John Rohan & Son Boiler Works Co. v. Young

• Citation: 190 Mo. App. 649,176 S.W. 295
• Decision Date: 04 May 1915
• Docket Number: No. 14016.,14016.
• Court: Court of Appeal of Missouri (US)
• Parties: JOHN ROHAN & SON BOILER WORKS CO. v. YOUNG, Chief of Police.

176 S.W. 295

190 Mo. App. 649

JOHN ROHAN & SON BOILER WORKS CO. v. YOUNG, Chief of Police.

No. 14016.

St. Louis Court of Appeals. Missouri.

May 4, 1915.

Appeal from St. Louis Circuit Court; Irvin V. Barth, Judge.

Action by the John Rohan & Son Boiler Works Company against Warren S. Heaton, in which William Young, Chief of the Metropolitan Police of St. Louis, Missouri, was summoned as garnishee. From an order and judgment discharging the garnishee, plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

Julian Laughlin, of St. Louis, for appellant. William E. Baird and Robert Burkham, both of St. Louis, for respondent.

NORTONI, J.

This is a suit by attachment, and the question for immediate consideration relates to the discharge of the garnishee, William Young, chief of the metropolitan police force of the city of St. Louis. It appears from the record that one Warren S. Heaton, of Ft. Worth, Tex., was the debtor of plaintiff John Rohan & Son Boiler Works Company. On this indebtedness, plaintiff instituted a suit against Heaton by attachment and summoned William Young, chief of the metropolitan police force of the city of St. Louis, as garnishee, in that it is said the garnishee then held in his possession a valuable diamond belonging to Warren S. Heaton, defendant in the attachment suit. Having summoned the garnishee, plaintiff exhibited interrogatories touching his possession, etc., of the diamond. In response to such interrogatories so exhibited by plaintiff, the garnishee answered that he is chief of police of the metropolitan police force of the city of St. Louis, Mo., and that on the 18th day of January, 1912, there was arrested by his subordinates in the city of St. Louis a certain woman said to be Louise Savine, who then had in her possession the diamond involved here; that the woman was arrested on suspicion of having stolen said stone from Warren S. Heaton, and the stone was held by him as such chief of police under telegraphic advices from the chief of police of the city of Ft. Worth, Tex. In its reply to this answer of the garnishee, plaintiff admitted that the garnishee was such chief of police of the metropolitan police force of the city of St. Louis, and averred that, though he held the diamond as chief of police, according to the averments of the answer it was, nevertheless, the sole property of Warren S. Heaton and of the market value of $1,000; wherefore it prayed an order that the garnishee be required to give the said diamond over into the possession of the sheriff, etc. On this reply coming in, a motion to discharge the garnishee was interposed, for that it appeared to be confessed in the pleadings he was garnished in his capacity of a municipal officer. The court sustained this motion and discharged the garnishee accordingly. It is from this order and judgment plaintiff prosecutes the appeal.

There can be no doubt that the court correctly disposed of the matter. It appears to be conceded that the diamond came into possession of the garnishee, William Young, chief of police, because of his official position, and that he retained it in that capacity. By the express terms of the statute (section 2415,...