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8 Ala. 791

Johnson v. Gaines

Supreme Court of Alabama

Decided June 15, 1845

Supreme Court of Alabama · decided 1845-06-15

Assumpsit by the plaintiff, against the defendant in error. The writ issued against the defendant in error and Abner S. Lipscomb, executors of Catharine V.' George, deceased, which was returned executed on Gaines, and not found as to Lipscomb.

Good law ✅— No negative treatment on recordhow we know

Decided 1845-06-15

How this case has been cited

Cited by 7 later decisions — most recently March 1889

7 state decisions

3018451850186018701880decided

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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OílMOND, J.

¶1It is probable this action was commenced, upon the mistaken supposition, that the estate was responsible for debts created by the executor, and that it was the intention to sue the executor as such. Be this as it may, it is very clear the declaration shows, that no action can be maintained against the defendant in his representative character, as the debt was created by him, since his qualification as executor, and although the work may have been done, or the money advanced for the benefit of the estate, he represents, it as a charge against him individually. This being ascertained, the naming him as executor in the writ, and declaration, as it neither adds to, or diminishes his individual responsibility, is matter of form and not substance, as by reference to the claim asserted against him, it is evident he is not sued as executor, though described as such. This is *793then merely descriptio personae, which, according to all the authorities, does not vitiate.

¶2The demurrer to the declaration was improperly sustained, and the judgment must be reversed, and the cause remanded.

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