Public-domain · open source
OpenJurist

20 Tex. 442

Spiva v. Williams

Texas Supreme Court

Decided July 1, 1857

Texas Supreme Court · decided 1857-07-01

Error from Bell. Tried below before the Hon. R. E. B. Baylor. The defendant had pleaded a set-off of $100. The facts are stated in the Opinion.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1857-07-01

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently February 1980

10 state decisions

2018571860187018801890190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

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.

View the full empirical analysis of this case →

Roberts, J.

¶1The following judgment was entered in this case: “ This day came the plaintiff by his attorney, and the defendant withdrawing his plea by him pleaded, says nothing in bar or preclusion of plaintiff’s action, subject to an offset agreed upon by the parties.

¶2“ It is therefore considered by the Court, that the said plaintiff have and recover of and from the said defendant, the sum of nine hundred and seventy-eight x3/o dollars, principal and interest, and ten per cent, interest on the same from the date of this judgment until paid, subject to an offset agreed upon by said parties aforesaid, and all costs in this behalf expended, for which execution may issue.”

¶3Plaintiff in error, against whom this judgment was rendered, assigned error as follows, to wit:—■

¶4“ The judgment is vague and indeterminate in not defining the amount of the offset, to which the same is subject, and to the benefit of which the said Spiva is entitled.”

¶5This judgment is erroneous, because of its uncertainty, being rendered for a particular amount, “ subject to an offset agreed upon by the parties.”

¶6*443The very object of a suit is to adjudicate and declare the respective rights of the parties, in a shape so that the ministerial oEcers can with certainty carry into execution the judgment of the Court, without the ascertainment and determination of additional facts. It is obvious that such is not the case here.

¶7It is said by the Supreme Court of Tennessee, (Justice Green delivering the opinion,) that “ the entry ought to have contained in itself suEcient precision and certainty to have enabled the Clerk to issue an execution by the inspection of it, without reference to other entries.” (Boyken v. The State, 3 Yerger, 426; Harman v. Childress, Id. 327.)

¶8It was objected to a judgment that “ it is not for a specific sum. Nor is there anything referred to by which it would be rendered certain.” (2 Howard, R. 649, Berry v. Anderson.)

¶9A case more directly in point is to be found in Early v. Moore, (4 Mumford, R. 262,) where the entry contained a recovery of the sum of ¿327 4s. 4d., with interest, “ subject only to a credit of one hogshead of tobacco, delivered in the year 1799.” This judgment was held to be erroneous.

¶10In this case, as well as in the case before us, there is nothing in the entry by which the amount to be collected can be rendered certain.

¶11Judgment reversed and cause remanded.

¶12Reversed and remanded.

/20/tex/442 · .json · Public domain