Hobson-Starnes Coal Co. v. Alabama Coal & Coke Co.

• Decision Date: 07 November 1914
• Docket Number: 884
• Citation: 66 So. 622,189 Ala. 481
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court
• Parties: HOBSON-STARNES COAL CO. v. ALABAMA COAL & COKE CO. (ILLINOIS CENT. R. CO., Garnishee.

66 So. 622

189 Ala. 481

HOBSON-STARNES COAL CO. v. ALABAMA COAL & COKE CO. (ILLINOIS CENT. R. CO., Garnishee.

No. 884

Supreme Court of Alabama

November 7, 1914

Appeal from Circuit Court, Jefferson County; C.B. Smith, Judge.

Assumpsit by the Hobson-Starnes Coal Company against the Alabama Coal &amp Coke Company, with garnishment in aid thereof to the Illinois Central Railroad Company. From an order setting aside the judgment rendered against the garnishee, plaintiff appeals. Transferred from Court of Appeals. Affirmed.

The garnishee answered indebted, and suggested, among other claimants of the garnished funds, the trustees in bankruptcy of the defendant Alabama Coal & Coke Company. The trustee filed his appearance in the case, but no issue was made up between the trustee in bankruptcy and the plaintiff as to the right to the garnished funds but plaintiff proceeded to pay judgment by default against defendant, and to take judgment on garnishee's answer against it. More than 30 days after the rendition of the judgment, the garnishee appeared and moved on various grounds to set aside the judgment thus rendered, on the theory that the judgment was void. The court granted the order.

Hugo L Black, of Birmingham, for appellant.

Percy Benners & Burr, of Birmingham, for appellee.

McCLELLAN J.

It affirmatively appears from the record certified for appeal that, prior to the attempted pronouncement of judgment against the garnishee, the Illinois Central Railroad Company by the circuit court of Jefferson county, Ala., at the suit of Hobson-Starnes Coal Company (Alabama Coal & Coke Company, defendant), and within four months before the adjudication of the Alabama Coal and Coke Company's bankruptcy, the last-named entity was adjudged a bankrupt; which event served to dissolve the attachment issued by the state court, and, in necessary consequence, forbade the rendition of judgment thereon against the garnishee, unless the trustee in bankruptcy invoked the retention of the lien of the attachment for the benefit of the bankrupt estate. Bankruptcy Act, § 67f (U.S.Comp.St.1913, § 9651f); Matter of Ala., C. & C. Co. (D.C.) 31 Am.Bankr.Rep. 387, 391, 210 F. 940.

Independent of--unaffected by--the practice act in force in Jefferson county's circuit court, whereby the power of the court over final judgments is restricted to 30 days after their rendition, that court, at any and all times, has the inherent power to...