Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 5.djvu/528

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516 EBDEEAL ,R|;;PpRTEB, �oply be made ayailab]e in this,. district by obtaining; a, jnàg ment b;9re, a§ the plaiutiflf . is seeking to do. , The decree will be conclusive eyidçnce» if there iB no objection made to the jurisdiotjon of the, court promqnneing it; but the defendant, Lewis, bas a r^gh^i-tp maketh^t4efence, 9,nd no personal judgnient can be; pronounped until.heis served with process. The property can ne ver be applie^ to the paynaent of the d^cree in CaliforniarnntU.it has been reduced to judgmentin this court. An-, assertion thai ^, thing is assets does not make it, so; nor. can.any prima facie sjiowing be so plain that a çpurt will be justifled^in^proceedipg to determine a man's case in the absence of duerBotice to him. �Probably ev^erything alieged in the, biU touahing the pro- ceedings in California is true, but the defendailt has a right tp, be heard upon that. , He has a right to insist that he be d^lly served with proeesa, and. then he has a right to answer and deny the. allegations of the bill. To proceed, after he has objectedhia non-reaidence, and.the service on him outof this district, would be §, plain case of usurpation,, as it seems to me, unless the faot that there is property here subject to the jurisdiction of, this cqurt justifies further proceedings. Such justification must be found, if at ail, in section 738 of the Eevised Statntes of the United States. That section pro- vides: "When any defendant in a suit in equity to enforce any legal or equitable lien or claim against rçal or personal property within the district where the suit is brought, is not an inhabitant of nor found within said district, and does not voluntarily appear thereto, it shall be lawful for the court to make an order directing such absent defendant to appear," etc. Upon proof of the service of the order the court is authorized to proceed to the hearing and adjudication of the suit, to affect the property of the absent defendant in the dis- trict only. �In my judgment this section was only intended to reach those suits in equity in which it was sought to enforce some pre-existing lien or claim, legal or equitable, upon or to some specifie property, real or personal, and not cases in which it is sought to reach and appropriate the general property of a ����