58 Iowa 225 | Iowa | 1882
Section 2659 of the Code provides: “Each counter-claim must be stated in a distinct division, and must be * 'x' 3. Any new matter constituting a cause of action in favor of the defendant, or all of the defendants, if more than one, against the plaintiff, or all of the plaintiffs, if more than one, and which the defendant or defendants might have brought when suit - was commenced, or which was then held, either matured or not, if matured when so plead.” It is essential under this provision, that the cause of action pleaded as a counter-claim should have been held by the defendant at the time when the suit was commenced, in which the counterclaim is interposed. In Reed v. Chubb Brothers, Barrows, & Co., 9 Iowa, 178, it was held that “when the affidavit for attachment, and the bond are filed, and the writ sued out, at the commencement of the action, if the writ is wrongfully sued out, any damages sustained by the defendant therefrom constitute a claim held by him at .the commencement of the suit, in such a sense that the same may be set off against the plaintiff’s demand, in the same action.” The provisions of the statute under which this decision was announced, were substantially the same as now. This decision, however, applies to a case where the right of action for damages for the wrongful suing out of the attachment inured to the attachment defendant, and was held by him at the very instant that it came into existence. The answer of the defendants shows that all of their property was held by William Foster, under a general assignment. Whatever right of action arose for injury to, or diminution in the value of this property, inured,
III. The original notice was not served upon A. O. Atherton. It is claimed that he did not appear, by counsel or in person, and that therefore the judgment against him, personally, is erroneous. The abstract shows affirmatively that A.' C. Atherton does not appeal, and does not appear in this court. It is claimed, however, that the defendant, H. H. Eobinson, may raise objection to the judgment against Atherton, for the reason that the whole judgment may be collected
Affirmed.