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35 Ala. 280

Curry v. Landers

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided June 15, 1859

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1859-06-15

Heard before the Hon. John Poster. The bill in this case was filed by James B. M. Landers and Emlay Russell, against William Curry and the commissioner of the State Bank and Branches, for the purpose of enjoining the sale of a certain tract of land under execution. The land in controversy was conveyed by an Indian reservee, in August, 1836, to Gideon Riddle and James Hall, who, in March, 1840, conveyed the same to one Powell, as trustee, to secure a debt due to one John Neal.

Relies on Iverson v. Shorter · Bugbee v. Howard · Daily v. Burke

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1859-06-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 10 later decisions — most recently April 1921

10 state decisions

4018591860187018801890190019101920decided

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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A. J. WALKER, C. J.

¶1In Daily v. Burke, 28 Ala. 328, it was decided, that the statute giving to judgments, from their rendition, a lien on land, was repealed by the adoption of the Code; and the constitutional power of the legislature to abrogate a lien upon real estate given by the pre-existing law, by the repeal of the law, was treated as a conceded question. We are now invited by the argument of appellant’s counsel to reconsider the question of the power of the legislature to take away the previously acquired lien. That precise point was necessarily involved in the case of Iverson v. Shorter, 9 Ala. 713, and was decided adversely to the view presented by the appellant. That decision was quoted as a precedent, without disapproval, iu Beck v. Burnett, 22 Ala. 822; and in Bugbee v. Howard, 32 Ala. 713, it was expressly approved, in a decision which was made after a careful consideration of the subject.

¶2Such being the state of our decisions, we regard the point, that the legislature may take away a lien given by statute upon real estate, by repealing or modifying the operation of the statute under which it was acquired, as *282res adjudicata in tbis State. We regard the exercise of such a power by the legislature as affecting the remedy only, and as not impairing the obligation of the contract. These views of the law lead us to the conclusion, that the lien of the defendant’s judgment, if not otherwise lost, was at least taken away by the legislature.

¶3The decree of the chancellor is affirmed.

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