Rock Island National Bank v. Thompson

50 N.E. 1089, 173 Ill. 593
CourtIllinois Supreme Court
DecidedJune 18, 1898
StatusPublished
Cited by15 cases

This text of 50 N.E. 1089 (Rock Island National Bank v. Thompson) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Illinois Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Rock Island National Bank v. Thompson, 50 N.E. 1089, 173 Ill. 593 (Ill. 1898).

Opinion

Per Curiam:

The decree of the circuit court was, on appeal, affirmed by the Appellate Court for the Second District, and the said Appellate Court, by Mr. Justice Dibell, delivered the following opinion:

“On March 81, 1888, Thompson and Root recovered a judgment against the J. S. Keator Lumber Company in thé Circuit Court of the United States for the Northern District of Illinois. On April 21, 1888, defendant therein sued out from the Supreme Court of the United States a writ of error to review said judgment, and took certain steps to cause said writ of error to be made a supersedeas. Said judgment was affirmed by the Supreme Court of the United States on April 4, 1892, and execution and alias execution were issued as hereinafter stated. Two days after the affirmance of said judgment appellants filed for record in Rock Island county a mortgage from the said Keator Lumber Company upon real estate in said county which said Keator Lumber Company had owned on March 31, 1888, and ever since that date, which mortgage was given to secure debts due appellants. Sixteen dajm after the mortgage was recorded this suit was begun by filing in the circuit court of Rock Island county a bill to foreclose said mortgage. By amendment Thompson and Root were made defendants. They answered, claiming their judgment was a first lien. Upon final hearing the court decreed the foreclosure of said mortgage, but found such judgmgnt a prior lien upon said real estate, and directed that it be first paid out of the proceeds of the sale of the mortgaged property. The mortgagees prosecute this appeal from said decree.

“The Circuit Court of the United States, when it rendered said judgment, was sitting in Cook county. This "real estate is in Rock Island county. The first question presented for decision is, whether said judgment ever became a lien upon said real estate. Appellants earnestly contend that it only became a lien upon real estate in Cook county, where said court sat when it rendered judgment. Appellees claim it became a lien on all real estate of the Keator Lumber Company within the Northern District of Illinois, which includes Rock Island county.

“The legislation affecting this subject which was in force when this judgment was rendered is as follows:

“Revised Statutes of the United States: ‘Sec. 914. The practice, pleadings and forms and modes of proceeding in civil causes, other than equity and admiralty causes, in the circuit and district courts shall conform, as near as may be, to the practice, pleadings and forms and modes of proceeding existing at the time in like causes in the courts of record of the State within which such circuit or district courts are held, any rule of court to the contrary notwithstanding. ’

“ ‘Sec. 916. A party recovering a judgment in any ' common law cause in any circuit or district court shall be entitled to similar remedies upon the same, by execution or otherwise to reach the property of the judgment debtor, as are now provided in like causes by the laws of the State in which such court is held, or by any such laws hereafter enacted which may be adopted by general rules of such district or circuit courts; and such courts may, from time to time, by general rules, adopt such State laws as may hereafter be in force in such State in relation to remedies upon judgments as aforesaid, by execution or otherwise. ’

“Revised Statutes of Illinois of 1874, chap. 77 ‘Sec. 1. That a judgment of a court of record shall be a lien on the real estate of the person against whom it is obtained, situated within the county for which the court is held, from the time the same is rendered or revived for the period of seven years, and no longer: Provided, that there shall be no priority of the lien of one judgment over that of another rendered at the same term of court or on the same day in vacation. When execution is not issued on a judgment within one year from the time the same becomes a lien it shall thereafter cease to be a lien; but execution may issue on such judgment at any time within said seven years, and shall become a lien on such real estate from the time it shall be delivered to the sheriff or other proper officer to be executed.

“ ‘Sec. 2. When the party in whose favor a judgment is rendered is restrained by injunction out of chancery, or by appeal, or by the order of a judge or court, or is delayed on account of the death of the defendant, either from issuing execution or selling thereon, the time he is so restrained or delayed shall not be considered as any part of the time mentioned in sections 1 or 6 of this act.’

“That Congress has power to pass all necessary laws to carry into execution judgments rendered by the courts of the United States, and that it may make them liens upon property of the debtor, whether such property is or is not subject to the lien of judgments under the laws of the State where the property is situated, though denied by Ried v. House, 2 Humph. (Tenn.) 576, must be regarded as settled by Wayman v. Southard, 10 Wheat. 1, and Bank of the United States v. Halstead, id. 51, and other decisions of the Supreme Court of the United States. In any case the only question can be, how far has Congress exercised this power? We also consider it too obvious for extended argument, that while the Supreme Court of this State is the final tribunal for the determination of the true construction of the State statute above quoted, as applied to the lien of judgments rendered by the courts of this State, yet when the question arises, what is the meaning of the said Federal statute, and to what extent the liens of judgments rendered'in the courts of the United States within this State are governed by said State statute, and whether the language of the State statute is to be applied literally and with strictness to judgments of the courts of the United States, upon such questions the courts of the United States are the final arbiters. The question, what is the lien of a Federal judgment?—is a question of Federal law, to be conclusively settled by the construction adopted by the highest Federal tribunal. To what extent courts of the United States held within this State are bound by our State statutes upon practice, pleadings and modes of procedure is a question of Federal law, upon which the conclusions of the Supreme Court of the United States are final. That court has not adopted a literal construction of the provisions in question. It has been held by the Supreme Court of the United States that the words ‘as near as may be,’ in said section 914 above quoted, do not mean as near as may be possible, nor as near as may be practicable. That court said in Railroad Co. v. Horst, 93 U. S. 291, that this provision ‘devolved upon the judges to be affected the duty of construing and deciding, and gave them the power to reject, as Congress doubtless éxpected they would do, any subordinate provision in such State statute which, in their judgment, would unwisely encumber the administration of the law or tend to defeat the ends of justice in their tribunals. While the act of Congress is to a large extent mandatory, it is also to some extent only directory and advisory. ’ Accordingly it was there held that many statutory provisions as to practice in State courts are not binding" and compulsory upon the courts of the United States within such State. To the same effect is Phelps v. Oaks, 117 U. S. 236, and other cases.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
50 N.E. 1089, 173 Ill. 593, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/rock-island-national-bank-v-thompson-ill-1898.