McAllister v. McDow
Supreme Court of Alabama
Appeal from tlie Circuit Court of Tuskaloosa. Tried before the Hon. Geo. D. ShoRteidge. Debt on an attachment bond, by Arthur McDow against Barnabas G-. McAllister and Thomas P. Crawford, to recover damages for the wrongful and vexatious suing out of the attachment.
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Appeal from tlie Circuit Court of Tuskaloosa. Tried before the Hon. Geo. D. ShoRteidge. Debt on an attachment bond, by Arthur McDow against Barnabas G-. McAllister and Thomas P. Crawford, to recover damages for the wrongful and vexatious suing out of the attachment. The jury rendered a verdict in favor of the plaintiff, on issue joined, “for one dollar and seventy-five cents, besides costs” ; and the defendants thereupon moved the court, “ 1st, to enter up judgment against them for no more costs than the sum of the verdict”; and, “ 2d, that no judgment be rendered against them on said…
1Opinion of the CourtGoldtit Waite, J.
—The principal question in this ease is, whether the act of 1839 (Clay’s Dig. 316, § 25) applies to an action brought on an attachment bond for wrongfully and vexatiously suing out an attachment. The statute is confined by its terms to “actions brought to recover damages for torts” ; and as the law of costs is penal (Clay’s Dig. 239, § 12), it must be strictly construed. For the appellant it is insisted, that the suit in the present case, though based upon a contract, is in reality an action to recover damages for a tort; and in one sense it certainly is, for no action could be sustained on…
2Cases cited2 opinions
- Ainsworth v. PartilloSupreme Court of Alabama · 1848
- Cummings v. EdmunsonSupreme Court of Alabama · 1837
3Cited by1 opinion
- McDaniel v. JohnstonSupreme Court of Alabama · 1895