United States v. Sturgis
United States v. Sturgis
Opinion of the Court
A judgment having been recovered in the above action in favor of the plaintiff, and a writ of error having been
In the case of Meyers v. Tyson, 13 Blatchf. 242, it was held that the court had no power to make such an order. But that was the case of a decree in equity, and not of a judgment in a common-law action.
Prom the opinion in the case of Masingill v. Downs, 7 How. 760, and the review of the authorities therein, it seems that the lien of the judgment upon the lands of the judgment debtor, in the absence of any express statute of the United States creating such a lien, is sustained as a necessary incident of the right to issue execution and sell lands thereunder, in accordance with the laws and the practice of the several states, and the various statutes of the United States adopting those laws, and the process and modes of proceedings in the several states.
In Wayman v. Southard, 10 Wheat. 32, Marshall, C. J., says that the phrase “forms and modes of proceedings” in the act of 1792, the same phrase which is used in section 914 of the Revised Statutes, is designedly used in distinction from the words “writs, executions, and other process;” and that it “embraces the whole progress of the suit, and every transaction in it, from its commencement to its termination, which has already been shown not to take place till the judgment shall be satisfied.” See, also, Beers v. Haughton, 9 Pet. 359, and Ex parte Boyd, 105 U. S. 647.
When, therefore, by sections 914, 915, and 916 of the Revised Statutes, it is provided that the practice, pleadings, “the forms and modes of proceedings” in common-law actions, the remedies by attachment or other process as well as “the remedies by execution or otherwise, upon judgments in common-law actions, shall be the same as are now provided in like causes by the laws of the state in which the court is held, or by such laws hereinafter enacted which may be
In December, 1881, this court and the circuit court, by general rules, adopted all the provisions of the state practice and of the Code of Procedure in existence on that date, so far as the same might be applicable in common-law actions to remedies or judgments, and they thereupon became the law of this court. 19 Blatchf. 573; Beers v. Haughton, 9 Pet. 360; Bank of U. S. v. Halsted, 10 Wheat. 51, 61.
The present application is in pursuance of section 1256 of the New York Code as then existing. The relief provided by this section is of great practical benefit. Without it, judgments during appeal, though fully secured, are liable to become oppressive embarrassments in transactions in real estate. The remedy has been carefully matured in the state practice, so as to guard against abuses, by the experience of many years, and by legislative amendments. The order seems to me to be within the power of this court to grant, under the statutes and rules above referred to; and, being consented to, it should, therefore, be granted.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- United States v. Sturgis and another
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