Fowler, Foster & Co. v. Wood
Fowler, Foster & Co. v. Wood
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
T. E. Moore, as assignee of Fowler, Foster & Co., sought by the summons below to renew an execution issued upon a judgment of the said Fowler, Foster & Co., obtained against B. T. Wood in 1869, the active energy of which execution had expired. The summons below was issued in 1882. Wood appeared and resisted the renewal upon the following grounds: 1st. He claimed that he had never been served with a writ in the case of Fowler, Foster & Co., and the judgment was therefore void. 2nd. That Moore was not the owner of the judgment. And 3rd. That in 1873 he had been regularly discharged in'bankruptcy. His honor, Judge Hudson, heard the case, who, overruling all of defendant’s grounds, ordered the execution renewed according to its terms. Wood appealed.
Whether the defendant had been served with a writ in the original action of Fowler, Foster & Co., so as to give the court jurisdiction of the person of Wood, and whether the first execution issued thereon had been properly returned, and also whether T. E. Moore was the owner of the judgment in question, were all questions of fact, over which we have no jurisdiction, assuming the proceedings below to be in the nature of a case at law. But even if this was otherwise, we think the testimony introduced upon these several questions was sufficient to sustain his honor’s findings thereon.
This brings us to the main question involved, to wit, the effect of the discharge in bankruptcy. It appears that Wood, at the time of his discharge, was in possession of a tract of land, upon which it is alleged that the Fowler, Foster & Co. judgment had
Our recent case of Solomons v. Shaw (25 S. C., 112), is not in conflict with the principle announced in Bump. That was a case where the lien of the creditor having been lost by his own laches, he invoked the equity jurisdiction of the court to restore his lien and to sell the property. This court held with the Circuit Court that there was no ground for equity to interpose, and the complaint was dismissed.
It is the judgment of this court, that the judgment of the Circuit Court be aflirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- FOWLER, FOSTER & CO. v. WOOD
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- 1. In a proceeding to renew an execution, no appeal lies from the judgment of the court below on questions of fact. In this ease the findings were supported by the evidence. 2. A discharge in bankruptcy does not divest the lien of a judgment on land set apart to the bankrupt as a homestead in the bankrupt court, and therefore unadministered. In such case, the judgment creditor is entitled to the renewal of his execution.