Sublette

By the Court,

Andrew W. Sublette, the late sheriff of said court, institutes this action against Alfred Melhado, a debtor to George S. Wardle and Thomas Wardle, against wdiom process of attachment had been issued in favor of Robert S. Swanston and Henry S. Taylor. The action is based upon the supposed rights of the sheriff, by virtue of the service of the attachment upon the property and effects of the defendants in the attachment, and that, by virtue of such service, he became the assignee of the Wardles, and thus had the right to recover in bis own name an outstanding unnegotiable demand. The process of attachment, and its auxiliary process of commitment, are generally regulated by statute ; and it is believed, by no statute in any country, is the sheriff made, by virtue of sucb process, an assignee of a failing or bankrupt debtor. It is evident, then, that Sublette had not the right of property in the debt, and could not maintain an action in his own name for the recovery of such a debt. If the appellant had been an assignee, having the legal interest, as seems to have been understood by all of the parties from the commencement of these proceedings, then the points made by bis…