32 N.C. 579 | N.C. | 1849
Lead Opinion
The decision of this Court in the case of Trice v. Turrentine, 5 Ire. 236, and in that of Waugh v. Hampton, at the same term, was the authority which governed the presiding Judge in this case, and the present appeal was designed to bring that, decision under review. It was given with hesitation by a divided Court. After taking time for deliberation and maturely reflecting on the reasons given in those cases, the Court, believing the opinion to be erroneous, is constrained, though reluctantly. to hold it so.
It has never occurred to me, that there can be several executions on a joint judgment, or one execution on two judgments, except as specially provided for in the case ■of principal and bail by the act of 1777, C. 115. S. 19. I do not look back to the cases upon the subject, because I know it to be too thoroughly settled to be shaken, that the execution must conform to the judgment; and therefore I concur in thinking on that point with my brother Nash, that the precedents from time immemorial cannot be safely departed from. I own, indeed, that I think the precedents right in themselves, and that it would lead to great mischiefs to disregard them. The record ought to be kept consistent upon its face, which can be done only by requiring in the execution a conformity to the judgment ; and I have never heard a suggestion from any quarter that they need not coincide. Of course, my rule, as the safe one is, stare super antiquas vias ; for I then know where I am. But if I get into new tracks, I cannot tell where they may lead me ; and hence I deem it a duty to avoid them.
Concurrence Opinion
I fully concur in the decision overruling the cases of Trice v. Turrentine, and Waugh v. Hampton, but I trace the source of the error higher up than the Chief Justice does in the opinion delivered by him.
It may be proper to state, that when this case was before me on the Circuit, feeling bound by the authority of those two cases, I decided in favor of the defendant, but advised an appeal, for the purpose of having them reviewed, because of a clear conviction, that they were wrong, and at points with Osborne v. Cunningham, For, if, as decided in that case, the bail, who has paid the debt, has no action against a co-defendant of his principal, hovv
The source of the error in those two cases, as I conceive, is not in the idea, that bail is but a “quasi security,” or that bail has the right to have all of the defendants before the Court, as, peradventure, one of them may have paid the debt. These are but braces, props, outposts', of the main position ; which is, that the judgment is a joint ene. Yeild this, and it follows, that the ca. sa. must be joint and must run against all the defendants ; and then; the conclusion is logical, that, as our statute requires the ca. sa. to be returned “non est inventus,” before the bail can be proceeded against, the plaintiff has no right to deprive them of this advantage by instructing the sheriff not to obey the writ, so far as one or more of the defendants are-concerned, and as to them to make an untrue return. This, it seems to me, is trifling with the forms of legal proceedings, and the officer, being commanded by the writ to take the bodies of two, ought not at the in. stance of the plaintiff falsely to return, that one is not to be found, when, in truth, he is in the County, for the purpose of throwing upon the bail a responsibility, which would not otherwise attach. It is this supposed privilege of having a ca. sa. truly returned, that induced Judge Daniel to say — bail are “quasi securities only'’ and have-a right to require that all the defendants should be brought into Court, to see if the debt has not been paid. These are legitimate corollaries and support his main position, which is based upon the foundation, that the judgment is joint. Assuming this to be true, he is warranted in the inference, that the execution must be against all of the joint defendants, by the cases cited, 1 Ray. 244, 1 Salk. SI9,2 Ray. 808 ; and it follows, that the return should be as broad as the execution, before the bail is fixed;
By the English law, a judgment against two or more is joint. If one dies, the burthen is upon the others. If all die but one, he alone is liable, and. if he be insolvent, the creditor loses his debt; and so is the law as to joint obligations. Our acts of 1789 and 1797 were intended to correct this inconvenience and injustice. They provide, that allobligationsshall be joint and sewerai, and that, ifan obligor dies, the creditor may have his action against the personal representative and surviving obligor. In Smith v. Fagan, 2 Dev. 298. it is held, that these statutes apply to judgments as well as to obligations, strictly so called, and that judgments, as far as defendants are concerned,, are joint and several. The nature of judgments being-thus changed and made different from judgments in England, the authorities cited by Judge Daniel are not in point. They decide, that an execution upon a joint judgment must issue as a joint writ against all of the defendants. But, here, the judgment is joint and several, and there can be no reason, why an execution may not issue against one of the defendants, treating it as several judgment with a recital, that it issued upon a judgment against two, as on record may appear. This will preserve “the conformity” as well, and be more direct and consistent with truth, than the mode of issuing against both, with instructions not to serve it on one, which is the same, under a deceptive form, as if it only issued against one.
Although this decision would overrule several cases, besides the two alluded to — among others,. Howzer v..
Besides the case of Smith v. Fagan, the course of our legislature fully sustains the position, that judgments are several as well as joint. The act of 1823 provides, that no female shall be imprisoned for debt. It makes no provision for the case of two defendants, one of whom is a female, taking it for granted that a ca. sa. could issue against the male defendant alone, unless it was intended to screen him also. And the act of 1844 seems to be conclusive ; for it provides that no ca.sa. shall issue, unless the plaintiff makes oath, that the defendant conceals his property. No provision is made for the case of two defendants, thus taking it for granted, that a ca. sa. can be issued against one. It cannot be supposed, that it was the intention to let a fraudulent debtor go free, because he had an honest co-defendant, as to whom the oath could not be made. Nor in this case, will the shift of issuing against all, but with instructions to make a false return as to one, “serve the turn ;” for the oath is a condition precedent, and cannot be avoided by the plaintiff’s undertaking to give instructions. If the position, for which I am contending, was not correct before, it must be so since this statute. The legislature must be taken to authorise
It is said, this w'ill make it necessary to overrule the cases of Hicks v. Gilliam, 4 Dev. 217, McIlwaine v. Jones, 4 Dev. & Bat. 154, and all of that class, in W'hich it is held, that one defendant cannot appeal, unless his co-defendants join. True ! they all flow from the same fountain. There is no better reason for overruling those of one class than of the other. All are based upon the same error, and, that being detected, it is wiser to take a “fresh start” than to embarrass the law by attempting to sustain some of the cases by making “distinctions” “too fine for use.” The process of reasoning in those cases is short and conclusive (admitting the premises) — a judgment is joint — therefore all of the defendants are a unit and make but one — and all must appeal or none — the judgment cannot be treated'as several, which would be the effect of allowing one to appeal without all, and, to close the argument by authority, it is added, it is well settled in England, that all the defendants must join in a writ of error, otherwise the Court.will quash. 2 Term. Rep. 736, 3 Bun. 1789, 1 Wilson 88. If, after error brought by one of several defendants in the names of all, the others re* fuse to join in the assignment of error, they w^ho refuse must be summoned and severed. Cro. Eliz. 891, Cro. James 94, 1 Arch. P. R. B. 232.
Thus it will be seen, that the conclusion, that all of the defendants must join in an appeal, is deduced from the
In England the defendants, who refuse to join in assignment of error, may be summoned and severed. Here, there is no provision of the kind as to appeals, and a defendant is left without remedy, if his co defendant refuses to join; so that, notwithstanding the acts of 1789 and 1797, which were intended to do away with the hardships and absurdities growing out of the doctrine of joint obligations, joint judgments, and survivorships, defendants are really in a worse condition than they are in England, where there has been no such salutary and wise legislation.
Dissenting Opinion
clissentiente. I do not concur with my brethren in the decision of this case. If, in their opinions filed, there had been a concurrence of views and no antagonistic reasoning, I should be more diffident of the one I have formed.
When the cases of Waugh v. Hampton, and Trice v. Turrentine, which are now overruled, were decided, I concurred with Judge Daniel in the opinions filed by him. I have just examined those opinions with all the care I could bestow upon them, and with no little solicitude. I have heard nothing to shake or alter the views there taken. Nearly, if not all, the reasoning urged in this case, and most of the authorities now cited, were then used and pressed into the argument. It was thought by a majority of the Court then, that, although arguments ah inconveniente were entitled to much weight in the construction and application of statutes, they had not, and could not have, the effect of altering the law and contradicting the will of the legislature, when acting within their constitutional limits : that, if an act be plain and its meaning perspicuous, the Courts have no authority to refuse to execute it, because it may produce inconvenience ; nor have
I consider this a question arising exclusively under the statute law of this State and to bo decided by it. In order to arrive at a just construction of the statute, we must see what the law was at the time of its passage, and ascertain what was the evil to be remedied. - By the common law, bail could not be subjected to a recovery, assuch, until & capias ad satisfaciendum had issued against the principal. Originally it was a wri-t for service — to be issued to the County, where the venue was laid, and if the defendant could not be found there, a testatum ca sa. might be issued to any other County — 1 Sellon’s Prac. 518. The bail by their contract undertake, that, if judgment be obtained in the action against the defendant, he
If they had intended in Fagan's case to rule, that all judgments were joint and several, the question could not have been raised in the case referred to. But the contrary opinion has been declared by this Court in repeated instances, particularly in that series of cases, wherein the Court have declared, that one defendant in a joint judgment could not appeal. Hicks v. Gilliam, 4 Dev. 218, is the first and leading case on the subject. It was decided in 1833, a majority of the Court consisting of the same Judges, who made the decision in Fagan's case. This was followed by the case of Dunn v. Jones, 4 Dev, & Bat. 154, decided in 1838. In Stiner v. Cauthorn, 4 Dev. & Bat 501, decided in 1839, the doctrine is recognised. So in Stephens v. Batchelor 1 Ire. Rep. 60, and in Wilkinson v. Gilchrist, 4 Ire, 228, in 1844, it was ruled, that all the parties to a judgment, either plaintiffs or defendants, must join in an appeal or it will be dismissed. The case of Donnel v. Shields, 8 Ire. 272, decided in 1848, is an exceedingly strong one. It was an action of trover for the conversion of slaves — the defendants pleaded severally, and the jury found them “severally guilty,” but it assessed the damage jointly against the whole. The Court say the judgment was a joint one, and that one defendant could not appeal. At the same term the case of Smith v. Cunningham, page 460, was decided upon the same principle. Here, then, are seven cases following quick
Other questions arose on the argument in the case of Trice v. Turrentine, which I have not noticed ; because I agreed with my Brethren, that there must be a repleader ; and if the case should come before us again, an opportunity will then be afforded me to do so.
My opinion is, that the judgment below in this case ought to be affirmed.
Judgment reversed and a venire de novo.
Lead Opinion
NASH, J., dissentiente.
The decision of this Court in Trice v. Turrentine,
(581) The opinion delivered laid down a position entirely new to the profession and in opposition to a course which had been always practiced in this State. There had been many judgments against bail of one defendant on non est inventus returned as to him, because he could not be found, and returned, as of course, in respect to the others, by the direction of the plaintiff not to take or to look for them; and there can be no little doubt but that the same would have been done in those cases and in the present if the sheriffs had not happened to be the bail. It is manifest upon the face of the opinion, as delivered by our late learned brother Daniel, that the judgment rests upon this position: That when a judgment is taken against two *419
or more, as between all of them and the bail of one they are all principal debtors, and the bail stands as surety for all the defendants. He does not, indeed, lay down the proposition quite so explicitly as that — as he would, doubtless, have done if he had seen his way as clearly as he usually did. But that is the necessary effect of what he does say. His words are: "that the Legislature considered all the defendants as principal debtors, and the bail of all or any of the defendants as quasi sureties only; and before these sureties [bail] should be looked to by the plaintiff for the debt, he should show by a ca. sa. returned nonest inventus as to all the principals, that he had been unable to get his debt" — that is, from either of them. That position is, we think, essentially wrong; and as it lies at the foundation of the opinion, the whole must fall together. The error consists in regarding the bail of one defendant as the surety of another, or that any person is the principal of the bail except him for whom he became bound by the bail bond. The sheriff, indeed, does not give a bond, but becomes bound by law as a special bail if he fail to return a sufficient bond given by other bail. But it is admitted in the opinion, that can make no difference, and that he is to be regarded as if he had given a separate bond as the bail of Forkner; for bail is always taken for each (582) defendant separately, and the sheriff cannot prejudice the plaintiff by becoming bail under the statute instead of taking a bond from other sureties. Now, if several bonds be given by different bail for the different defendants respectively, we must deny positively that the bail in one of those bonds can be deemed the bail of another defendant, or his surety, or quasi surety, to any purpose whatever. The term "quasi," as here used, has no meaning or legal effect, but is calculated only to mislead. One must be surety for another or not, for there is no middle state or relation. Then, it seems clear that the bail and surety for one is not the surety for the other, more than he is his bail. He becomes bound solely by becoming bail, and he is bound as surety as far as he is bound as bail, and no further. It follows that his right of indemnity goes to the same extent, and no further. Judge Daniel must have felt that to be so; and that induced him to use the qualifying phrase, "quasi sureties," which, however, served not to help on his argument, but only to perplex the question the more. When one man is surety for another, he has a right to be made whole by the principal for any loss sustained thereby, and to contribution from any other bound as surety for the same debt. That is inherent in the relations of principal, surety, and cosurety, and every court recognizes it which takes cognizance of questions between *420
persons in those relations. Yet it is distinctly admitted in the opinion that there is no such right to indemnity or contribution from one defendant or his bail to the bail of another. Indeed, it was expressly held so in Osborne v. Cunningham,
The object was to require the creditor to seek the debtor whose bail he purposed to charge. It is like the common case of an execution against two, upon which, though the law requires the personalty to be all sold before land, the constant course has been, as well with levies of a justice's execution as with sales by sheriffs, to proceed against the land of one defendant, when his chattels were exhausted, although the other defendant might have a sufficiency of chattels to satisfy the debt. Indeed, we have a statute which requires that, when it appears upon the process that one defendant is principal and the other surety. So, if there be a joint judgment against two, and one of them be honestly insolvent, so that the creditor cannot make the requisite affidavit to entitle him to a ca. sa. against him under the act of 1844, yet the other is fully able to pay the debt, but his property is not tangible, or he is about to leave the State. Could any court, upon affidavit of those facts and an undertaking by the creditor not to serve it on the insolvent, hesitate to issue a ca. sa. in conformity to the judgment against both? To refuse it would be to defeat justice and stifle the great purposes of the law under its forms. It is a very common thing for an execution to issue for one sum, with an indorsement to raise a less. The execution issues in one form for conformity to the judgment, but either a direction of the clerk or the order of the plaintiff written on the process is an authority (588) how far short of its face the officer may go in executing it; and this may as well apply to persons as to things mentioned in it. Thus a capias ad respondendum issues against a man and woman, whereby the sheriff is commanded in terms to take their bodies, yet he in fact arrests but the man, and as to the woman the writ operates but as a summons. Would the sheriff *424
be bound to arrest the woman because the writ was in that form? Or, if not, would he be at liberty not to arrest the man because he could not arrest the woman also? Certainly, the answer is in the negative in each case. The plaintiff could require the sheriff to arrest his male debtor, and direct him authoritatively not to arrest or imprison the woman; for the law, in exempting a female from imprisonment, did not alter the form of the process against her, but only changed its use as to a female. Indeed, if there be a capias ad respondendum
against two men, can anybody doubt that the plaintiff may, notwithstanding its terms, order the sheriff not to hold one of them to bail? It has been done thousands of times, and is every day's practice. That is nothing more nor less than an order not to arrest or take the body, but to summon; and to that extent it is not changing the form, but the effect of the writ. So, in order to charge bail, the course was to issue a ca. sa. according to the judgment, and, at the direction of the plaintiff, not to serve it on particular defendants, but to return it non estinventus as to those whose bail it was the object to fix. If that were not so, creditors would always bring separate actions; and if the law requires the creditor to imprison insolvent defendants or sureties, before proceeding against the bail of a solvent defendant or of the principal debtor, no court ought to order him to consolidate. Besides, it would be so easy in other ways to evade the consequences of the rule as to make it of little (589) value to the bail. For the creditor would have nothing to do but to issue his ca. sa. a few days before the return and give notice of it to a defendant whom he did not wish to arrest, so as to enable him to be out of the sheriff's county for a short time, until non est inventus should be returned. That done, the sheriff would be fixed, and could never afterwards either take that defendant upon his own authority or require the creditor to take out another ca. sa.; and thus this supposed privilege of the bail of one, to have process against all the defendants, would be rendered of no value. True it is, if one defendant be arrested and discharged by the creditor, that discharges the bail of another defendant. But why? Not because there is any connection between them, but because the other defendant, the bail's principal, is discharged. Taking the body is satisfaction of the debt primafacie; and it is absolutely, if the creditor release the debtor from arrest. Bryan v. Simonton,
It has never occurred to me that there can be several executions on a joint judgment, or one execution on two judgments, except as specially provided for in the case of principal and bail by the act of 1777, ch. 115, sec. 19. I do not look back to the cases upon the subject, because I know it to be too thoroughly settled to be shaken, that the execution must conform to the judgment; and therefore I concur in thinking on that point with by brother Nash, that the precedents from time immemorial cannot be safely departed from. I own, indeed, that I think the precedents right in themselves, and that it would lead to great mischiefs to disregard them. The record ought to be kept consistent upon its face, which can be done only by requiring in the execution a conformity to the judgment; and I have never heard a suggestion from any quarter that they need not coincide. Of course, my rule, as the safe one, is, stare super antiquas vias; for I then know where I am. But if I get into new tracks, I cannot tell where they will lead me; and hence I deem it a duty to avoid them.