Lathem & Sons v. Stringer
Lathem & Sons v. Stringer
Opinion of the Court
W. A. Lathem & Sons caused two justice-court fi. fas., issued on January 11, 1914, to be levied on certain crops of D. W. Lollis, and these crops were sold by the constable on December 5, 1914. On January 1, 1915, J. J. Stringer foreclosed a landlord’s special lien, claiming a lien in the sum of $272.15, with interest from September 15, 1914, upon the crops alleged to have been raised by Lollis on land rented from him for the year 1914, and that the debt was for supplies furnished Lollis by the deponent as landlord, to aid in making the crop. This foreclosed landlord’s lien was then placed in the hands of the levying officer, who still had possession of the proceeds of the sale under the justice-court executions. Lathem & Sons brought a rule against the officer, to require him to apply the funds in his hands in satisfaction of their executions, and upon the issue made on the rule in the justice’s court, on the trial upon appeal, the jury awarded the fund to Stringer. The case was carried by certiorari to the superior court, where the finding of the jury was sustained and the certiorari overruled.
It is insisted before us that as Stringer “failed to foreclose his lien until after the sale of the property, and until after the time when the money arising from the sale thereof should have been applied to the fi. fas. of Lathem & Sons, he is precluded thereby;” and that under the evidence submitted Stringer failed to show that the property levied upon was subject to his lien. Taking these propositions in reverse order, it is enough to say, as to the proof, that Stringer’s foreclosure was not contested, nor were the facts provided by law, and, in the absence of a counter-affidavit, the foreclosure was final process, which was no more subject to collateral stated in his affidavit or in the foreclosure controverted or denied as
Upon the point that Stringer could not foreclose his lien after the property upon which a lien was claimed had been sold under a levy, and that the property itself could not be subjected to levy, the judge of the superior court ruled correctly. Nothing is better settled than that property which has by levy been taken into the possession of the levying officer is in custodia legis, and therefore not subject to another levy. Mr. Freeman, in his work on Executions (volume 2, § 268), in treating of the effect of a levy upon property, says, upon authority, that “the moment that a levy is made, the rights and remedies of the officer are materially changed; or, more accurately speaking, he, from that moment, is vested with rights and entitled to remedies to which he could before urge no valid claim. . . The officer is entitled to retain such possession and control of the property as may be necessary to make it productive under the writ. The law therefore concedes to him, as to a bailee, a special property in the goods in his custody.” And in the same section the author says that another consequence of taking property under an execution is that it is put in custody of the law and can not be levied upon by any officer. In support of these propositions he cites Burkett v. Bird, 3 Dana, 213; Rives v. Welborn, 6 Ala. 45; Kemp v. Porter, 7 Ala. 138; Hartwell v. Bissell, 17 Johns. 128; Bilby v. Hartman, 29 Mo. App. 125, and other cases. That property seized by an officer of the court by virtue of its processes is in the custody of the court is also ruled by Mr. Justice Matthews in Covell v. Heyman, 111 U. S. 176 (4 Sup. Ct. 355, 28 L. ed. 390). And in Camp v. Williams, 119 Ga. 152 (46 S. E.
Nothing ruled in this case in any wise conflicts with what was ruled in Redwine v. Jarrell, 14 Ga. App. 294 (80 S. E. 728). The case at bar is differentiated from that case so far as that case related to laborer’s liens, in that the priority of the lien of a laborer (as it may affect persons without notice) is flxed by the date of its levy, whereas the special lien of a landlord for supplies, such as is involved in the case sub judice, attaches, by operation of law, from the date when the supplies necessary to make the crop are furnished.
In this State landlords are favorites of the law, in that the lien created in their favor for supplies furnished to aid in making crops is accorded by law a priority over outstanding common-law judgments which (but for the adoption of this wise policy in the promotion of agriculture, without which a large majority of the tenants and croppers in this State perhaps would be unable during a large portion of the year to procure even the necessaries of life) would, under ordinary rules, and according to precedence in date, be superior to them. Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.