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2 Cow. 497

Merry v. Hallet

New York Supreme Court

Decided February 15, 1824

New York Supreme Court · decided 1824-02-15

Ryan, recovered judgment against Suitor, for $52 71, before a Justice of Herkimer county, filed a transcript with the Clerk of that county, and sued out a fi.fa. under which the Sheriff levied on a term of years, in a lot of land belonging to Suitor, and after advertising it for sale for six weeks, in a public newspapei of the county, sold it at public auction to the relator, Merry, who was the highest bidder.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1824-02-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently May 1912

3 state decisions

201824183018401850186018701880189019001910decided

Later decisions citing this case, by decade. The current decade is in progress, and our corpus holds fewer opinions from the most recent years, so the latest bars are undercounted — not a real decline.

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Curia.

¶1The only question is, whether a term for years is embraced by the words of the act. These are lands or tenements, the latter of which is a word of well known signification, importing not only land in which one has an estate of inheritance, or other freehold, but a term for years. This is a chattel real, and distinguishable, for many pur*498poses from a mere personal chattel. Putnam v. Westcott, (19 John. 73,) is one illustration of the distinction. This Court decided in that case, that a term is not to be considered goods or chattels for the purposes of a sale upon an execution, issued out of a Justice’s Court. The party, therefore, has a right to redemption, during the year; but we are of opinion that the right ceases here, and is not carried over to a judgment creditor upon default of the party to redeem, (as it would be if this were a freehold estate,) .by the third section of the act. This section confers no right to redeem upon any one, other than a creditor, who has a judgment which is r lien upon the land sold. A judgment is not a lien on terms for years, but on freehold estates only. This distinction was well established before the 29 Car. 2, (1 R. L. 501, s. 3,) requiring judgments to be docketed in order to affect the purchasers of lands, and has been .kept up ever since. A term is hound, like any other chattel, only by an execution. This Court decided, in Vredenburgh v. Morris, (1 John. Cas. 223,) that a judgment docketed is not a lien on a term for years.

¶2Motion denied.

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