Crabtree v. Bank

67 S.W. 797, 108 Tenn. 483
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 22, 1902
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 67 S.W. 797 (Crabtree v. Bank) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Crabtree v. Bank, 67 S.W. 797, 108 Tenn. 483 (Tenn. 1902).

Opinion

Beard, J.

The hill in this cause attacks certain proceedings in the Circuit Court of Franklin County, in which the property of complainant was condemned to he sold, under a levy of an execution issuing from the office of a Justice of the Peace, and asking that the deed executed by the Sheriff, who sold this property by virtue of a writ of vinditioni exponas issuing from said Court, as well as „ the several subsequent deeds, under which some of the defendants claim, be decreed to he a cloud upon the title of complainants, and for other relief incident to such a decree.

[485]*485. The proceedings in that case, as far as it is necessary to set them out, were as follows: The defendant, the Bank of Winchester, recovered a judgment, in 1891, before a Justice of the Peace of Franklin County, against complainant as principal, and C. C. Crabtree, J. C. Lomey, B. F. Holder, and W. J. Mooney, as sureties. Soon thereafter an execution, issuing from this judgment, was levied upon the lands of two of the sureties, and the papers in the cause were at once delivered by the Justice, in accordance with the statute, to the Clerk of the Circuit Court of that county for an order of condemnation, and the cause was by him entered on the trial docket of that Court as Ho. 27. After this was done, discovering that the principal in the judgment, and the complainant in this cause, was the owner of an undivided interest of one-third in a tract of two thousand acres, subject to execution, the attorney for the Bank of Winchester appeared before the Justice of the Peace, who had issued the execution, and made an affidavit which, after reciting the recovery of the judgment, the issuance and levy of the execution upon the several tracts of two of the sureties, and the filing of the papers in the Circuit Court for an order of condemnation, concluded by saying that having discovered property of the principal upon which a levy could be made, affiant asked the issuance of alias execution to that end. In accordance with [486]*486the prayer of the affidavit, an alias execution was issued and levied on the interest of B. E. Grab-tree,•. in the two-thonsand acre tract.

At the time of the issuance and levy of this last execution, the papers in the cause were already lodged in the Circuit Court of Eranklin County, and the cause stood on the trial docket of that Court, as has been stated already, as file No. 27. No effort had been made to dismiss the cause or remand it by procedendo or otherwise to the office of the 'Justice of the Peace.

This alias execution, with the levy indorsed upon it, and the affidavit referred to, were taken to the Circuit Court and there filed. It was on the papers, including this last levy, that the order of condemnation was entered, the venditioni exponas was issued and the sale made, which are attacked by the present bill.

Dismissing from consideration certain features of the case, which serve to confuse rather than to make clear the point in issue, we will come to the question, whether the Justice had the jurisdiction to issue this second execution, under the facts already given. For it is clear that if he had no such jurisdiction, then the attempted levy of it by the officer, upon the property of the complainant, was unauthorized, and the order of condemnation, followed by the venditioni exponas [487]*487and sale thereunder, were void and without any legal effect.

For a determination of the question, just suggested, a reference to the statutory provisions regulating proceedings of this character is necessary. Section 4808 of the (Shannon’s) Code directs that “when an execution issued by a Justice of the Peace is levied on real estate, it shall be the duty of the Justice to whom the same is returned to return the execution, together with the judgment and papers in the cause, to the next Circuit Court of his county for condemnation.” Section 4809 provides that “the Circuit Court, upon the return then made, may condemn the land and order the same ... to be sold by the Sheriff of the county, in satisfaction of the judgment and costs,” while by Sec. 4810 it is enacted that “if the Circuit Court condemns the land to be sold, the clerk should enter on the minutes the warrant, attachment, or other leading process, with the officer’s return thereon . . . affidavits for attachment or other process, the judgment of the Justice, the executions levied with the officer’s return, ..and the judgment of the Court.” See, also, Sub. Sec. 8 of Sec. 5892 of the Code.

Thus it will be seen, under these provisions, every paper issued by the Justice, or in any way connected with the cause, where a levy on land has been made by an officer by virtue of [488]*488an execution issuing from a Justice’s Court upon a judgment pronounced by him, together with the judgment itself, is to be transmitted to the Circuit Court. Upon being filed there, the jurisdiction of that Court attaches, and that of the Justice ends.

It is true that in Mann v. Roberts, 11 Lea, 57-59, it was held that an order of condemnation is not a judgment in the strict sense of the word, but only a mode of executing the levy. If the papers are regular, the condemnation follows as a matter of course (Cowan v. Lowry, 7 Lea, 620), yet the execution debtor may appear and object that the proceedings are so irregular as not to authorize any order of condemnation. But while such an order is only a judgment sub modo, yet it can be appealed from by the defendant whose land is levied on, and equally the execution creditor may appeal from a refusal of the Circuit Judge to award him an order of condemnation. Rumbrough v. White, 11 Heis., 260; Anderson v. Kimbrough, 5 Cold., 260.

Section 4804 of the (Shannon’s) Code provides as follows: “The Clerks of the Circuit Courts of this State may issue execution for the unsatisfied debt and costs, in all .cases, where a Justice’s execution has been levied on land, and return made thereof to his Court . . . and the real estate executed fails for any cause to satisfy the judgment.” From this it would seem [489]*489that, the necessary implication is, that this legislative scheme for the condemnation of land, levied c/u with an execution issuing from a Justice’s judgment, contemplated that the filing of the papers in the cause in the Circuit Court carried with it the judgment as well, and that thus the Justice would he stripped of every vestige of control over the cause. It was evidently in this view, that in McGavock v. Schneider, 7 Heis., 467, the Court held that the proper course for the procurement of an alias execution, in case one is desired, after the papers of the Justice have been returned to the Circuit Court, and before the land is sold, is to apply to that Court for a procedendo. In other words, that having lost all jurisdiction upon filing the papers, that the only way by which it can be again acquired is by a surrender of jurisdiction upon the part of the Circuit Court by a procedendo, or some other order for a remand or for a dismissal.

But it is said that while a procedendo is a proper method, it is not the only one. This contention implies the concession that in some legal way the jurisdiction of the Circuit Court must end before that of the Justice can once more attach, and this is the insistence of the complainant.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
67 S.W. 797, 108 Tenn. 483, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/crabtree-v-bank-tenn-1902.