United States Supreme Court Cases & Opinions

U.S. Supreme Court

Lammon v. Feusier, 111 U.S. 17 (1884)

Lammon v. Feusier

Submitted January 10, 1884

Decided March 17, 1884

111 U.S. 17

Syllabus

The taking, by a marshal of the United States, upon a writ of attachment on mesne process against one person, of the goods of another is a breach of the condition of his official bond, for which his sureties are liable.

The original action was brought in the Circuit Court of the United States for the District of Nevada by Henry Feusier, a citizen of California, against George I. Lammon and three other persons, citizens of Nevada, upon a bond given by Lammon, the marshal of the United States for that district, as principal, and by the other defendants as his sureties, and conditioned that Lammon, "by himself and by his deputies, shall faithfully perform all the duties of the said office of marshal."

Page 111 U. S. 18

It was alleged in the declaration and found by the court (trial by jury having been duly waived) that Lammon, while marshal and while the bond was in force, having in his hands a writ of attachment on mesne process against the property of one E. D. Feusier, levied it upon the goods of the plaintiff, a stranger to the writ. On the question of law whether the taking of the plaintiff's property upon a writ of attachment against another person constituted a breach of official duty on Lammon's part for which his sureties were liable, the circuit judge and the district judge were opposed in opinion, and so certified. The plaintiff having died pending the suit, final judgment was rendered for his executors in accordance with the opinion of the circuit judge, and the defendants sued out this writ of error.