cial certificate of the clerk of a court of records of the county of the justice's residence, stating that the justice is an acting justice of the peace of that county and that the signature to his certificate is genuine.1 Such certificate is also held to be sufficient if made by the successor of the justice who rendered the judgment. The statement as to the official character of the justice should have reference to the date of his proceedings thus authenticated. VI. PROOF OF RECORDS OF OFFICE Books. The records and exemplifications thereof of office books of public offices of the States and Territories, which do not pertain to any court, are provable and admissible in evidence in the several States, in virtue of the act of Congress of March 27, 1804, by attestation of the keeper of such records or books, with seal of his office annexed thereto, if a seal there be, together with a certificate of the presiding justice of the county or district in which the office is kept, or certificate of the governor, or secretary of State, or chancellor, or keeper of the seal of State, that the attestation is in due form and is by the proper officer. But if the certificate be that of a presiding justice, it must also be authenticated by certificate of the clerk or prothonotary of the court, under seal of his office, that such presiding judge is duly commissioned and qualified. And if the certificate is by the governor, secretary of State, chancellor, or keeper of the great seal of State, in such case it must be sealed with said seal.3 1 Iowa Code of 1873, § 3714; Revision of 1860, § 4059; Railroad Bank v. Evans, 32 Iowa, 202. 2 Railroad Bank v. Evans, 32 Iowa, 203. 32 U. S. Stat. at Large, 298, §§ 1, 2; R. S. of U. S. 2d Ed. § 906. Proceedings In Rem. Proceedings by writ of attachment against the property of non-resident and absent persons are authorized by law in most, if not all, of the States. Such proceedings being in rem are a means of subjecting the property, rights and credits of non-residents and absent debtors, or other non-resident or absent persons, against whom a right of action. exists, to the plaintiff's demand. The proceeding is against the property, rights and credits, and not the person, of the defendant debtor, and, therefore, no personal judgment can, ordinarily, be rendered against him. 1 Appearance of Defendant. If, however, the defendant appears in court to the action or proceeding, or is personally served with process within the territorial jurisdiction of the court, then the proceeding becomes also personal, and personal judgment may be rendered against him as in other cases, if a right to judgment be made out; but this does not prevent judgment of condemnation against the property attached, if proper cause is shown therefor. If no property is found and no personal service or appearance, the suit is at an end.4 1 Thompson v. Emmert, 4 McLean, 96; Lincoln v. Tower, 2 McLean, 473; Warren Manf. Co. v. Etna Ins. Co., 2 Paine, 502; Hendrick v. Brandon, 9 Iowa, 319; Courtney v. Carr, 6 Iowa, 238; Banta v. Wood, 32 Iowa, 469; Pennoyer v. Neff, 5 Otto, 714; Drake on Attachment, § 5. Toland v. Sprague, 12 Pet. 300; Irvine v. Lowry, 14 Pet. 293; Pollard v. Dwight, 4 Cr. 421; Hendrick . Brandon, 9 Iowa, 319. Toland v. Sprague, 12 Pet. 300; Cooper v. Smith, 25 Iowa, 269. Courtney v. Carr, 6 Iowa, 238. Attachment Levy. If goods and chattels, rights or credits, be levied on by virtue of the writ of attachment, they are thereby placed within the custody of the law to abide the event of the suit or attachment proceeding, and a lien thereon is created by the levy in favor of the plaintiff for the amount he may recover in the suit. If the levy be on real property, a like lien attaches to the title thereof, and although the right to possession thereof does not, by virtue of the levy, vest in the officer, as in levies on personalty, yet the title to such real estate is thereby placed in legal custody to abide the proceedings in the cause. Condemnation and Sale. And if condemnation thereof and order of sale be made, the same relates back in effect to the date of the levy, and title passes in case of sale as from the date of levy." Only the Property Levied On is Bound, if In Rem. Although in point of practice such proceedings vary in different jurisdictions according to the statutes of the several States, the particulars of which it is not our purpose in this treatise to give, yet one great principle is common to them all, that so far as the proceeding is in rem it binds only that property of defendant, which by levy of the process of the court, is placed within the custody of the law and is by subsequent judgment of condemnation and sale ordered by the court to be sold. 3 The Sale, if Regular Carries Title. But judgment of condemnation, and sale made thereunder by order of the court, of the property thus placed within its jurisdiction and the custody of the law, carries, if valid, the title and right of property, divesting it out of the defendant and vesting it in the purchaser, by operation of law, and is evidence of ownership and title. wherever brought in question, whether within or without the territorial limits of the State; for, although the proceeding cannot reach the person of the defendant, who has had no day in 1 Stiles v. Davis, 1 Black, 101; Hacker v. Stevens, 4 McL. 535; Kennedy v. Brent, 6 Cr. 187; Drake on Attachment, § 224. 2 Laird v. Dickerson, 40 Iowa, 665. Livingston v. Smith, 5 Pet. 89; Boyd v. Urquhart, 1 Sprague, 423; Westervelt v. Lewis, 2 McL. 511; Ricketts v. Henderson, 2 Cr. C. C. 157; Lincoln . Tower, 2 McL. 473; Warren Manf. Co. v. Etna Ins. Co., 2 Paine, 502; Miller v. Dungan, 36 N. J. Law, 21; Clymore v. Williams, 77 Ill. 618; Fitzsimmons v. Marks, 66 Barb. 333; Drake on Attachments, § 5. 4 * Moore v. Chicago, R. I. & P. R. R. Co., 43 Iowa, 385. court, it acts upon his title to the property, which, as an attribute thereof, is present in the jurisdiction where is found the property itself, and is in like manner, as is the property, subject to the local law and jurisdiction of the court. Thus, when proceedings are merely in rem, and the property proceeded against is within the State and jurisdiction of the court, and is so levied on or seized by the proper officer as to place the same in custody of the court and the law authorizing such procedure, and in accordance with such law, condemnation and sale is made of the property to satisfy ascertained liability or liabilities, then title thereto passes as against non-resident defendants as owners, although not made parties defendant by any personal service of process served within the State, and although no appearance be made in the cause, if such publication or other constructive service of notice be made or given within the State as the laws thereof in such cases require and recognize as suffi cient. 1 The Judgment in rem, will Not Sustain an Action Thereon. Although a judgment in such proceeding is not fully satisfied by a sale of the property attached, yet if it is exclusively in rem no action can be maintained or judgment in any suit be had thereon for what remains unpaid; but if brought in question as evidence, although in a different State, it is conclusive to prove what it purports to be, and has the same force and effect as in the State where rendered, if authenticated as the act of Congress in that respect directs. Personal Judgment Void. No personal judgment will be of any validity in such cases against a defendant to charge him personally within the same State, or elsewhere, or as a basis for process on which other property may be levied and sold.3 Nor will personal service or publication made on the defendant in a dif ferent State be of any validity as a basis for such personal judg ment, provided defendant does not appear; for State laws have no extra territorial force, and no such service or publication made in another State is of any validity whatever, but is simply void. 1 Pennoyer. Neff, 5 Otto, 714; Drake on Attachment, § 5. 2 Warren Manuf. Co. v. Etna Ins. Co., 2 Paine, 502; Lincoln v. Tower, 2 McL. 473; Thompson v. Emmert, 4 McL. 96; Boswell v. Dickerson, 4 McL. 262; Cooper v. Reynolds, 10 Thus, in a proceeding by foreign attachment in the courts of a State against the property therein of a citizen of another State, the proceeding being in rem, with publication of notice, the levy on the writ of attachment of personal property, though to the amount in value of the claim, or subsequently recovered judgment, does not work a satisfaction thereof. And if the defendant therein personally appears and makes defense, and personal judgment is thereupon rendered against him, such levy is no defense to an action at law on the judgment brought in another State, although it may not appear what disposition was made of the property which was levied on by the attachment in the original action.1 II. PROCESS OF GARNISHMENT. Creature of the Statute. Proceedings by garnishment, or trustee process, are proceedings in rem in the nature of an attachment, and are most usually resorted to in aid of the more ordinary attachment process. Like the attachment proceeding itself, they are the creature of the statute, only existing where provided for by statutory enactment, and then only to the extent and in the manner there by law allowed. They are designed to discover and subject the moneys, debts, and property of a debtor which may be in the hands of a third party, or may be owed by him to the debtor, to the process of attachment, in cases where the property may be unknown to the attaching officer as belonging to the debtor, and also, to divest the payment of moneys owing the defendant debtor and apply the same to the payment of the debt or liability due the attaching creditor by a means not within the reach of the usual process of attachment.2 These proceedings come within the scope of our inquiry only so far as regards the proceedings by foreign attachment. That is, First, where the plaintiff seeks to levy and sell by judicial authority in one State the property therein situated of a citizen or resident of another State, or to seize upon and so apply the rights and credits of such foreign resident or citizen found in the 1 Maxwell v. Stewart, 22 Wall. 77; S. C., 21 Wall. 71; Drake on Attachment, § 222. 2 Drake on Attachment, § 451 et seq. |