11 Utah 209 | Utah | 1895
Lead Opinion
The plaintiff procured a judgment for $402.80 against "the defendant, Pratt, who was a police officer in Salt Lake City. There was due Pratt, as salary from said city, the .-sum of $100, for which sum the plaintiff served the respondent witli process of garnishment. When the return thereof was made the plaintiff moved for judgment thereon :in his favor, which motion, for judgment against the garnishee, was denied. Thereupon the plaintiff appealed to this court.
Salt Lake City, the respondent herein, is a municipal •corporation, and, as appears from the record, has enacted an ordinance whereby it has attempted to waive “its right ■and legal exemption from garnishment process,” and consented that the wages and salaries of its employés “may be attached under garnishee process in the same manner .and to the same extent as is provided by the general laws of the territory,” the notices of such process to be served •on the city treasurer. By virtue of this ordinance it is maintained that the legal rights of the respondent to exemption from such process were waived in the case at bar, and the only question presented in the record material
The question of the liability of municipal corporations-to process of garnishment at the suit of a private party has often been before the American courts, and, while-their decisions are not uniform, still it seems that a large-majority of the cases hold that no such liability exists, and the reason of the rule declared by those cases appears-to rest upon that public principle which exempts members-of the legislature, foreign ministers, embassadors, and
Concurrence Opinion
I concur in the judgment for the reasons-stated, but especially for the reason that if the city, by the ordinance in question, waived its exemption, it had the right to recall its waiver. In this case it has from the beginning insisted that it was exempt. I think there was no vested right-by virtue of the ordinance, and the city had the right to claim its exemption.
Concurrence Opinion
I concur in the judgment for the reasons expressed by Smith, J.