General Finance Co. v. Powell Et Al‪.‬

Attachment ? Contract for "Direct Payment" of Money ? Definition ? Contract of Guaranty not One for Direct Payment ? Statutes and Statutory Construction. Attachment ? Liberal Construction of Statute. 1. The attachment law is of purely statutory origin and like other statutes, must be liberally construed to effect its objects. Statutes ? Construction ? Function of Courts. 2. In "construing" a statute, i.e., in ascertaining the intent of the legislature in enacting it, the court may not substitute its discretion for that of the legislature, but must decide the meaning of words used in the Act according to the context and the approved usage of the language. Attachment ? "Direct Payment" of Money ? Definition. 3. The word "direct" as used in section 9256, Revised Codes, declaring that attachment may issue in an action on a contract for the "direct payment" of money, denotes absence of any intervening agency, medium or influence, an unconditional and absolute obligation to pay money, and not a collateral agreement dependent or contingent upon some other agreement. Same ? Case at Bar ? Contract of Guaranty Held not One for Direct Payment of Money ? Dissolution of Attachment Held Proper. 4. A machinery company sold an air compressor to a mining company on a conditional sale contract and subsequently assigned the - Page 536 contract to a finance company with a guaranty of prompt payment of all sums due thereunder by the purchaser endorsed thereon. Payment not having been made, the assignee brought suit against the machinery company to recover on the contract of guaranty and caused the issuance of a writ of attachment. Held, that the contract of guaranty was not a contract for the direct payment of money, but one conditioned upon the purchasers default ? an event entirely problematical, and that therefore the district court acted properly in dissolving the attachment on motion.