Walker v. Gilbert

Mississippi Supreme Court
Walker v. Gilbert, 21 Miss. 693 (Miss. 1850)
Clayton

Walker v. Gilbert

Opinion of the Court

Mr. Justice Clayton

delivered the opinion of the court.

This was a supersedeas to an execution, issued, upon the ground, that the petitioner (Walker) was only surety in the note upon which the judgment was rendered, and that no affidavit had been made and filed by any person, that the principal had no property in the state, out of which the money could be made, as required by the act of 1837. The circuit court discharged the supersedeas upon motion, and the case thence comes to this court.

There are two statutes to be considered in the determination of this cause. The statute of 1822 exempts the property of any surety from execution, if the principal have property in the county, provided the surety make oath that he is only surety. This statute, from its import, relates exclusively to joint makers. Hutch. Code, 588.

The statute of 1837 provides for joint actions against drawers and indorsers of bills of exchange, or promissory notes, and directs that in issuing executions, the clerk shall indorse thereon the names of the drawers and indorsers, particularly specifying the first, second, and third indorsers. It farther provides, that execution shall not be levied on the property of any surety or indorser, unless affidavit be filed, that the principal has no property in the state, out of which the money can be made. Ib. 853.

The latter statute extends to cases not embraced by the former. There is no express repeal of it, nor is there any repeal by necessary implication. They may both well stand. If the act of 1837 have any bearing upon cases falling directly within the previous statute, it makes an affidavit necessary on the part of the plaintiff, that the principal has no property, only when the surety has first made affidavit of the fact of his *698suretyship. Such affidavit of suretyship is not necessary on the part of an indorser, because the law requires his relation and the order of his liability to be placed upon the record. But where the fact does not thus appear upon the record, as is the case in this instance, and in all suits against joint makers of promissory notes, the defendant is required to make affidavit that he is but surety, and until he does so, no affidavit is requisite from the plaintiff.

This was the construction properly placed upon the law by the court below.

As to the excess in the levy, that will be best shown by the sale. There is no such glaring excess as indicates a disposition to abuse the process, which can alone justify the interference of the court.

It is unnecessary to advert to the other points made in argument, farther than to remark, that after three injunctions and three appeals, in the same case, it could not be expected that the court would be very solicitous to seize on technical points, passed over unnoticed in all the former proceedings, in order to add farther delay already extended to ten years, since the rendition of the original judgment.

The judgment is affirmed.

Reference

Full Case Name
William F. Walker v. Samuel Gilbert
Status
Published
Syllabus
Before a joint maker of a note, against whom a judgment is rendered in conjunction with his co-maker, can, under the act of 1822, (Hutch. Code, 558,) prevent a levy of the execution upon his property, on the ground that he is a mere surety of his co-maker, and that his principal has property in the county, he must make oath that he is only surety; and this rule is not changed by the act of 1837, which forbids the creditor levying on the property of a surety or indorser, without having first made and filed an affidavit that the principal has no property in the state, out of which the money can be made. The latter act applies to the case where the fact of suretyship or relation of indorser, as required by the law, ife placed upon the execution ; but where the relation of surety or indorser does not so appear, the act of 1822 is in full force. It is therefore no foundation for a supersedeas of an execution against one, who, being a defendant in a joint judgment, alleges himself to be a mere surety therein, that the creditor has levied it on his property without having made the required affidavit that the principal had no property in the state. He should have first filed his own affidavit that he was a surety ; without which no affidavit could be required from the plaintiff. To justify the circuit court in superseding a levy and sale under execution, on the ground of the levy being excessive, the excess must be so glaring as to indicate a disposition to abuse the process of the court; a levy upon six slaves under an execution for $900, with ten years of interest due, is not of that character.