4 Ga. 175 | Ga. | 1848
delivering the opinion.
The complainants in the bill, who are the plaintiffs in error here, invoke the power of a Court of Chancery, to annul a judgment rendered against them by a Court of competent jurisdiction, and perpetually to enjoin an execution issued thereon. They made default at the first Term of the suit upon which judgment was had — at the second, which was the judgment Term, the plain-tiff continued the cause — so also at the third Term. At the fourth Term no action was had in the cause, and at the fifth Term the’ plaintiff took-.liis judgment, there having been no plea or answer filed by the defendants at any time. Pending the action, and as much as one Term anterior to' the judgment, the defendants were discharged under the late Bankrupt Law of Congress. The bill-charges that the plaintiff in the original action continued his cause fraudulently, with a view to obtain his judgment after the discharge — that the' defendants having suffered a judgment by de--fault, having at no time filed any defence, presumed that the judgment had been taken at the Term at which regularly it might have been taken, and therefore they did not plead their discharge. There are no facts stated in the bill upon which the charge of fraud is predicated, but the continuances and postponement before detailed. Claiming, then, that by the- wrongful and fraudulent act of the plaintiff, they were prevented from making what would' have been an available defence, they come into Chancery seeking relief from the judgment, and the benefit of their discharge by the Bankrupt Court, under the Act of 1841. Such is the case the re--Gord discloses. The bill was demurred to and dismissed on the demurrer — the Court below holding that the complainants had a good defence at law, of which they were cognisant, and of which-they might have availed-themselves, but did not; and, therefore, there was no equity in the bill.- To this ruling they except.
In our judgment, the Congress of the United States intended to make the bankrupt’s discharge a complete defence, when not set aside for fraud upon notice, in all the Courts of the, States holding jurisdiction of a suit against the bankrupt, yet amenable to those rules of pleading which obtain in such Cotnts; and amenable also to those principles of law regulating the jurisdiction of the Courts of Common Law and of Chancery in the several States where the cases may occur. That is to say, it must be properly pleaded, and the Courts of Chancery have no more right to interfere to annul a judgment in order to give availability
Let the judgment of the Court below be affirmed.