ATTACHMENT (Fr. attachement, from a Lat. ad, to Bret. tech, Engl. tack, a nail). The legal process under which a sheriff or like officer takes a person or property into custody; or the proceeding under the process. An attach ment against the person was used most fre quently, either to compel the appearance of a defendant in an action, or to secure the attend ance of a delinquent witness or juror, or to bring before a court one guilty of contempt. It. was, and still is, employed in England as a process for the enforcement of decrees or orders in equity. It was rarely so used in common-law actions, because a judgment creditor who re sorted to it forfeited his right to go against the debtor's property. In this country the seizure of the person of a debtor in a civil action is made generally under an order of arrest (q.v.), or an execution (q.v.) against the person. At tachment of the person for contempt of court is common, however, in this country.
The attachment of property is regulated by statute. It is not accorded to the creditor in an ordinary action for the recovery of a debt. To entitle him to this process he must show, generally, that the debtor is a non-resident of the State in which he asks for the process, or has left it with intent to defraud his creditor, or conceals himself or his property with like in tent, or that he has removed, or is about to re move, from the State in order to defraud his creditors. In such eases the property is to be
attached and taken into the custody of the law, so that it may be applied to the plaintiff's claim, if that is subsequently reduced to a judg ment. An attachment is looked upon by our courts as a harsh and extraordinary remedy, one not known to the common law, and as a rule they are disposed to put a strict construction upon the statutes which authorize it. In admi ralty, a vessel or other property against which a suit in rem has been instituted may' be at tached when the circumstances would not war rant an attachment in a State court. An attachment is spoken of as domestic, when it is employed against the property of a resident of the State in which it issues; as foreign, when the owner of the property seized is a non-resi dent, who evades the personal service of a sum mons in the action. Consult; Drake, Treatise on the Law of suits by Attachment in the United States (Boston, 1891), and the works referred to under the titles ARREST; EXECUTION ; FOREIGN ATTACHMENT.