Attachment

The act or process of taking, apprehending, or seizing persons or property, by virtue of a writ, summons, or other judicial order, and bringing the same into the custody of the law; used either for the purpose of bringing a person before tha court, ot acquiring jurisdiction over the property seized, to compel an appearance, to furnish security for debt ur costs, or to arrest a fund in the hands of a third person who may become liable to pay it over. Also the writ or other process for the aecomplishment of the purposes above enumerated, this being the more common use of the word, Of persons. <A writ issued by a court of record, commanding the sheriff to bring before it a person who has been guilty of contempt of court, either in neglect or abuse of its process or of subordinate powers.

8 Bl. Comm. 280; 4 Bl. Comm, 283.

Of property. <A species of mesne process, by which a writ is issued at the institu: tion or during the progress of an action, com. manding the shorilf to seize the property, rights, credits, or effects of the defendant tc be held as security for the satisfaction of such judgment as the plaintiff may recover. It is principally used against absconding, concealed, or fraudulent debtors. To give jurisdiction. Where the defendant is a non-resident, or beyond the territorial jurisdiction of the court, his goods or land within the territory may be seized upon process of attachment; whereby he will be coinpelled to enter an appearance, or the court acquires jurisdiction go far as to dispose of the property attached. This is sometimes called “foreign attachment.” Domestic and foreign. In some jurisdictions it is common to give the nume “domestic attachment” to one issuing against a Iignate an attachment against a non-resif, or his property, as “foreign.” But ‘term “foreign attachment” more proply belongs to the process otherwise familfly known as “garnishment.” It was a saliar and ancient remedy open to ereditors hin the jurisdiction of the city of Lona, by which they were enabled to satisfy drown debts by attaching or seizing the ney or goods of the debtor in the hands of hird person within the jurisdiction of the iy. This power and process survive in dern law, in all common-law jurisdictions, al are variously denominated “garnishtient,” “trustee process,” or “factorizing.”