foreign attachment
Definitions from Case Law · United States Supreme Court
Definitions from Case Law
From 339 U.S. 684 - Swift & Co. Packers v. Compania Colombiana Del Caribe, S. A. · 1950Most cited · 1,325 citing opinions
admiralty
The process of foreign attachment is known of old in admiralty. It has two purposes: to secure a respondent's appearance and to assure satisfaction in case the suit is successful.
How the Supreme Court has restated “foreign attachment”
Each Supreme Court definition of “foreign attachment,” sized by how often later courts cited it. “Change” is measured by wording overlap with earlier definitions — a rough signal, not a semantic judgment.
How often courts cite the cases defining “foreign attachment”
Court decisions citing the 4 opinions that defined “foreign attachment” — 1,349 in all, by decade. Counts are citations to the defining cases as a whole, not verified uses of the term. The dip in the most recent years is a data-coverage gap, not a real trend — our corpus holds fewer opinions from the latest years.
All 4 definitions, chronological · 1792–1950
- ORIGINAL
Craig, by virtue of the foreign attachment, was entitled to all the property belonging to Banks in Forde's hands, beyond what was necessary to satisfy the judgment for which Forde was bound, and his own bona fide claim. Craig had a lien upon the whole money: It was, in effect, his own.
It appears from the facts, that the proceeds of all the property received by the assignees under this assignment, are insufficient to pay the amount of the just debts and demands due, bona fide, to the assignees. Under such circumstances, the established doctrine in Massachusetts is, that the assignees cannot be holden as trustees of the debtor under this process, so as to be chargeable to the creditor, who is plaintiff in the suit. Even if the assignment were held to be constructively fraudulent, in point of law, they would be entitled to retain for their own bona fide debts; for as to these, they stand upon equal grounds with any other creditors.
effect of insufficient assets
This controversy had its commencement by a proceeding familiarly known and practised in several of the States, and particularly in the south and southwest, usually denominated a foreign attachment. By this proceeding a person whose debtor may have absconded, or who has no visible property which can be reached directly by legal process, is authorized to attach in the hands of a third person who may be indebted to the debtor of the attaching party, an amount equal to the demand due to the latter. Under such proceeding, the plaintiff in the attachment is placed in the precise position of his debtor, with respect to the defendant, and can either legally or equitably recover of him nothing more than what was due from the defendant to the debtor of the plaintiff.