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44 Ala. 485

Moore v. Dickerson

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided June 15, 1870

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1870-06-15

Tried before Hon. J. Q. Smith. The appellee commenced this suit by attachment, and the appellant, by motion entered on the motion docket, applied to the court for a rule upon the plaintiff to show cause why the attachment should not be dissolved, on the ground that it had issued before the maturity of his obligation, in a case not so provided for by law.

Cited by 2 later decisions — most recently July 1898

2 state decisions

Relies on Lampley v. Beavers · Stevenson v. O'Hara · Bozeman v. Rose

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1870-06-15

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B. F. SAFFOLt), J.

¶1An appearance by motion of a defendant to dissolve an attachment is not a general appearance, and can not have the effect of one. — Rev. Code, p. 815, Rule 1; Lampley v. Beavers, 25 Ala. 534; Nabors v. Nabors, 2 Port. 162.

¶2The j udgment in this case, as is shown by the transcript, ought to have been by default. The error in this respect, under the circumstances, must be regarded as clerical, and, therefore, not reversible, but the appellant must have the benfit of the proper judgment.

¶3The cause of action is not a debt, to enforce the collection of which an attachment may issue before it is due.— Rev. Code, § 2927; Bozeman v. Rose, 40 Ala. 212. The obligation of the defendant was to deliver the cotton during the succeeding fall. The attachment was issued November 9th, 1868, before he was in default. — Add. on Contracts, 1133. It was therefore void.

¶4A judgment by default, predicated on a void attachment, is void. — Flash, Hartwell & Co. v. Paul Cook & Co., 29 Ala. 141; Mathews, Finley & Co. v. Sands & Co., ib. 136; Stevenson v. O’Hara, 27 Ala. 362.

¶5The judgment is reversed and the cause remanded.

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