Black v. Burton
Black v. Burton
Opinion of the Court
It does not distinctly appear on what ground the Judge sustained this demurrer. If the judgment is not dormant, a scire facias is not necessary, and if the judgment is satisfied, it cannot be revived. The judgment may, therefore, be sustained, if the judgment be not dormant, or if it be satisfied. I am satisfied with the opinion delivered by me in Battle 'vs. Shivers. I adhere to the idea I then insisted on. The dormant judgment law is not a statute of limitations, and was not suspended by the various Acts suspending the statutes of limitations during the late war. This judgment was, therefore, dormant, and if not satisfied, the scire facias was not demurrable. Was it a satisfied judgment? I think not. If the Act of 1856 is to be understood as providing that judgments left seven years without an entry are, as against the defendant, satisfied, and cannot be revived at all, (of which I am not very clear,) then I think it may very fairly be called a statute of limitations, and if so, it was, without doubt, suspended by the suspending Acts. I do not propose, at present, to discuss the question whether the Act of 1856 was intended to provide that, after seven years without any entry, a judgment ceased to exist, and could not be sued on or revived. The Act of 1822 used almost the same words, yet the Legislature of 1823 declared that the Act of 1822 was only a dormant judgment Act. As, however, if such is the effect of the Act of 1856, it is, in my judgment, a statute of limitations, and was suspended by the suspending Acts, it follows that this judgment was not, under the operation of the Act of 1856, satisfied. I conclude, therefore, first, that this judgment is not satisfied, and that it is dormant. It was, there-, fore, error for the Judge to sustain the demurrer.
It was contended, in the argument, that thesé positions are inconsistent with each other; that if the Act of 1856 was not suspended, the judgment is satisfied, and that if it was suspended, it is not dormant. And the language used by me in declaring that'the suspension of the Act of 1856 revived the
True, as the Act of 1856 provided the judgment should become a dead judgment in seven years, the Act of 1823, whilst the Act of 1856 was of force, was inoperative, not because it was repealed, but because the evils it was intended to prevent could not arise. If a judgment was satisfied in seven years, without an entry, purchasers and creditors were protected by it, as well as the defendant, and they had no call for the protection of the Act of 1823. But when the Act of 1856 was suspended, all the evils which the Act of 1823 protected creditors and purchasers from, came again into existence, and the Act again operated. It was not the revival of another statute of limitations. Whilst the Act of 1856 operated, the dangers coming to purchasers and creditors from judgments, kept open without notice of their subsistence, did not exist, for if these entries were not made, the judgment died. But when %the Act of 1856 was suspended," and the judgment stood as a good judgment without the entries, the question of whether it kept its lien without the proper entries, was a very important one. to purchasers and other creditors, and there was nothing in the suspension of the Act, providing for the presumption of satisfaction against the debtor, which affected or ought to effect other creditors or purchasers. The Legislature might
The Act of 1823 was never repealed by the Act of 1856. The Act of 1§56 simply operated so as to protect purchasers and creditors, just as well as did the Act of 1823. But it (the Act of 1856) operated between the plaintiff and defendant. When it (the Act of 1856) was suspended, the younger creditor and purchaser had still, as they always had, the Act of 1823 for their protection. Even, therefore, if the Act of 1856 was suspended, the Act of 1823 was still in operation.
Judgment reversed.
Concurring Opinion
concurred, from the bench, as follows. He furnished no other opinion:
Were the questions involved in this case res integra, I might have some difficulty in coming to the same conclusion with Judge McCay ; but this Court has, at least, twice settled the principle involved, after elaborate argument by the best legal talent of the State. On those decisions the title to a vast amount of property in Georgia now rests. To overrule them would create a flood of litigation, and make inndcent purchasers pay stale demands against their vendors, of which they never heard. It is time that the law affecting titles to property in Georgia was settled, and that it should not be liable to change with every change in the organization of this Court.
Dissenting Opinion
dissenting.
The judgment was not dormant, under the laws of this State, and there was do necessity for its revival by scire facias, and for that reason, the judgment of the Court below should be affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- William A. Black, in error v. Robert Burton, in error
- Status
- Published