Majority
Headnote
1. Attachment—United States Circuit Court. Where a warrant of attachment issued by a Circuit Court of the United States against the property of a corporation, the defendant in an action brought in that court, and such attachment has been duly filed .in the office of the clerk of the court in the district in which the property of the defendant is situated, the real estate of the defendant is constructively in the custody of such court until the attachment has been vacated by a Federal court of competent jurisdiction.An injunction against a United States marshal, forbidding him from selling under an execution issued out of the Circuit Court of the United States, is in effect an injunction against the Federal tribunal itself. (Central National Bank v. Stevens, 169 U. S. 432 , 463, and cases there cited.) In that case a part of the decree of the state court under review sought to restrain the complainants in a suit in the United States Circuit, Court from proceeding under the final decree of sale in the United States Circuit Court and from enforcing the other remedies adjudged to them by that decree. The granting of this injunction was condemned as erroneous by the Supreme Court of the United States. “ The injunction,” said Mr. Justice Shiras, who wrote the opinion of the court, “ was a plain interference with the proceedings in another court which had full and complete jurisdiction over the parties to the subject-matter of the suit, and which jurisdiction had attached long before the suit in the Supreme Court (of the State) had begun.” State courts are expressly declared to be destitute of all power to restrain either the process or proceedings in the national courts. The general rule that there is no authority in the state courts to enjoin proceedings in the courts of the United States is laid down as distinctly as a judicial proposition can be declared and the correctness of the conclusion finds ample support in the authorities cited. (See Peck v. Jenness, 7 How. [U. S.] 612, 624; Riggs v. Johnson County, 6 Wall. 166 ; 2 Story’s Equity Jur. § 900; Moran v. Sturges, 154 U. S. 256 .) In the case last cited (which was a reversal of Matter of Schuyler Steam Tow-Boat Co., 136 N. Y. 169 ), the question was whether it was within the power of a state court to restrain the libellants in a District Court of the United States from prosecuting their libels, and the chief justice declared the general rule to be “ that State courts cannot enjoin proceedings in the courts of the United States,” and reviewed a large number of authorities sustaining that doctrine.
Furthermore, it is “ a rule of general application that where
The attachment which Mr. Ingraham sued out in the Circuit
I can see no logical reason for making an attachment under such circumstances effective to oust the jurisdiction of another court in the case of personal property, but ineffective to oust such jurisdiction in the case of real property. The purpose of the law is the same in both cases — to secure an appropriation of the attached property to the satisfaction of the plaintiff’s claim in the event that he recovers judgment. I cannot
In addition to Matter of Hall & Stillson Co. (supra) the courts below seem to have relied largely on Wiswall v. Sampson (14 How. [U. S.] 52). In that case there was an attempt by the plaintiff in ejectment to obtain possession of land under judgments of the Circuit Court of the United States entered in 1840. There were levies by execution on these judgments in February and April, 1845, a sale under execution' and a deed executed to the purchaser in August, 1845. The defense was based on a deed given on a sale of the land in 1847 by a receiver of the Alabama Court of Chancery, who had been in possession of the property since June 27, 1845, by virtue of a decree rendered in April, 1845, in a suit begun in 1843. While the judgments under which the plaintiff claimed were prior to the institution of the chancery suit in 1843, the levy under them was subsequent to the filing of the bill in the chancery suit, but prior to the appointment of
The basis of the decision in Wiswall v. Sampson seems to have been that in a suit of such a nature as that in which the receiver was appointed by the Alabama Court of Chancery (a suit to set aside conveyances of land as fraudulent), jurisdiction attached at the time of the filing of the bill, and hence remained paramount in the state court until decree. The doctrine involved was the same as that asserted in Farmers’ Loan, &c., Co. v. Lake St. El. Railroad Co. ( 177 U. S. 51 ), Avliere it Avas held that the filing of the bill in a mortgage foreclosure suit in the Circuit Court of the United States disabled an Illinois state court from proceeding with a suit instituted therein to prevent the foreclosure of the mortgage, in Avhich suit the summons Avas served before the writ of subpoena in the Federal court, although not until after the bill therein.had been filed. “ As betAveen the immediate parties,”
If the view which has been taken of the scope and effect of the decision in Wiswall v. Sampson be correct, that case is not an authority in favor of the respondents.- It may be noted that this court, in Chautaugue County Bank v. Risley ( 19 N. Y. 369 , 376, 377), refused to follow it if construed as denying the validity of a title acquired by sale under a judgment which was a legal lien upon the land sold prior and paramount to the title or possession of a receiver. In the opinion of the learned Appellate Division it is said that the doctrine of the Chautaugue Co. Bank case in this respect was repudiated in Walling v. Miller ( 108 N. Y. 173 ), but I can find no reference in the opinion therein to the former case. Although in Walling v. Miller this court did hold that a sale of property made under an execution, without leave of the court, while the property was in the possession of a receiver, was illegal and void notwithstanding that the execution had been levied before the appointment of the receiver, the question presented here, whether proceedings under an execution relating back to an attachment levied before the
An application was made by Mr. Ingraham in this litigation for an order staying the receivers to the Circuit Court of the'United States in Brooklyn. Judge Thomas felt constrained to deny the application in view of the decision of a brother judge of like jurisdiction in Matter of Hall & Stillson Co. (supra), but he pointed out in the following clear and comprehensive language the results which would flow from a final adoption of the doctrine of that decision: “ The consequence of the holding, as applied to the case at bar, is, that a state court may, in a suit later begun, appoint receivers of the land previously attached in an action in the Federal court, draw to itself the power to stay the enforcement of prior processes of the Federal court, and decree their validity or invalidity, or - postpone the satisfaction of the decree by virtue of such attachment, to await the disposition of the property for the purposes for which it was seized by the state court. Hence, all levies on land by attachment or execution become subjected to the after-acquired jurisdiction of another tribunal. The Federal court in the action at bar appointed and appropriated the land to the payment of such judgment for money damages as it should direct to be entered. The state court has intervened and stayed such payment, until it shall have determined the validity of the attachment and the levy thereunder, whereupon, according to the receivers’ contention, it may distribute the property of the judgment debtor to whomsoever it finds entitled to the same. If the state court has this power, the Federal court is deprived not only of the control of its processes but also of power to determine whether they are valid-and may be enforced. Thus, the court of one sovereignty is compelled to yield its powers to the commands of a foreign tribunal, taking later cogni- - zance of the property that has been subjected to the exercise ’ of the powers of this court.”
I do not think that we should sanction any rule which will
The respondents insist that the warrant of attachment did not suffice to create any lien against the property sought to be sold by the marshal, because it was never filed in the office of the clerk of Wyoming county in which such lands are situated. This proposition, if correct, does not help them to sustain their injunction. The gist of their cause of action is the apprehension that a sale under an execution relating back to the attachment will throw a cloud upon their title. But, in order to maintain an action to remove an alleged • cloud upon title, it must appear that the proceedings attacked are not void upon their face and that their nullity would not be manifest upon the proof which a claimant under s.ucli proceedings would be compelled to make in support of his claim. [Clark v. Davenport, 95 N. Y. 477 .) The same principles obtain in a suit to prevent a threatened cloud upon title. Here, however, the conditions essential to the maintenance of such a suit do not exist. If Mr. Ingraham’s attachment was not effectively levied, that fact would necessarily appear in proof upon any attempt to establish the existence of a lien by virtue of the issue and levy of the warrant. Hence, the complaint does not state facts sufficient to support an action to prevent a cloud upon the respondents’ title, even if it be assumed that the attachment was not levied as required by
Each of the questions certified is somewhat broader in its scope than is warranted by the papers on which the appeal is based. The first question, “ Has the Supreme Court of the State of Mew York jurisdiction to enjoin a United States Marshal from proceeding to a sale on execution,” if regarded as limited by the addition of the words “ under the circumstances of this case,” should be answered in the negative. The second question should also be answered in the negative provided it he qualified so as to show that the later appointment by the Mew York Supreme Court of the receivers of the corporation was in a suit instituted subsequent to the filing of the attachment. ■
The order continuing the injunction should he reversed, with costs in all courts, and injunction vacated, and both questions, when limited as above indicated, answered in the negative.
Cullen, Ch. J., O’Brien, Haight, Yann, Werner and Hisgock, JJ., concur.
Order reversed, etc.
Cases cited
- In re Debs 158 U. S. 564 p. 415
- Willitts v. Waite 25 N. Y. 577 p. 415
- Riggs v. Johnson County 6 Wall. 166 p. 415, p. 416
- Moran v. Sturges 154 U. S. 256 p. 415, p. 416
- Harkrader v. Wadley 172 U. S. 148 p. 415
- Nehasane Park Ass'n v. Lloyd 167 N. Y. 431 p. 416
- Wallace v. M'Connell 13 Pet. 136 p. 416
- Heidritter v. Elizabeth Oil-Cloth Co. 112 U. S. 294 p. 416
- Schuehle v. Reiman 86 N. Y. 270 p. 416
- In re Trustees of Schuyler's Steam Tow Boat Co. 136 N. Y. 169 p. 416
- In re Tyler 149 U. S. 164 p. 416
- Metcalf v. Barker 187 U. S. 165 p. 416
- Farmers' Loan & Trust Co. v. Lake Street Elevated Railroad 177 U. S. 51 p. 416, p. 421
- Central National Bank v. Stevens 169 U. S. 432 at 463 p. 416
- Covell v. Heyman 111 U. S. 176 p. 418
- Chautauque County Bank v. Risley 19 N. Y. 369 at 376, 377 p. 422
- Walling v. Miller 108 N. Y. 173 p. 422
- Clark v. Davenport 95 N. Y. 477 p. 424