ATTACHMENT is an English legal term, signifying the form of process by the authority of which the person or the goods of a debtor may be seized in satisfaction. As a proceeding against the person, it is a species of criminal process, and has the force of much that will be found under Apprehend (q.v.). but in strictness, it means a pro cess issuing from a court of record against a person guilty of a contempt, or, more properly, of a judicial contempt, and who is punishable in a summary manner by the court in whose presence, against whose authority, or against whose writs the contempt has been overtly displayed. Thus, in Hawkins's Pleas of the Crown, such contempts are thus classed: 1. Disobedience to the queen's writs; 2. Contempts in the face of a court; 3. Contemptuous words or writings concerning a court; 4. Refusing to comply with the rules and awards of a court; and 5. Forgery of writs, or any other deceit tending to impose on a court. Parties are also liable to the process of A. as for a contempt of court where, in an arbitration (see ARBITRATION) the award having been made a rule of court under the 9 and 10 Will. III. c. 15, the parties refuse to obey the same. In Chan cery, there may be A. of the person for judicial default or other offense to the court, as. for example, where a defendant fails to put in his answer or proper plea to the plaintiff's bill of complaint. The only other process of A. against the person which it is necessary
here to notice, is the non-attendance in court of witness, who in such event is con sidered to have committed a contempt of court, and to be liable to be punished for such contempt by attachment. An action may also be brought against such defaulting wit ness at the suit of the aggrieved party, on account of any loss or damage occasioned by the non-attendance.
The proceeding by A. of goods resembles in some respects the Scotch diligence or process of arrestment. See ARRESTMENT. The best illustration we can give of it, in this sense, is that relating to the power of a judgment creditor to recover under his judg ment. By the 17 and 18 Viet. c. 125, it is provided that the judgment creditor may apply to the court or a judge fol a rule or order to have the debtor orally examined as to the debts owing to him by any third party or garnishee, as he is called (see GAR NrsrrEE), and also for an order that all such garnishee debts be attached to answer the judgment debt, the service of which order has the effect of binding or attaching the debts In the garnishee's hands.