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62 Mo. 549

George v. Middough

Supreme Court of Missouri

Decided May 15, 1876

Supreme Court of Missouri · decided 1876-05-15

L The destruction of the record of the judgment did not destroy the judgment. If the proceedings to restore the record were void, then in 1862, when scire facias was issued to revive the judgments, said judgments were in the same situation as they were the following day after the burning of the records, and a scire facias may issue on a destroyed judgment. (Strain vs. Murphy, 49 Mo., 337.) II.

Key passage — most relied on by later courts

““Executions can only issue upon a judgment within ten years after its rendition. * * * The statute provides that the plaintiff or his legal representatives may at any time within ten years sue out a scire facias to revive a judgment and lien; but, after the expiration of ten years from the rendition of the judgment, no scire facias shall issue.””

quoted by 2 later decisions, including Stewart v. Justices of St. Clair County Court, Wonderly v. Lafayette County

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1876-05-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 31 later decisions — most recently March 1980 · most notably Albert J. Hoppe, Inc. v. St. Louis Public Service Co. (1950), In Re the Trust Under the Last Will & Testament of Jackson (1956)

29 state decisions

90187618801890190019101920193019401950196019701980decided

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 →

Wagner, Judge,

¶1delivered the opinion of the court.

¶2It appears from the récord that in 1859 certain judgments were rendered against defendants, and that in 1860 the records of the judgments in the county were destroyed by fire, including the judgments in question. At the next term of the court after the destruction by fire, the judgments were restored by order of the court, but this restoration was made on motion of plaintiff’s attorney without any notice whatever being given to defendants and without bringing them into *551court. The judgments were revived from time to time till 1867, the last renewal being in this last named year.

¶3In February, 1872, executions, were issued upon the judgments, and defendant’s lands were levied upon and sold, and plaintiff became the purchaser.

¶4Plaintiff relied upon the sheriff’s deed for title, and the court excluded it for two reasons. First,.because the proceedings in 1860 to restore the judgments were void; and secondly, because no execution could issue upon the judgments after ten years had elapsed from their rendition.

¶5The proceedings in 1860 to restore the judgments were long prior to the legislative enactment, upon that subject, requiring the adverse parties to be brought in by summons, and therefore that act cannot be made applicable to this case. Lost or destroyed judgments might be restored or proved at common law, but in eveiy such case the opposite party should be notified.

¶6It is a cardinal principle, that whenever a party’s rights are to be affected by a summary proceeding, or motion in court, that party should be notified, in order that he may appear for his own protection.

¶7The destruction of the record .book, on which the judgments were written, did not destroy the judgment debts (Strain vs. Murphy, 49 Mo., 337), and although the court wrongfully restored the judgments, when the defendants had no notice, and were not in court, yet when the revivals took place by scire facias, they were regularly brought in, and they should then have made their objection by a plea of nul tiel record. (Wood & Oliver vs. Ellis, 10 Mo., 382 ; Ellis vs. Jones, 51 Mo., 181.)

¶8But there is another objection which is fatal to the plaintiff’s case. Executions can only issue upon a judgment within- ten years after its rendition ( Wagn. Stat.. 791. § 11). The judgments were rendered in 1859, and. the executions, on which the sales were made, and under which the plaintiff purchased, were not issued till 1872, twelve years after the rendition of the judgments. Now the statute provides, that *552the plaintiff or his legal representatives may at any time, within ten years, sue out a scire facias to revive a judgment and lien; but after the expiration of ten years from the rendition of the judgments, no scire facias shall issue (Id., 790, §4). The last judgment of revival on scire facias was in 1S67, and its lien had expired before the executions were is* sued; the executions therefore derived no force from these liens, or the revivals had under them, and as more than ten years had expired from the time the original judgments wex*e rendered, the executions were nullities. (4 Litt. 310.)

¶9It follows that the judgment below must be affirmed. Judges Napton and Hough concur ; Judge Tories absent. Judge Sherwood holds, that in consequence of the revival of the judgments from time to time the executions could rightfully issue, and that the plaintiff took title at the sale.

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