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143 N.Y. 352

38 N.E 268

62 N.Y.St.Rep. 307

Cronin v. . Crooks

New York Court of Appeals

Decided October 16, 1894

New York Court of Appeals · decided 1894-10-16

<p>A warrant of attachment recited that defendant “has assigned and disposed of, or is about to assign or dispose of,” with intent to defraud her creditors. Held, that this was not a compliance with the provision of the Code of Civil Procedure (§ 641) which requires the warrant to “ briefly recite ijie ground of the attachment; ” that the warrant stated no ground, as to state in the alternative was to state neither the one fact nor the other; and so, it was fatally defective.</p>

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““This warrant stated no ground, for to state in the alternative is to state neither the one nor the other fact. Such an alternative statement of grounds results in a mutual exclusion.””

quoted by 1 later decision, including Quail v. Nelson

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1894-10-16

How this case has been cited

Cited by 30 later decisions — most recently November 1947 · most notably Newell v. Moreau (1947), Martin v. Schillo (1945)

28 state decisions

100189419001910192019301940decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Gray, J.

¶1 The warrant of attachment, which was granted in this action, was based upon an affidavit which set forth a certain disposition made by the defendant of her property; which deponent alleged to have been fraudulent, and whereby she had assigned and disposed of her property with intent to defraud her creditors and to hinder etc. the plaintiff in. the *354 collection of his demand against her. Without considering the sufficiency, of the affidavit, we think it very clear that the warrant was defective. The warrant recited that the defendant “ has assigned and disposed of, or is about to assign or dispose of her property.” The provisions of section 641 of the Code of Civil Procedure were not complied with. They provide, among other tilings, that the warrant “ must briefly recite the ground of the attachment.” This warrant stated no ground; for to state in the alternative, is to state neither the one nor the other fact. Such an alternative statement of grounds results in a mutual exclusion.

¶2 The General Terms of the first and fifth departments have construed the section of the Code in the same way as has the General Term below (Johnson v. Buckel, 65 Hun, 601; Hale v. Prote, 75 id. 13; Dinturff v. Tuthill, 43 State Rep. 704), and we think the construction, which has been thus generally given, is right. Our review of this order is justified by the insertion in it of the grounds for the affirmance. A question of law only was raised, as to the power of the court to grant such a warrant.

¶3 The order should be affirmed, with costs.

¶4 All concur.

¶5 Order affirmed.

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