Susquehanna Coal Co. v. Pratt & Young, Inc.

• Decision Date: 01 May 1918
• Docket Number: 883.
• Parties: SUSQUEHANNA COAL CO. v. PRATT & YOUNG, Inc., et al.
• Court: U.S. District Court — District of Massachusetts

251 F. 665

SUSQUEHANNA COAL CO. v. PRATT & YOUNG, Inc., et al.

No. 883.

United States District Court, D. Massachusetts.

May 1, 1918

Hale Grinnell & Swaim, of Boston, Mass., for plaintiff.

Hurlburt Jones & Hall and Henry F. Hurlburt, all of Boston, Mass., for defendants.

MORTON District Judge.

This is an action in tort, brought by the Susquehanna Coal Company against Pratt & Young, Incorporated, a corporation, R. K Pratt, and J. W. Young. The ad damnum is large ($500,000), and many corporations and persons are summoned as trustees (or garnishees) of the principal defendants. Among the trustees so summoned are the three principal defendants. The corporation, Pratt & Young, Incorporated, is summoned as trustee of the individual defendants; Pratt is summoned as trustee of the corporation and of Young; and Young is summoned as trustee of the corporation and Pratt. The identity of the said trustees with the defendants appears on the face of the writ and was admitted by counsel for the plaintiff at the hearing on the motion. Each of the defendant trustees has moved that the writ be dismissed as to it or him, as trustee, upon the ground that the same person cannot be made both defendant and trustee in the same writ.

The liability asserted against the principal defendants, being in tort, is a joint one. The question is whether one of three defendants jointly sued may also be summoned as trustee of the other two defendants. The statute on which the writ is based (Rev. Laws Mass. c. 189) provides that 'any person or corporation may be summoned as trustee of the defendant. ' Section 1. The person summoned as trustee is required to disclose by answer 'what goods, effects, or credits, if any, of the defendant were in' his hands at the time when the writ was served upon him. Section 9. 'The answer and statements of a trustee, under oath, shall be considered as true in determining how far he is chargeable. ' Section 15. All 'goods, effects, or credits of the defendant which have been intrusted to, or deposited in the hands or possession of, a person who is summoned as his trustee' are, with certain exceptions, subject to attachment in this way. Section 19.

The question presented seems not to have been decided in Massachusetts. In Denny v. Metcalf, 28 Me. 389, an action was brought against two persons as partners. One of the defendants and two third persons, partners in another firm, were summoned as trustees....