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49 Pa. 21

Schober v. Mather

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania

Decided February 2, 1865

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania · decided 1865-02-02

<p>Effect of appearance to action. — Attachment-execution may he served as a summons.</p> <p>1. A general appearance by a party after service is a waiver of all defects in the writ and the service thereof.</p> <p>2. An attachment-execution containing a clause of scire facias to the garnishee, requiring an appearance at a time therein named, may be made returnable on the second return day of the next term.</p>

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1865-02-02

How this case has been cited

Cited by 3 later decisions — most recently February 1942

3 state decisions

10186518701880189019001910192019301940decided

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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¶1The opinion of the court was delivered, by

Read, J.

¶2The attachment-execution in this case was issued on the 4th of September 1861, returnable on the 20th of the same month, the second return day of September Term, the first return day having been Monday, the 9th of said month.

¶3The legacy, distributive share, money, estate, or effects whatsoever of the defendant in the hands of the executor, were attached,' and he was summoned as garnishee, and the defendant Was not found in the bailiwick.

¶4A general appearance was entered by counsel for the garnishee after the service of the writ.

¶5Interrogatories to the garnishee were filed, with a rule to answer or judgment, and on the 8th of September answers to the interrogatories were filed.

¶6It is a familiar principle that actual appearance is a waiver of defects in the process or the service of it, and it was said in Zion Church v. St. Peter’s Church, 5 W. & S. 217, that “ the question of service is an immaterial one,.as the defendant thought proper to enter a general appearance to the action, which, were it necessary, would be considered a waiver of both summons and service.”

¶7If this had been a summons or an ordinary scire facias, the return day would have been right, and as the clause of scire facias in the attachment-execution requires the appearance of the garnishee at the next term or at such other time as the court shall appoint, and the writ is to be served in the manner provided for the service of a writ of summons, there would be little difficulty in holding the whole to be perfectly regular, even if the garnishee had not concluded himself by his acts affirming their regularity. The court, therefore, erred in quashing the writ.

¶8Judgment reversed, and a procedendo awarded.

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