Peacock v. Pembroke

Mason, J., delivered the opinion of this court. Upon an attachment issued out of St. Mary’s county court against Russell, the defendant in the present action, and which was laid in the hands of Pembroke, as garnishee, the latter pleaded nul tiel record and nulla bona. Judgment was rendered in favor of the plaintiff upon the issue in the plea of nul tiel record, and upon the trial of the issue in the plea of nulla bona, it was disclosed in evidence that the garnishee admitted his indebtedness for a balance due on land which he had purchased from Russell and wife, but that the land which he had purchased was the land of Mrs. Russell previous to her marriage, and that the notes or bonds were drawn payable to her. The debt upon which the attachment issued was a debt due by the husband.

Upon this evidence the defendant prayed the court to instruct the jury, “that if they find that the garnishee, P^f)broke, had purchased from Russell and wife the maiden lajúl of the wife, and that the notes for the payment of the safflifc ²⁸² were in her name, and that the debt for the recovery of which this action was brought, was due by Russell, the husband, .alone, then the plaintiff is not entitled to recover.” This prayer the court granted, and we are now called on to inquire into the correctness of this decision of the court below. We think the principles involved in this case have been fully settled by this court, in the case of the State vs. Krebs, 6 H. & J., 31 , to say nothing of other cases and treatises upon the subject which might be cited. The present case we regard as a clearer one even than that of the State vs. Krebs. Here the mutation of the estate from real to personal, resulted from the act of the wife or feme: covert herself, while in the other it resulted from the operation