Miller v. Whitescarver
Miller v. Whitescarver
Opinion of the Court
Josiah J. Miller, on July 21, 1882, caused to be issued from the clerk’s office of the circuit court of Taylor county
The record does not show upon what ground the motion to dismiss was founded or the ground upon which the court dismissed the suggestion; but it is contended in the argument before this Court that there was nothing to show that a copy of the execution creating the lien was filed with the clerk, and that the return day of the summons was less than twenty days from its date, and, therefore, the suggestion was properly dismissed.
This proceeding was evidently based on section 10 of chapter 127 of the Acts of 1882, which provides, that:
“On a suggestion by the judgment-creditor that, by reason of the lien of his writ oí fieri facias, there is a liability on any person other than the judgment-debtor, a summons may be sued out of the office of the clerk of the circuit comí of the county in which such other person resides, upon an attested copy of said execution being filed with said clerk, to be preserved by him in his office, or if he be a non-resident of the State, in the county in which he may be found, against such person, to answer such suggestion, the return day of which summons may be the next term of said court” — Acts 1882 p. 366.
I do not think this is a correct interpretation of the statute. The tenth section requires the return day of the summons to be “the next term of said court.” And section 2 of chapter 117 of the Acts of 1882 declares that, “Any process shall be returnable within ninety days after its date, to the court on the first day of a term, or in the clerk’s office,” &c. All process, unless otherwise declared by statute, which is required to be made returnable to a term of the court, must be made returnable to the first day of the term and the return day must not exceed ninety days from the date of the process. The first day of the next term of the circuit court of Taylor county after the date of the summons in this case was July 25,1882, and the next succeeding term was not uutil November 4, 1882, the one was less than twenty and the other was more than ninety days from the date of the summons; consequently, if the argument of the defendants in error prevails no suggestion could have been legally sued out in that county on the 21st day of July, 1882. A construction which leads to such a result will not be adopted unless the express terms of the statutes admit of no other construction. To limit the right to sue out suggestions to particular periods and deny such right at all other times would operate in many cases to defeat the object of the statute and deny the right given by it. There is nothing in the terms of the statute indicating such a legislative intent, but on the contrary the necessary implication from its terms is that the right shall exist, at all times. And being so interpreted, there is not any necessary conflict between sections 10 and 12 of
As to the objection that the record does not show that a copy of the execution creating the lieu was filed, it is only necessary to say, that the suggestion was dismissed before the plaintiff had an opportunity to show that, such copy had been filed with the clerk even if such filing was necessary in this ease. But my opinion is that the statute does not require the filing of such copy in eases where the suggestion is sued out of the clerk’s office of the same court that rendered the judgment or from which the execution creating the lien issued. Such a requirement would be unnecessary in such case, because the records would there show the existence of such execution without the filing of such copy. But where the party desires to have a suggestion issued from the clerk’s office of a county different from that of the court which rendered the judgment or from which the execution issued then the requirement is imperative that such copy shall be filed to enable the clerk of such court to issue the suggestion. In such case the copy filed would be the only evidence in such clerk’s office that the lien suggested had any existence.
Upon the whole ease, it seems to me that the circuit court
Reversed. Remanded."
Reference
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