.