Mattingly v. Grimes

Miller, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The principles settled in Early vs. Dorsett, Harris & Co., 45 Md., 462 , and by previous decisions on the same subject, cannot be applied in the present case. Here the entire proceeds of sale had been paid into Court under an order to that effect, and deposited in bank to the credit of the cause before the attachment was laid in the hands of the trustee. In that state of case it is clear these funds were not liable to the process of attachment.

Nor does the record disclose such a condition of things as would authorize the Court to retain the fund until the validity of the assignment by Suit to Grimes could be litigated by the creditors of the former. What are the facts? James L. Brown was entitled to a distributive share of the proceeds of his father’s real estate sold in this case, and had made several successive assignments of portions thereof. In January, 1872, the auditor stated an account distributing this share to these several assignees in the order of priority, and auditing to Arthur F. Willmarth the last ¹⁰⁶ of them, the balance of $800.56, in part satisfaction of his assignment for $1000, dated the 11th of April, 187\.

This account was ratified on the 14th of October, 1872, and on the 24th of that month Willmarth assigned the ■amount thus audited to him to S. T. Suit. Afterwards there was a re-sale of the lands and the proceeds were all collected by the trustee and paid into Court on or before the 9th of April, 1876. On the 22nd of March, 1876, Suit assigned to Grimes his interest in the amount that had been thus audited to Willmarth, and under these assignments, which were duly filed in the case, the appellee by petition asked for an order directing the clerk to draw his check for the payment of this sum to him. The appellant, a creditor of Suit, recovered a judgment against him on the 19th of April, 1876, and on this judgment issued an attachment on the 20th of July, 1877, which on the same day was laid in the hands of the trustee ; and ( at the same time he filed his petition in the cause averring the pendency of this attachment, charging that the assignment to Grimes was made by Suit with intent to hinder, delay and defraud his creditors, that he was insolvent, and praying the Court to declare the assignment void and to direct the money to he paid to him, and to retain the fund for that purpose.

The attachment, as we have said, was entirely ineffectual, and no lien or right to the fund could be acquired by means of it, and yet