Sloane v. Anderson

• Citation: 6 S.Ct. 730,29 L.Ed. 899,117 U.S. 275
• Parties: SLOANE and others v. ANDERSON. Filed
• Decision Date: 15 March 1886
• Court: United States Supreme Court

6 S.Ct. 730

117 U.S. 275

29 L.Ed. 899

SLOANE and others v. ANDERSON.

Filed March 15, 1886.

J. M. Flower, for plaintiff in error.

M. P. Wing and J. H. Ashton, for defendants in error.

WAITE, C. J.

This is a writ of error brought under the act of March 3, 1875, (18 St. 470, c. 137,) to reverse an order of the circuit court remanding a suit which had been removed from the state court. The suit was brought by Anderson, the defendant in error, a citizen of Wisconsin, against John Sloane, William D. Sloane, Henry F. Sloane, Thomas C. Sloane, Walter W. Law, Alexander Wright, and Charles L. Watson, partners under the name of W. & J. Sloane, all citizens of New York; John V Farwell, Charles B. Farwell, William D. Farwell, and John L. Harmon, partners under the name of J. V. Farwell & Co., citizens of Illinois; Curtis H. Remy, an attorney at law, and a citizen of Illinois; and Angus Cameron, Joseph W. Losey, and Charles W. Bunn, partners doing a general law business under the name of Cameron, Losey & Bunn, citizens of Wisconsin. The complaint states that in September, 1881, Anderson was a merchant in good credit, doing business at La Crosse, Wisconsin, and worth at least $15,000 over his debts; that on the twenty-eighth of September he was indebted to W. & J. Sloane in the sum of $3,378.28, of which only $363.03 was then due, and to J. V. Farwell & Co. in the sum of $1,757,08, of which only $439.27 was due; that on that day the defendants Cameron, Losey & Bunn and Curtis H. Remy, by the order and direction of W. & J. Sloane, caused a judgment to be entered against him as by confession in the circuit court of La Crosse county for his entire debt to that firm, and by the order and direction of J. V. Farwell & Co., another judgment for his entire debt to that firm; and that each of these judgments was irregular and void, the court being without jurisdiction in the premises. The complaint then proceeds as follows: 'That on the twenty-eighth day of September, 1881, the said defendants Cameron, Losey & Bunn, by order and direction of the said Curtis H. Remy, and by order and direction of the said defendants W. & J. Sloane and John V. Farwell & Co., wrongfully and unlawfully issued executions out of said circuit court on said several judgments for the full amount of damages and costs aforesaid to the sheriff of La Crosse county, which said executions, though regular in form so as to protect said sheriff, were unauthorized and void. That Mark M. Buttles, the then sheriff of La Crosse county, on the said twenty-eighth day of September, 1881, under and by virtue of the said executions, which were both delivered to him at the same time, and under and by virtue of the orders and directions of the said defendants Cameron, Losey & Bunn, and of the defendants Curtis H. Remy and W. & J. Sloane and John V. Farwell & Co., and in the absence of this plaintiff from the city of La Crosse, he having left this city at the express request of the said defendant Curtis H. Remy, who was acting in behalf of said defendants W. & J. Sloane and John V. Farwell & Co., the said sheriff, without the plaintiff's consent, levied upon, seized, and took possession of the entire stock of goods, fixtures, and furniture and store of this plaintiff, occupied by him under lease, * * * and seized and took the keys of said store, and turned out, and caused to be removed and kept out, from said store, the clerks and customers of this plaintiff, and shut up said store, and stopped all trades and sales therein for and during the space and time of twenty-five days, to his damage in the sum of five thousand dollars; the said stock of goods and fixtures and furniture being then and there worth the sum of thirty thousand dollars.'

Separate answers were filed by Cameron, Losey & Bunn, W. & J. Sloane, and J. V. Farwell & Co. Each of these answers was substantially a copy of the others, and the same defenses were set up in all. Among other things it was alleged that in making the levies the firms of W. & J. Sloane and J. V. Farwell & Co. acted separately, each on its own account, and not jointly, 'and that there was consequently a misjoinder of parties...