It is held contra that a safe deposit com pany may be garnished for the contents of a sealed package in the box of a customer al though it is ignorant of the contents, if the statute provides a method by which the court can ascertain such contents; Tillinghast v. Johnson, 34 R. I. 136, 82 AU. 788.
The property in the safe may be seized under a direct attachment; U. S. v. Graff, 67 Barb. (N. Y.) 304; Roberts v. Deposit Co., 123 N. Y. 57, 25 N. E. 294, 9 L. R. A. 438, 20 Am. St. Rep. 718. The officer may be directed in the order of attachment to open the safe, and the company's officers may be required to give such assistance as will not lead to a breach of trust ; 9 Harv. L Rev. 139. It has been held that an officer may force the door of a warehouse if refused admittance by those in charge of it ; Burton v. Wilkinson, 18 Vt. 186, 46 Am. Dec. 145; and in the case of a safe deposit company the officers and representatives of the company were not al lowed to be present at the time of the open ing of the safe by the sheriff ; U. S. v. Graff, 67 Barb. (N. Y.) 304.
In case of a joint rental of a safe by two or more persons, they were treated as co tenants pf real estate, and a renewal of the lease obtained by one pf the renters in his own name was held to inure to the benefit of the co-tenants; Hackett v. Patterson, 16
N. Y. Supp. 170. Where one co-tenant ab stracted, without authority, a stock certifi cate and transferred it to an innocent pur chaser for value, it was held that it had not been intrusted to the possession of the wrong doer either directly or by implication, and he was not authorized to remove it from the box and the transfer passed no title ; Bangor Electric Light & P. Co. v. Robinson, 52 Fed. 520.
A state may regulate the incidents of dis tribution of property within the state belong ing to decedents and prescribe times and con ditions for delivery thereof by safe deposit companies ; and a statute operating to seal safe deposit boxes for a reasonable period after the death of the renter, is not unconl stitutional ; nor can a surviving joint renter of such box object, the statute having been in force when the contract was made; Nat. Safe Dep. Co. v. Stead, Atty.-Gen. of Ill., 232 U. S. 58, 34 Sup. Ct. 209, 58 L. Ed. —, af firming 250 Ill. 584, 95 N. E. 973, Ann. Cas. 1912B, 430.