Williams v. Hayes

150 F. 759, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 4559
CourtCourt of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit
DecidedNovember 2, 1906
DocketNo. 1,279
StatusPublished

This text of 150 F. 759 (Williams v. Hayes) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Williams v. Hayes, 150 F. 759, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 4559 (9th Cir. 1906).

Opinion

GILBERT, Circuit Judge,

after stating the case as above, delivered the opinion of the court.

The statute of limitations of California (Code Civ. Proc. § 336) provides that an action may be brought upon a judgment or decree of [760]*760any court of the United States or of any state within the United States within five years. It has been held that the statute begins to run against an action upon a judgment after the lapse of the period within which an appeal may be taken therefrom. Feeney v. Hinckley, 134 Cal. 467, 66 Pac. 580, 86 Am. Rep. 290. The judgment in this case having been entered on August 16, 1897, an action upon it was barred on February 17, 1903. The order permitting the execution to issue was had on July 5, 1904. It was obtained under the provisions of section 685 of the Code of Civil Procedure which reads as follows:

“In all cases the Judgment may be enforced or carried into execution after the lapse of five years from the date of its entry by leave of the court upon motion or upon judgment for that purpose founded upon supplemental pleadings; but nothing in this section shall be construed to revive a judgment for the recovery of money which shall have been barred by limitation at the time of the passage of this act.”

This section is found in the division of the Code which treats of the execution of “the judgment in civil actions.” It is an amendment of a former statute, and the amendment was made several years after the enactment of section 336. The decision of the present case depends upon its meaning and its effect. The appellant contends that the order could not lawfully be made without notice to the judgment debtor, and if anything was obtained by the appellee under the order of July 5, 1904, it was nothing more than the permission of the court to enforce by execution the judgment, and that the order could not have the effect to revive the judgment or the lien thereof; that the enforcement of the judgment can be had only through the machinery of the California state court, and that when the operation of that machinery was stopped as it was here by the bankruptcy of Rebman, the judgment creditor was remediless, and that when his claim was presented in bankruptcy, its binding obligation depended on whether an action on the judgment could then have been prosecuted.

Was the order authorizing the issuance of execution void for want of notice to the judgment debtor of the motion for leave to issue it? At common law, if the plaintiff failed to take out execution on a judgment in a real action within a year and a day from the date on which the judgment became final, execution could not be thereafter issued without reviving the judgment by scire facias. By statute (Westminster II), a similar remedy was provided for the revival of a judgment in a personal action. The purpose was to afford the judgment debtor an opportunity to show if he could that the judgment had been paid, released, or satisfied, and, in default thereof, to give the creditor a new writ of execution. Although in California the writ of scire facias is abolished (Humiston v. Smith, 21 Cal. 129) the statutes of that state contain two remedies for the enforcement of a dormant judgment: First, an action on the judgment, to be brought within a period of five years; and, second, the proceeding under section 685 of the Code for leave to issue execution. The time within which the latter proceeding may be brought is not limited by the terms of the statute; but it has been held that the order is subject to the discretion of the court, and that,- in the proper exercise of that discretion, it may be granted or withheld. Wheeler v. Eldred, 121 Cal. 28, 53 Pac. 431, 66 Am. St. [761]*761Rep. 20; Wheeler v. Eldred, 137 Cal. 38, 69 Pac. 619. It is the rule in England, and the almost universal rule in the United States, that an execution issued after the lapse of more than a year and a day from the date of the judgment, or after the statutory period, without the preliminary steps prescribed by statute, is voidable merely, and not void; that, when the judgment is so renewed without notice, the defendant may afterwards make his defense, if any he have, by proceedings to set the writ aside, but that if he neglects so to do, others may not do it for him, nor may the execution or a sale thereunder be attacked collaterally. Freeman Ex. 29, Morris v. Jones, 2 B. & C. 232; Mariner v. Coon, 16 Wis. 465; Doe v. Harter, 1 Ind. 427; Genesee Bank v. Spencer, 18 N. Y. 150; Eddy v. Coldwell, 23 Or. 163, 31 Pac. 475, 37 Am. St. Rep. 672; Hernandez v. Drake, 81 Ill. 34; Willard v. Whipple, 40 Vt. 219; Lawrence v. Grambling, 13 S. C. 120. It is to be noted that in the majority of the statutes under which the above cited decisions were rendered, it was expressly provided that the order should be made “only” upon notice, etc. But, in the statute of California, there is no provision requiring notice. In Bryan v. Stidger, 17 Cal. 271, the court, in construing section 214 of the practice act (Laws 1851, p. 85, c. 5) then in force, in which, as in the present statute, there was no provision for notice, held that no notice to the opposite party is required on an application for execution on a judgment more than five years old. The court said:

“It would serve no useful purpose to require notice for if the execution issues irregularly or if the defendant has a good defense or any cause to show against the enforcement of the process he has a plain and speedy remedy.”

In Harrier v. Bassford, 145 Cal. 529, 78 Pac. 1038, answering the contention that section 685 is unconstitutional, for the reason that it makes no provision for notice, the court said:

"The Legislature has the undoubted power to say that an execution may issue on a judgment at any time after its entry or rendition. It may make the period 5 years, 20 years, or any other definite time, or it may make the right to an execution unconditional for 5 years, and leave it optional with the court to make it upon motion for an indefinite period thereafter. The latter Is the course which has been pursued by our Legislature. If this be within the legislative power, it must be equally competent for it to declare that such motion may be made without notice. * * * Such notice is not necessary to constitute that due process of law which is guarantied by the Constitution of the United States. The due process of law there guarantied is obtained by the service of summons on the defendants or their subsequent appearance in the action before judgment.”

It is urged against the applicability of that decision to the present case that in Harrier v. Bassford the execution was issued before the expiration of the five years’ period of limitation, and that the language of the opinion was guarded by an express reference to that fact. We cannot see that that fact makes any difference. The language and reasoning of the opinion directly meet the question here involved, and are as applicable to a proceeding under section 685 after the bar of the statute of an action on the judgment as to a proceeding before such bar. The proceeding under section 685 is an independent remedy. It has nothing to do with an action on a judgment, and is not affected by the statute of limitations applicable to such actions, nor by the fact that [762]*762the granting of the order is in the discretion of the court. The judgment in question was not outlawed. It is true that an action upon it was barred, but the bar was only to that particular remedy. The judgment was still enforceable.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

National Bank of California v. Los Angeles Iron & Steel Co.
84 P. 466 (California Court of Appeal, 1906)
Wheeler v. Eldred
69 P. 619 (California Supreme Court, 1902)
Feeney v. Hinckley
66 P. 580 (California Supreme Court, 1901)
Harrier v. Bassford
78 P. 1038 (California Supreme Court, 1904)
Bank of Genesee v. . Spencer
18 N.Y. 150 (New York Court of Appeals, 1858)
Lentz v. Victor
17 Cal. 271 (California Supreme Court, 1861)
Humiston v. Smith
21 Cal. 129 (California Supreme Court, 1862)
Wheeler v. Eldred
53 P. 431 (California Supreme Court, 1898)
Willard v. Whipple
40 Vt. 219 (Supreme Court of Vermont, 1867)
Mariner v. Coon
16 Wis. 465 (Wisconsin Supreme Court, 1863)
Eddy v. Coldwell
31 P. 475 (Oregon Supreme Court, 1892)
Hernandez v. Drake
81 Ill. 34 (Illinois Supreme Court, 1875)
Doe v. Harter
1 Ind. 427 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1849)
Humphreys v. Lundy
37 Mo. 320 (Supreme Court of Missouri, 1866)
Lafayette County v. Wonderly
92 F. 313 (Eighth Circuit, 1899)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
150 F. 759, 1906 U.S. App. LEXIS 4559, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/williams-v-hayes-ca9-1906.