Attachment does not create a lien or priority; the Official Assignee takes the insolvent property free of the attaching creditor's claim.

A prior attachment by a judgment-creditor did not create any title, charge, or lien in the attached property, because attachment only restrains alienation and does not confer proprietary rights. The court distinguished earlier authority treating first attachment as a source of priority and held that the governing insolvency and execution scheme instead contemplated rateable distribution, not an absolute preference for the first attaching creditor. Accordingly, the Official Assignee, representing the insolvent estate and creditors generally, took the property free from any claimed priority based solely on prior attachment.

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Issues: Whether a judgment-creditor who had attached the debtor's property before the insolvency vesting order acquired any charge, lien, or priority over the Official Assignee in respect of the attached property.

Analysis: The attachment was held not to create any title, charge, or lien in favour of the judgment-creditor. The governing rule was taken to be that attachment merely restrains alienation and does not confer proprietary rights. The earlier view treating the first attachment as conferring priority was distinguished, and the later statutory scheme was treated as materially different because the present Code provided for rateable distribution among decree-holders rather than an absolute preference for the first attaching creditor. On that footing, the Official Assignee, representing the insolvent estate and the creditors generally, was entitled to take the property free from any claimed priority based merely on prior attachment.

Conclusion: The judgment-creditor had no priority over the Official Assignee in respect of the property attached before the vesting order.

Final Conclusion: Prior attachment by a judgment-creditor did not defeat the Official Assignee's claim, and the attached property remained available for administration in insolvency without giving the attaching creditor a preferential right.

Ratio Decidendi: An attachment, by itself, does not create a charge or lien on the property attached, and under the governing insolvency and execution scheme no priority can be claimed against the Official Assignee merely on the basis of such attachment.

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