Opinion
(Fall Riding, 1797.)
The bankrupt law in Scotland cannot affect any goods, estate, or debts due to the bankrupt here; and therefore they may be attached here by a creditor under our attachment laws.
THE plaintiff in this action had commenced the same by attachment, and the following circumstances were disclosed by the garnishee on his examination, to wit: That one of the defendants was one of the partners of the company, who in Scotland had been declared bankrupts and their estates put into the hands of sequestrators; and the defendant, one of the partners here, at the time of the sequestration in Scotland had goods on hand here and debts due to a large amount; that the sequestrators in Scotland appointed the garnishee in this action to be their agent to get possession of the goods here, and also to collect and recover the debts here for the sequestrators; and that the garnishee had received into his possession goods to a large amount and part of the debts, and was about to receive others to a much larger amount than would satisfy the plaintiff's demand.
Curia advisari. At another day the Court asked the counsel (25) whether it would be satisfactory to them if the Court would decide that the plaintiff's debt was payable out of the debts not yet collected, saying nothing of the goods and debts received. The counsel on both sides answered in the affirmative, and said the garnishee had lent money to the plaintiff to the amount of the debt demanded, to be applied to the discharge thereof, should the Court be of opinion he ought to recover upon any of the facts disclosed in the garnishment, or to be returned in case of a contrary decision.
We are prepared to say the plaintiff is entitled to recover out of the debts not yet collected. The bankrupt laws in Scotland cannot affect any goods, estate, or debts due to the bankrupt here. And here we must rest our opinion for the present, choosing purposely to avoid any opinion relative to the effects and debts received by the agent of the sequestrators.
Judgment for the plaintiff.
Cited: Holshouser v. Copper Co., 138 N.C. 258.
(26)