Shands ex'x v. Grove
Shands ex'x v. Grove
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
This was a creditor’s bill brought by the appellee Grove, for the use of Omohunder, against the appellant Martha E. Shands, in her own right and as executrix of E. A. Shands deceased, to obtain satisfaction, out of the personal or real estate of said decedent, of a judgment which he obtained against him in his lifetime.
The said E. Grove held a negotiable note of the Rockingham Turnpike Company, which he transferred
The court is of opinion that there is no error in said decree. It seems that the suggestion was made by the plaintiff at the instance of E. A. Shands, and that he was present in court and admitted his liability; and thereupon judgment was rendered against him. It is too late for his executrix now to object to the enforcement of the judgment by a court of equity, upon the ground that there is not sufficient evidence of either judgment, after the acknowledgment of her testator of his liability to satisfy the judgment against the company, and allowing judgment against himself. Part of the records of the suit were destroyed by the public enemy during the late war, but it seems that enough of the record was preserved to enable the clerk to
hi or can she now object that no fieri facias ever issued upon the judgment against the company, so as to authorize the proceeding against her testator by suggestion, he having admitted his liability in open court when the judgment was rendered. But if a fieri facias had not issued, and her testator were not estopped, nor his personal representative, to object to the judgment on that ground, the objection could not be made in a court of equity. Her remedy was in the court of law, and the error, if it existed, might have been corrected on motion in the court which rendered the judgment, under chapter 177 of the Code of 1873.
If there was any defect in the service of the summons, which was awarded upon the suggestion, it could not avail the appellant, as it is in proof that the suggestion was made at the instance of the testator, who appeared in court and admitted his liability when the .judgment was rendered.
The objection for want of parties, the court is of opinion, is not error for which the decree should be reversed. They were not necessary parties in this suit.
E. A. Shands was not proceeded against as the surety of the Rockingham Turnpike Company, but as its debtor. So there is nothing in the objection if it be law, that the appellee should have been compelled to exhaust the assets of the Rockingham Turnpike Company,before resorting to the estate of E. A. Shands.
The court is further of opinion that this proceeding was not barred by the statute of limitations.
"We have thus, we believe, noticed all the assignments of error by the appellant in her petition. But her counsel in argument insists, that it was error to decree against the executrix, without first ascertaining
Upon the whole, we are of opinion to affirm the-decree.
Decree aeeirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Shands ex'x v. Grove & als.
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- I. G brings a creditor’s suit against the executrix of S, to subject the estate of S to satisfy a judgment. The order book of the court was destroyed, but some of the papers were preserved; and it was proved by a witness that G recovered a judgment against the R. T. Co. and issued execution upon it; and then, at the instance of S, sued out a suggestion against him as a debtor of the Co., and that S appeared in court and acknowledged his indebtedness to the Co., and judgment was rendered against him. The proceedings in both cases to the judgments are endorsed on the papers preserved. An account taken in the cause showed the executrix indebted to the estate for considerably more than the claim of the plaintiff, beside large assets in her hands; and an inquiry ordered as to the debts of S was not acted on, no other creditor making claim. Held : 1. Gis entitled to recover his debt from the estate of S. 2. The proceeding being against the estate of S as the debtor of G, the Co. was not a necessary party. 3. No other creditor having presented a claim, and the executrix not having insisted upon the enquiry, a personal decree against her will not be reversed for the want of such enquiry, upon the objection first made in the appellate court.