Scott's v. . Hill

6 N.C. 143

• Court: Supreme Court of North Carolina
• Decided: January 5, 1812
• Status: Published

Opinion

Taxrok, Chief-Justice,

delivered the opinion of the Court:

it may be laid down as a principle, that a levy may be discharged by the act of the Plaintiff. There are authorities to that effect, and the law may be considered as settled. When one.fi. fa. is issued against the property of the .Defendant, it ought either to be satisfied, or discharged, before-another is sued out; otherwise, a Plaintiff might wantonly harrass a Defendant by multiplying executions, and sending them to different places,-and le - vying to an amount greatly beyond the debt. The two executions in this case are incompatible with each other, and both cannot subsist at the same time. The first ought to have been proceeded on, and its final event known, before a second was ordered. The suing out of the second must be considered as a dereliction of the firsts for it is to be presumed that a second would not have been ordered by the Plaintiff’s attorney, if. iie meant to proceed on the first. It would be an extreme hardship upon the Sheriff, to distrain him to proceed on an execution, which the Plaintiff himself has abandoned, by every ’ act short of a positive discharge.