Attachment

A taking or seizure of a person or property by virtue of a legal process; the writ or process upon which such taking or seizure is made. An attachment against the person is a writ or process in the nature of a criminal proceeding, issuing out of a court of record against a person who has committed some contempt of court. The object and effect of the attachment is to bring the party personally into court, where, unless he clears himself of the contempt, he is punished by fine or imprisonment, or both. An attachment against property is of several kinds; as, (1) The old process of attachment in English practice, by which a defendant's goods were seized as a distress or means of compelling appearance in an action; (2) An ancient mode of procedure under the custom of London, by which a debt due a debtor by a third person, termed a garnishee, might be seized and appropriated to the payment of a creditor's demand; (3) A species of mesne process peculiar to the practice of some of the eastern states, by which goods, etc., of a defendant are seized at the beginning of a suit and held as security to satisfy such judgment as the plaintiff may recover, — originally the same with the English process; (4) A process arising out of the custom of London above mentioned, but now regulated by statute, against the property of absent, absconding, concealed and non-resident debtors, otherwise called foreign attachment, and in some cases domestic attachment. A species of this process is termed garnishment, and in some states trustee process and factorizing process. Attachment of privilege: a process by which a person privileged to litigate in a certain court, for instance an attorney or a court officer, calls another into such court to answer to an action; a writ, also, issued to apprehend a person in a privileged place. Attachments, court of: the lowest of the forest courts. See Court; Contempt; Domestic attachment; Factoring; Foreign attachment; Garnishment; Trustee process.