Wright's Lessee v. Cannon
Wright's Lessee v. Cannon
Opinion of the Court
The judgment of the Common Pleas was reversed unanimously, and the judgment obtained by Wright on which the sheriff sold to him held to be a lien on the lands of
Having opened the argument, and being much exhausted by the heat of the day, I could not take the arguments of other counsel but will subjoin extracts from my own notes.
Wilson. The arguments on this record may possibly be directed to’two points: whether the plaintiff’s judgment was a lien upon the lands, for, if it was, he has the title; and whether defendant’s deed has relation to the day of sale by administrators, for, if it has not, then plaintiff must recover upon a supposition that the lands vested only as chattels in the administrators and were bound only from the delivery of the fieri facias for residue.
The first question divides itself into two: first, whether lands can be taken in execution under a judgment against administrators; secondly, whether such judgment was a lien, or the delivery of the execution the lien.
That real property in the defendant’s hands is bound by a judgment against him from the first day of the term, except as to purchasers for valuable consideration, and then from the date, sufficiently appears from practice, 3 Bl.Comm. 420, 2 Bac. Abr. 363,1 Dali. 451, under the laws of England and also from the constant exception, in all the fee laws enacted these fifty years, of poundage to sheriffs upon prior judgments. When the debtor is dead, the heir is, in England, chargeable as to his inheritance for obligations in which he is named. This method is rarely pursued in Delaware, because the heir cannot withhold the lands from executor or administrator, who can sell them from him, and is never without assets while the lands remain. The Orphans’ Court are to see that the personal estate is first applied, but the lands are also assets. It appears by old Acts of Assembly, 1 Body Laws 49, 116, 79, that lands were formerly appraised and held as liable as chattels to be sold. Nor does the Act for taking lands in execution exclude the case of judgments against executors or administrators, and the executions in such cases are uniformly, as in other cases, against goods and chattels, lands and tenements. This usage has not been legally immemorial, 2 Bl.Comm., yet like the private examinations of femes coverts by justices, [1] Dali. 14, or common recoveries in England, too many titles depend on it to be shaken. So there is no law for slavery in this state, [1] Dali. 167, 132, 133, yet it is legal. Nor can the practice be termed "unreasonable because lands vest in the heir; for that may be the case, he may “have a fixed right of enjoy
The rule is that the several parts and ceremonies of a conveyance shall relate to the most substantial or principal part, 4 Burr. 1962, 5 Burr. 2787. Admittance to surrender. Livery to feoffment etc. This sale was a paroi agreement and within the Statute of Frauds, 1 Esp.N.P. 12, 5 Burr. 2639. Its being in pursuance of an order of Orphans’ Court is only like an interlocutory order, and not like a decree, and does not take it out of the Statute, Pow.Con. 272, 273, and, therefore, is ineffectual without the deed, which is the substantial part.
This is a reference to the rare volume of 1793-1795 Session Laws.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.