232 Pa. 272 | Pa. | 1911
Opinion by
For a determination of this case we need not look beyond the Act of June 4, 1901, P. L. 364. That act within itself provides a complete system regulating the creation
In the present case a scire facias was issued within the statutory period. But not having been served according to the requirements of the law it proved abortive. Unfortunately for the claimant it issued so closely to the expiration of the five year limit, that with the return of the writ the period had closed. Had it issued a term earlier this fatal effect could have been avoided by the abandonment of that particular writ, and the issuing of another within the period. Admittedly the writ returned was so defective that a judgment thereon could not be supported. The case stood therefore as though no writ had issued within the statutory period: Phila. v. Cooper, 212 Pa. 306. An alias writ of scire facias was sued out after the expiration of the limit, and it is upon this writ that the present contention hangs. The appellee, alleging that she was the sole owner of the premises against which the claim was filed, and that her husband, who was named in the claim and writ as owner, was without interest in the premises, filed her petition asking that she be allowed to intervene. This being allowed, a general appearance for-her followed. When the alias writ issued not only was the' lien at an end, but in the language of the act the claim