Pence v. Cochran
Opinion of the Court
From the report of the register it appears that on the twenty-fourth day of November, 1874, the commissioners of Brown county, Ohio, recovered, in the court of common pleas of Brown county, a judgment against Reece Jennings, the bankrupt, and 18 others, for $22,620.12. It further appears that, at the time of the rendition of said judgment, Reece Jennings was .the owner of two separate tracts of land situate in said county of Brown; that afterwards, to-wit, on the twenty-third day of November, 1875, the commissioners caused execution to be issued upon said judgment, which was levied upon one tract of said land only; that on the thirteenth day of June, 1877, James H. Dunn recovered in the common pleas court of Brown county, Ohio, a judgment against the said Reece Jennings for the sum of $1,-185.05; that Reece Jennings, on the twenty-fourth day of August, 1877, in pursuance of a contract entered into on the seventeenth day of May, 1877, conveyed to Louisa Kaeble, in consideration of the sum of $2,257, the tract of land which was levied upon by virtue of the execution issued on the judgment in favor of said commissioners; that on the twentieth day of October, 1877, R. C. Moore recovered, in the court of common pleas of Brown county, Ohio, a judgment against the said Reece Jennings for the sum of $839.49. It further appears that the said Reece Jennings, on his own petition, was, on the fourteenth day of December, 1877, adjudicated a bankrupt. It further appears that no executions were issued upon the judgments in favor of James H. Dunn and R. C. Moore. It further appears that the execution-issued upon the judgment in favor of the commissioners of Brown county was also'levied upon the lands of 16 other defendants, but it does not appear that an appraisement of any of the lands was made, nor does it appear what was the value of the lands levied upon. By proceedings under orders of this court, the tract of land owned by the bankrupt, and not levied upon
The determination of this question involves the construction of the statutes of Ohio, declaring and regulating the liens of judgments, section 5375 of which provides that “such lands and tenements within the county where the judgment is entered shall be bound for the satisfaction thereof from the first day of the term at which judgment is rendered; but judgments by confession, and judgments rendered at the same term at which the action is commenced, shall bind such lands only from the day on which j udgments arc rendered; and all other lands, as well as goods and chattels, of the debtor shall be bound from the time they are seized in execution.” And section 5415 provides that “no judgment on which execution is not issued and levied before the expiration of one year next after its rendition shall operate as a lien on the estate of a debtor to the prejudice of any other bona fide creditor.” These are the two sections of the statute which boar directly upon the question in this case, and -which control its decision. The supreme court of the state has been several times called upon to construe and apjfiy them; and if we can ascertain the construction which they have given to them, and can apply that construction to the facts of this case, we must be governed by it. Bank of U. S. v. Longworth, 1 McLean, 35.
The first case in which these sections were construed is that of McCormack v. Alexander, 2 Ohio, 66, in which it was held by the court that judgment creditors who had not sued out and levied executions within one year from the date of their judgments lost their lien and preference as against sub
The second ease is that of Patton v. Sheriff of Pickaway Co. 2 Ohio, 396, in which it was held that when a levy is set aside parties stand in the same situation as if no levy had ever been made; and where such levy had been made within the year upon a senior judgment and set aside, it lost its lien as against a junior judgment which had been levied within the year.
The next case is that of Earnfit v. Winans, 3 Ohio, 135, in which it was held that the statute which restrained a levy upon the property of the surety until that of the principal was exhausted did not operate to preserve the lien of a judgment upon which execution had not been levied within the year, and a junior judgment upon which execution had been levied within the year was held to be the prior lien.
The next case is that of Shuee v. Ferguson, 8 Ohio, 136. From the statement of facts in that ease it appears that the Bank of the United States obtained a judgment against Fur-geson and others on January 8, 1822, in the circuit court of the United States for the district of Ohio, and on August 20, 1823, caused an execution to be levied on a quarter section of land of the defendant Ferguson, by the sale of which, on an older judgment, a surplus was produced. The Lebanon Banking Company obtained a judgment against Ferguson and others in August, 1823, but did not cause execution to be levied upon the land upon which the first execution was levied. Hansburger and Selley, in May, 1823, obtained judgment by attachment against Ferguson as a debtor of the Lebanon Bank, and also obtained an assignment of the judgment in favor of that bank against Ferguson, and on December 23, 1826, caused execution to be levied on the land in question. Thomas Shuee obtained a judgment against the same defendants' on December 24, 1825, and caused an execution to be levied upon the land in question on the twenty-third of December, 1826. I. Emlin obtained a judgment against the same' defendants on December 24, 1825, and caused an exe
“First, to take a case out of the operation of the seventeenth section, (now 5415,) a levy must have been made on the property in question within a year after the rendition of the judgment. A levy on other «property, though within the year, will not save the lien as to the property not levied upon. Second, if there are several judgments, and the property in question has not been levied upon within the year under either of them, they stand on an equal footing, and the judgment creditor who first takes out execution and causes a levy to be made will have the preference. Third, if execution on an older judgment has not been levied upon a particular piece of property within the year, and an execution upon a junior judgment has been levied upon that property within the year, the junior judgment must have the preference, although a levy may have been made on the same property under the older judgment before the levy was made on the junior judgment. °The lien of the junior judgment on all the property not levied upon under the older judgment within the year must continue from one year from its date to the exclusion of the older judgment, provided the junior judgment was rendered before the levy was made on the older judgment. A levy on the older judgment, though after the year, if made before the date of the junior judgment, will have the preference.”
The' principle of the latter cases applies to this. A levy was made under the judgment in favor of Brown county, within a year from its rendition, upon a part of the lands of the judgment debtor, but not upon the lands in controversy. The judgments in favor of Jamos H. Dunn and E. 0. Moore were rendered more than one year after that of Brown county. Under neither of these judgments was a levy made, but before the expiration of the year from their rendition the-defendant judgment debtor was adjudicated a bankrupt, and his estate passed into the hands of an assignee; and the
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Pence, Assignee, etc. v. Cochran and others
- Status
- Published