121 A. 280 | Conn. | 1923
Upon the facts found, the court below reached the conclusion that the conduct of the plaintiff "constituted an improper scheme or device for obtaining jurisdiction over the defendant," and that "this device was an abuse of process." For that reason it sustained the plea to the jurisdiction.
It is the law of this State that in a civil case the court will not exercise a jurisdiction which rests upon a service of process on a defendant who has been decoyed, enticed or induced to come within its reach by any false representation, deceitful contrivance or wrongful device for which the plaintiff is responsible. "You cannot do a wrong," said JUDGE ELLSWORTH, inHill v. Goodrich,
It should be noted, however, that in each of these cases distinctly appears the fact that the representation, contrivance, or device of the plaintiff, directly caused the defendant to change his location or that of his property, and to move himself or it from a place *99
without the jurisdiction of the court into the place in which the process was served. Thus, in Hill v.Goodrich,
In the present case the facts do not show that this plaintiff, by any word or conduct, induced the defendant to bring, or took an active part in bringing, its property within the jurisdiction of the court. The defendant had been engaged in the business of selling travelers' checks to the public, for a profit, through its agents in this State. To its agent in Hartford, it had sent some of these checks to be offered and sold to anyone who would buy at the regular price and terms. In this conduct and transaction it had not been influenced in any way by the plaintiff. To him, the defendant offered to sell property which was already in Hartford, and the plaintiff's only act or word was in acceptance of the offer and payment of the price demanded. In carrying on its business in this manner the defendant voluntarily had subjected itself and its property to whatever risks and consequences such transactions might create or involve. By its own acts and request the money paid for the checks was placed in the possession of its agent in Hartford. Case v. Smith, Lineaweaver Co., 152 F. 730. In these particulars the present case differs essentially from those in which the device to secure service has been held to be an abuse of process.
We know of no legal or equitable obligation which bound the plaintiff, when he accepted the defendant's proposition to buy the travelers' checks and leave the purchase money with its agent, to reveal his intention to attach the money immediately. It must be admitted that he had a legal right to buy and pay for the checks in response to the defendant's request and *101
in the regular course of its business. The intention or motive which induced him to exercise his right are of no importance. Fisher, Brown Co. v. Fielding,
We find nothing in the conduct of the plaintiff which should be regarded in law as a breach of faith with the defendant, or as a false representation or deceitful contrivance, and nothing by which the defendant was enticed or induced to bring its property within the *102 jurisdiction of the courts of this State. Indeed, it seems that the court below did not reach its conclusions by a different interpretation of the law; for it held only that the plaintiff's "scheme or device for obtaining jurisdiction over the defendant" was "improper" and "an abuse of process." For the reasons we have stated, we think that conclusion is not supported by the facts of the case. Moreover, however the plaintiff's conduct should be characterized, it manifestly did not constitute an effective device or means by which the property of the defendant was brought within the reach of the process of foreign attachment served in this case.
The defendant has not been oppressed or seriously harmed by the retention of its money in the hands of its agent. It has not lost it and will not, unless it fail to prove, in an impartial trial, that it did not receive or did not wrongfully retain money belonging to the plaintiff; and in that event its loss would be approved by justice. If the defendant has a good defense to the plaintiff's suit it should rather welcome its determination by a judicial tribunal than seek to avoid or postpone the issue by a technicality. Its plea to the jurisdiction is not adapted to appeal persuasively to the equitable powers of the court.
There is error, and the cause is remanded to be proceeding with according to law.
In this opinion the other judges concurred.