Alabama Pine Co. v. Merchants' & Farmers' Bank

Section 6176 of the Code authorizes the issuance of a writ of attachment against a nonresident “with or without a bond being given, as the plaintiff may elect.” The statute does not require that this election be expressed in writing, or in any particular way, nor that it be indorsed upon the writ. It does provide that, “if such at tachment is issued without bond, that fact [i. e. issuance without bond] must he indorsed on the writ.”

The defendants’ chief contention is that this latter provision is mandatory in such sense that the failure of the clerk to make this indorsement, when the…