Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

43 Mich. 541

Spears v. Chapman

Michigan Supreme Court

Decided June 9, 1880

Michigan Supreme Court · decided 1880-06-09

Cases made after judgment from Wayne. Garnishment. Spears having recovered judgment before a justice for fifty dollars against Charlotte Issler, garnished Chapman and Mrs. Biley, and took judgments against them, from which they appealed to the circuit court, which affirmed the judgments.

Cited by 6 later decisions — most recently May 1897

6 state decisions

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1880-06-09

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Marston, C. J.

¶1These cases are substantially alike, and in each the judgment must be reversed. This court has held recently in several cases that the garnishee’s disclosure in justice’s court must show a liability to the principal defendant before a judgment can be rendered thereon. If the disclosure is ambiguous, leaving it uncertain whether any indebtedness exists, or if so, to whom, and the ease substantially rests upon that, the plaintiff must fail. The garnishee is the plaintiff’s witness, and the burden of proof is upon Mm to make out by that witness a prima facie case. •

¶2Judgments reversed with costs.

The other Justices concurred.
/43/mich/541 · .json · Public domain