Samuel Freeman Miller

“ If Johnson, as an individual, had owed the debt to Fairfax, it is probable that the notice served on him would have been sufficient.
But an incorporated city is not an individual, and service of notice or process on one of its citizens is not service on it. It has its officers, who speak and act for it by authority of law; and some one of these officers, either by an express statutory provision, or by the nature of their functions, is the proper person on whom all notices and processes necessary to bind it by judicial proceedings must be served. ”

“ It would seem to be reasonable that in proceedings in rem to confiscate property in the absence of its owner, where the seizure of it is a sine qua non to the jurisdiction of the court, and where, as in the present case, actual manucaption is impossible, the evidence which supports a constructive seizure should be scrutinized as closely, and be of a character as satisfactory, as that which would subject the party holding the fund or owing the debt which is the object of the proceedings to an ordinary civil suit in the same court. ”

“ It appears from these bonds or certificates of debt that there was a mayor of the city. On him, if in the city, the law required service to be made. There is no return that he was absent, nor is any reason given why service was not made on him. There were, as it appears, a council, and a president of that council, and he is specially named in the statute as an officer on whom service may be made. No reason is given why service was not made on him. ”