Harlan F. Stone

“ In creating federal land banks as government instrumentalities, but with many of the purposes and activities of private corporations, in exempting them alone from taxation, and at the same time subjecting them, like jointstock land banks, to suit 'as fully as natural persons,' Congress cannot be thought to have intended that either class of banks should be immune from attachment, and their judgment creditors relegated to a receivership, allowed as a matter of grace, as the sole means of collecting their judgments. ”

“ The ruling of the state Supreme Court, that petitioner is a foreign corporation within the meaning of the Arkansas attachment statute, and that the attachment was authorized by local law, presents only a state question, which is not open for review here. The sole question for our consideration is whether the petitioner is exempt from attachment because it is a federal agency or instrumentality which Congress has not expressly subjected to judicial process. ”

“ Had it been intended otherwise, it would seem to have been at least equally necessary to provide specifically for immunity from attachment and levy, as was done in section 10 of the Federal Railroad Control Act of 1918, c. 25, 40 Stat. 451, 456, which subjected rail carriers under federal control to liability to suit. Immunity of corporate government agencies from suit and judicial process, and their incidents, is less readily implied than immunity from taxation. ”