Sessoms Grocery Co. v. International Sugar Feed Co.

• Decision Date: 07 November 1914
• Docket Number: 534
• Citation: Sessoms Grocery Co. v. International Sugar Feed Co., 188 Ala. 232, 66 So. 479 (Ala. 1914)
• Parties: SESSOMS GROCERY CO. v. INTERNATIONAL SUGAR FEED CO.
• Court: Alabama Supreme Court

66 So. 479

188 Ala. 232

SESSOMS GROCERY CO. v. INTERNATIONAL SUGAR FEED CO.

No. 534

Supreme Court of Alabama

November 7, 1914

Appeal from City Court of Andalusia; Ed T. Albritton, Judge.

Assumpsit by the Sessoms Grocery Company against the International Sugar Feed Company. Judgment for defendant on the pleadings and plaintiff appeals. Affirmed.

The writ of attachment was sued out by the Sessoms Grocery Company and levied upon a car load of foodstuff shipped to it by the International Sugar Feed Company from the state of Tennessee to Andalusia in the state of Alabama, "order notify, Sessoms Grocery Company." The plaintiff filed a complaint, alleging damages for breach of agreement of sale and also containing the common counts. Defendant appeared specially and interposed a plea to the jurisdiction of the court, setting up the facts above stated and alleging that defendant was a nonresident, and that plaintiff ordered said car of foodstuff shipped into the state of Alabama for the purpose of levying such attachment upon the same, and thereby acquiring service upon this defendant for the purpose of enforcing the damages set forth in the complaint, also further alleging that such foreign corporation had not been served by any process which would authorize jurisdiction except the levying of this attachment, and demanding that the issues presented by the foregoing plea, and such other pleas as may arise in this case, shall be tried by a jury. The plaintiff moved to strike the plea for reasons set out, and the same being overruled, filed demurrers to the plea, which were also overruled. Plaintiff then filed a general replication and special replications admitting want of service personally, or upon any authorized agent of defendant in this case, but setting up the affidavit, the writ of attachment, and the levy of the same upon the car load of stuff after it arrived in Alabama, and publication in accordance with the statute in such cases made and provided. Demurrers were sustained to these special replications, and plaintiff declines to plead further, and appeals.

Powell & Albritton, of Andalusia, for appellant.

Parks &amp Prestwood, of Andalusia, for appellee.

DE GRAFFENRIED, J.

The International Sugar Feed Company is a nonresident. The Seeoms Grocery Company is a resident of this state. Both parties appear to be merchants, and the Sessoms Grocery Company claims that it possesses a right of action for damages against the International Sugar Feed Company. If so, it must sue the International Sugar Feed Company in the state of its residence unless, without a fraud upon the law, it can either by process of attachment or in some other legal way, obtain service--or that which is regarded as tantamount to service--upon said Sugar Feed Company in this state.

Our courts will not, either by process of attachment or by summons, lend jurisdiction to those who seek to obtain it by a fraud upon the law. Our courts are open to litigants, but those who come into them must come into them in an open fashion. Those who undertake to enter them through a fraud upon the law will be denied admittance. Ex parte Hurn, 92 Ala. 102, 9 So. 515, ...