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6 Johns. 106

Gonnigal v. Smith

New York Supreme Court

Decided May 15, 1810

New York Supreme Court · decided 1810-05-15

THE defendants in this cause, after a judgment obtained against them, were imprisoned on a ca. sa. issued thereon, and were discharged, pursuant to the 5th section of the act for the relief of debtors, in respect to the imprisonment of their persons, passed 24th March, 1801, by the court of common pleas of Schoharie county, and more than one year had elapsed since the said discharge. Two questions were submitted to the consideration of the court. 1.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1810-05-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 5 later decisions — most recently September 1910

3 state decisions

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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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Per Curiam.

¶1The fi.fa. may be issued, at any time, by the express words of the act, without a sci. fa. This seems to be the better opinion, notwithstanding the dictum of Mr. J. Buller to the contrary, in a like case. (1 Term Rep. 82.) The words of the act are,, (Laws, vol. 1. 294.) “ that notwithstanding the discharge of the prisoner, &c. the judgment shall remain in force,, and execution may, at any time, be taken out thereon, against the lands,” &c. These words ought to receive a literal interpretation, for the case is not within the reason of the law, requiring a revival of the judgment, because here the presumption, that the judgment is satisfied, is repelled by the record, which shows a ca. sa. duly issued and served, and the defendant discharged from it, by a statute made particularly for his ease and benefit. And if the delay and notice of a sci. fa. were requisite, a defendant might easily place his newly acquired goods and chattels beyond the reach of the process. Again, if the plaintiff has taken out an execution within the year, and it has been returned, he may always take out another execution, at any distance of time, though it be an execution of a different kind, without a sci. fa. by only using the formality of continuing it down on the roll,. (Stra. 100. 2 Wils. 82.) This mode would remove all doubt in the present case, by conforming the practice under it to the established precedents..

¶2*1082. The change of the attorney to a set. fa. sued out upon a judgment, does not require a rule and notice, because the sci.fa. is a new action, and requires a new warrant of attorney. (2 Ld. Raym. 1048. 1252. 7 Term Rep. 337.)

¶3Rule accordingly.

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