Parker v. Brattan

87 A. 756, 120 Md. 428, 1913 Md. LEXIS 117
CourtCourt of Appeals of Maryland
DecidedApril 10, 1913
StatusPublished
Cited by6 cases

This text of 87 A. 756 (Parker v. Brattan) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Maryland primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Parker v. Brattan, 87 A. 756, 120 Md. 428, 1913 Md. LEXIS 117 (Md. 1913).

Opinion

Burke, J.,

delivered the opinion of the Court.

In April, 1899, the appellee sued the appellant in the Circuit Court for Wicomico County for slander. The defendant'filed the general issue plea upon which issue was joined, and upon the suggestion and affidavit of the defendant, the *430 Court ordered a transcript of the record to he sent to the Circuit Court for Somerset County for trial. The-case was tried in that Court and resulted in a verdict for the plaintiff for five thousand dollars and costs upon which judgment was entered on the 19th of October, 1899. A certified copy of the docket entries was sent from that Court to the Circuit Court for Wicomico County. This judgment remains unsatisfied. .

In April, 1900, the defendant filed a petition in the United States District Court for Maryland for adjudication in bankruptcy. It appears from the schedule of debts filed by him that the only debt he owed was this judgment. On June 14th, 1900, by an order of that Court he was discharged from all provable debts and claims, except “such debts as are by law excepted from the operation of a discharge in bankruptcy.” On October 19th, 1911, the appellant sued out of the Circuit Court for Wicomico County a writ of scire facias to revive this judgment. The defendant moved to quash the writ. This motion was overruled, and the case went to trial upon issues joined upon certain pleas filed- by the appellant. As all the questions presented for decision are raised by the exceptions to the testimony and by the prayers, it is unnecessary to discuss the motion to quash or the propriety of the ruling on the pleadings.

The defenses relied on are: first, that there is no record in the Circuit Court for Wicomico County upon which a writ of scire facias can he issued; secondly, that the defendant was discharged from the judgment by the order of the Court above mentioned; and thirdly, that the proceeding was barred by limitations.

“A scire facias is a judicial writ founded upon some matter of record such as a¡ judgment, recognizance, letters patent, etc., and requiring the person against whom it is brought to show cause why the person bringing -it should not have the advantage of such record, or, as in the case of scire facias to repeal letters patent, why the record should not he annuled or vacated; also the name of a writ, and of the *431 whole proceeding, founded on some public record.” 35 Cyc. 1148.

Pow, what was the record in the Circuit Court for Wicomico County upon which the writ was based? The record of the proceeding’s in that suit up to the time of its removal was there, and there was also filed in the case and of record a certified copy of the judgment rendered in the Circuit Court for Somerset County.

It is provided by section I, Article 11 of the Code of 1912 as follows:

“The clerks of the courts of this State may issue an execution on judgment or decree at any time after the rendition thereof, directed to the sheriff of another county, whether the return of nulla bona to a writ of execution issue to the sheriff of the county or city wherein the said judgment or decree was rendered has been made or not, ’which writ of execution, issued and directed to the sheriff of another county, shall be made returnable to the Circuit Court for the county to1 which it may be sent, and if sent to the .City of Baltimore z'etumable to the Szzperior Court of said city; azzd thez’e shall be sent thez-ewith by the clerk issuing the same to the clez’k of the Court to which said writ shall be z’etumable a copy of the docket entries in the case, upon which the Court may proceed on said execution by renewal or otherwise, in the same manner as if the said execution had issued on a judgment or decree rendered in said Court; azid an attachment on judgment or decree shall be regarded as azz execzztiozz within the meaning of this section; provided, that no jzzdgment or decree shall be a lien upon zreal estate situated in another county from that whez’ein the said judgment or decree was obtained, or in the City of Baltimore. except from the date of the entry of the copy of the docket entries by the clerk of the Court to which said writ shall be returnable”; and by section 19, Article 26, it is provided that “every judgment rendered by any of the courts of law of this State shall be and constitute a lien to the amount and *432 from the date thereof upon all leasehold interests and terms for years of the defendant in land, except leases from year to year and leases for terms of not more than five years and not renewable, to the same extent and effect as liens are created by judgment upon real estate, and a certified copy of the docket entries from the clerk of a Court where any judgment is obtained, or judgment of any justice of the peace originally recorded, when recorded upon the judgment record of any other Court in the counties of this State or the City of Baltimore, shall be and constitute a lien, from the date of its being so recorded, upon the property of the defendant in said county or City of Baltimore, to the same extent, as in the county or city where the said judgment was originally obtained or justices’ judgment originally recorded”.

By the force of these statutory provisions the judgment rendered in Somerset County became a lien upon such property of the defendant specified therein located in Wicomico county from the date of the entry of the docket entries in that Court, and this record of the docket entries in Wicomico county became in legal effect a judgment of that Court. This was so held in Hayden v. Stewart, 1 Md. Ch. 460. In that case the effect of the record of the transcript of a judgment from another Court was considered and the transcript of the docket entries was treated as a transfer of the judgment itself, Chancellor Johnson saying: “When a judgment has been thus transferred, and become in effect a judgment of the county Court to which the execution and short copy was sent, it seems to me it should from that time have all the incidents and qualities of a judgment .rendered in the latter Court, and of course of a lien on the lands of the defendant”. This was affirmed in Farmer’s Bank v. Heighe, 3 Md. 357. Upon the authority of these cases, we hold that there was a record in the Circuit Court for Wicomico County upon which the writ of scire facias could have been issued.

*433 As to the plea of limitations. Section 20, Article 26, of the Code provides “that at any time before the expiration of twelve years from the date of such judgment or decree, or in case of the death or marriage of any defendant in the judgment, the plaintiff shall have the right to have a writ of scire facias to renew, or revive the same”; and by section 3.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
87 A. 756, 120 Md. 428, 1913 Md. LEXIS 117, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parker-v-brattan-md-1913.