21 Mont. 176 | Mont. | 1898
Sections 914, 915, and 916 of the Code of Civil Procedure are as follows:
1 Section 914. The defendant may also at any time, either before or after the release of the attached property, or before any attachment shall have been actually levied, apply on motion, upon reasonable notice to the plaintiff, to the court in which the action is brought, or to a judge thereof, that the writ of attachment be discharged on the ground that the same was improperly or irregularly issued.
“Section 915. If the motion be made upon affidavits on the part of the defendant, but not otherwise, the plaintiff may oppose the same by affidavits or other evidence, in addition to those on which the attachment was made.
“Section 916. If upon such application, it satisfactorily
1. The first ground of the motion to discharge the writ of attachment is directed to those parts of the affidavit which have to do with the several debts upon which causes of action numbered 2, 3, and 4 are respectively based. The defendant contended that the averments of the affidavit were false, in stating that the payment of neither the $31,986:50 note, nor the note for $19,771.31, had ever been secured, and in stating that the security for the payment of the $1,603.30 note had become valueless. Documentary evidence only was received upon the hearing of the motion, and a substantial conflict existed. We must therefore determine the merits by deciding upon the weight of the evidence. (Newell v. Whitwell, 16 Mont. at page 254, 40 Pac. 866.) To set out or discuss the evidence will serve no useful purpose. A careful examination satisfies us that it fairly preponderates in favor of plaintiff, and we are therefore of opinion that the trial court did not err in finding the statements in the original affidavit to be true.
2. The original affidavit was sufficient to warrant the issuance of a writ of .attachment upon five of the seven causes of action stated in the complaint. Omission to show that payment of the debts evidenced by either of the notes which are the subjects of the sixth and seventh causes of action had not been secured, or, if ever secured, that the security had become valueless, made the affidavit insufficient as to these two demands, and as to them only. Seven different express contracts for the direct payment of money were united in the one complaint, in seven separately stated causes of action, each of which might have been the basis of an action, and upon which plaintiff might have obtained a writ. The statement of each cause of action was practically a complaint in itself. No interdependence existed, but each cause was in all respects as independent of the other as if it were the sole matter in the complaint. While'the affidavit stated the gross amount of the seven demands, the law did not require such statement.
Upon its face the writ of attachment was perfect. By reference to the affidavit upon which it is sued, however, it appeared that the amount stated in the writ was too large, by the aggregate of the demands upon which the sixth and seventh causes of action were based, which demands were separately stated in the writ, as well as in the complaint and affidavit. The writ was not void, nor was it, in its entirety, voidable. (See Hubbard v. Haley, (Wis.) 71 N. W. 1036; Emerson v. Thatcher, (Kan.) 51 Pac. 50.) Though the amount stated in the writ be greater than that for which it should issue, yet, in the absence of bad faith in claiming the excess, the writ will be upheld for so much of the demand as is shown to be properly included. This rule is within the principle announced in Newell v. Whitwell, 16 Mont. 243, 40 Pac. 866, and would seem to be a corollary of the doctrine declared in Mendes v. Freiters, 16 Nev. 388. Defendant’s motion was directed to the whole writ, which he asked the court to discharge. He did not move a discharge as to the sixth and seventh demands, in respect of which, only,' the writ was irregular. Its irregularity consisted in stating the amount of these two demands, and including them in the total sum recited. The statements of the affidavit were sufficient to authorize a writ for five several demands, which were, in fact and in statement, clearly distinct and separate in all respects from the insufficient averments touching the two demands irregularly included in both affidavit and writ. The irregularity did not go to the jurisdiction of the court. (See Emerson v. Thatcher, supra.) The motion to wholly discharge the
3. Since the motion to discharge the writ in toto was properly denied, and since defendant ’ did not ask a discharge, modification, or amendment of the writ in respect of the demands which should not have been included, consideration of the action of the court below in permitting an amendment to the affidavit for attachment so as to supply the omission of the original to show facts warranting an attachment is unnecessary to a determination of this appeal. The original affidavit was in no measure a compliance with the statute as to the $2,860.79 or $103.90 demand. It did not show even an attempt to state the facts upon which a writ would be authorized upon these demands. Defendant asks us to decide whether such total omission may be supplied by amendment.
The order denying the motion to discharge the writ of attachment will be affirmed, and it is so ordered.
Affirmed.