Lehigh & New England Railroad v. Hanhauser
Lehigh & New England Railroad v. Hanhauser
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
If the appellant be entitled to the relief prayed for in its bill, the court below was not the place to go for it. On March 22, 1887, James Clarke recovered a judgment in the court of common pleas No. 3 of Philadelphia county against the Penn
The cloud which the appellant alleges rests upon its title to property in Northampton county, and which it would have removed therefrom, is a judgment entered in one of the courts of Philadelphia county against the Pennsylvania & New England Railroad Company and five terre-tenants. That judgment was not taken against the appellant as a terre-tenant, but, even if it had been, it would not be a lien against any of its property outside of Philadelphia county. As no property outside of that county is affected by the entry of the judgment there, it cannot rest as a cloud upon any property of the appellant in Northampton county; and if it should be transferred to that county under the Act of April 16,1840, P. L. 410, its court of common pleas would have no right to inquire into the validity, merits or effect thereof: King v. Nimick et al., 34 Pa. 297. One court cannot modify, disregard or set aside the judgment of any other court of co-ordinate jurisdiction : Doyle v. Commonwealth, 107 Pa. 20. A judgment entered on an exemplification of the record does not become a judgment in the common interpretation of the word in the county to which it is transferred. The judgment on the exemplification is but the record evidence of the existence of the judgment in the county in which it was obtained, and the court to which it is transferred has no power over it save for lien and execution and cannot inquire into its validity or make orders affecting its operation. All inquiries into the effect of a judgment as establishing the rights of a plaintiff under it must be made to the oourt that pronounced it: Nelson v. Guffey, 131 Pa. 273.
One of the contentions of the appellant is that the situs of the property controls the question of jurisdiction in this case. As jurisdiction over those holding the judgment may be obtained by a proceeding in equity in Philadelphia county, the location of the property in Northampton county is immaterial: Schmaltz v. York Mfg. Co., 204 Pa. 1; Clark v. Clark, 180 Pa. 186; Clad v. Paist, 181 Pa. 148; Kendall v. Coke Co., 182 Pa. 1.
The decree of the court below is affirmed at appellant’s costs.
Reference
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- Lehigh & New England Railroad Company v. Hanhauser
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- Judgment — Railroads—Contractor—Resolution of January 21, 1843, P. L. 367, Act of April 4, 1862, P. L. 235. Where a judgment has been entered by a contractor against a railroad company, and various other railroad companies have been brought in as terre-tenants under scire facias proceedings under the act of April 4, 1862, the court of common pleas of another county sitting as a court of equity has no jurisdiction to entertain a bill in equity filed by a railroad company, successor of the terre-tenants, averring that such judgment was a cloud upon the complainant's title in the county where the bill is filed, and praying that such judgment be decreed to be not a lien upon complainant’s property in the court in which the bill is filled, and for an injunction to restrain the holders of the judgment from making, or causing to be made, by virtue of it, any levy upon said property. In such a ease the situs of the property in no way controls the question of jurisdiction. A judgment in one county is not a lien against property in a second county; if the judgment is transferred to the second county the courts thereof have no jurisdiction to question its validity; and if a testatum fi. fa. issues from the court of the first county to the sheriff of the second county, the courts of the latter county have no control thereof.