Groat v. Gillespie

Decided January 15, 1841

New York Supreme Court · decided 1841-01-15

This was an action of debt on an attachment bond, tried at the Rensselaer circuit before the Hon. John P. Cushman, one of the circuit judges. Gillespie sued out an attachment in a justices’ court against the property of Groat, and gave a bond, conditioned, among other things, to pay to Groat all damages and costs ivliieh Tie should sustain by reason of the issuing of the attachment, if Gillespie should fail to recover judgment thereon.

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Decided 1841-01-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently July 1899

6 state decisions

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.

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¶1By the Court,

Nelson, C. J.

¶2The ruling at the circuit was [ *384 ] clearly erroneous. The plaintiff was entitled only to *the damages actually sustained in consequence of the attachment, and nothing more. The condition of the bond carries the remedy no farther, according to its terms. '

¶3The ground of the recovery, is not that the proceedings have been irregular and void on the part of plaintiff in the attachment, but that' he has failed to recover a judgment. So far as respects the remedy in this form, it is wholly immaterial whether they be regular or not. The breach has no necessary connection with the fact.

¶4The measure of damages, therefore, in trover or trespass, as in the case of an illegal levy, was improperly applied. Upon the facts in this case, I do not see that the plaintiff was entitled to anything more than nominal damages.

¶5New trial granted.