ATTACHMENT (from the corrupt Lat. at. tachiare ; Fr. attacher, to tie or fasten), in the com mon law of England, signifies the taking or 'appre hending a person or thing, by a writ or precept is suing on commandment of a court.
Attachment differs from arrest : for in arrest, the person apprehended is carried before a person of higher authority to be disposed of; whereas, he who attaches another, keeps and presents him in court on the day assigned, according to the terms of the writ: prceeipInnis tibi quod attachias talem, et habeas cam coram nobis, &c. There is also this other difference between an arrest and an attachment : the former is made only upon the body of a man; the latter fre quently upon his goods.
Attachment is also a mode of punishing contempts, immemorially used by the superior courts of justice. Contempts, thus punishable, are either direct or con sequential. The following are the principal instances of kind : 1. Those committed by inferior judges and magistrates, by acting unjustly, oppres sively, or irregularly, in the administration of justice ; or by disobeying the king's writs issuing out of the superior courts. 2. Those committed by sheriffs, bailiffs, gaolers, and other officers of the court, by abusing the process of the law, or deceiving the par ties, by acts of oppression, extortion, collusion, or culpable neglect of duty. 3. Those committed by attornies and solicitors, who are also officers of the respective courts, by any species of dishonest prac tice. 4. Those committed by jurymen, in collateral matters relating to the discharge of their office; such as making default when 'summoned, refusing to be sworn, or to give any .verdict ; eating and drinking. without the leave of the court, &c. but not in the mere exercise of their judicial powers; as by giving a false or erroneous verdict. 6. Those committed by witnesses, by making default when summoned, refusing to be sworn or examined, or prevaricating in their evidence when sworn. 6. Those committed by the parties to any suit ; as by disobeying any rule or order made in the progress of a cause, by non payment of costs awarded by the court, or by non observance of awards duly made by arbitrators or umpires. 7. Those committed by any other persons,
under the degree of a peer, and even by peers them selves, when enormous and accompanied with violence, such as forcible rescuos and the like; or when they import a disobedience to the king's great prerogative writs, of prohibition, habeas corpus, &c.
The process of attachment for these and the like must necessarily be as ancient as the laws themselves: for it is obvious, that all laws would be vain and nugatory, without a competent authority vested in the courts, to secure their administration from disobedience and contempt. Accordingly we find this process in use, as early as the annals of our law extend.
Should the contempt be committed in the face of the court, the offender may be instantly apprehended - and imprisoned, at the discretion of the judges, with out any further proof or examination. But in the case of contempts arising out of court, if the judges upon affidavit see sufficient grounds for suspecting that a contempt has been committed, they either make a rule on the suspected to spew cause why an attachment should not issue against him ; or, where the contempt has been very flagrant, the at tachment issues in the first instance ; as it does also, if no sufficient cause be shewn to discharge, and there upon the court confirms and makes absolute the ori ginal rule.
The attachnient is merely intended for bringing the offender into court. Thereafter, he either stands committed, or puts in bail, and is interrogated upon oath with respect to the circumstances of the con tempt. The interrogatories must be exhibited within the first four days. If the party clears himself, lie is discharged; but, if perjured, he may be prosecuted for the perjury. The mode of punishing contempts is by an arbitrary punishment, at the discretion of the court, according to the nature and magnitude of the offence.