66 F. 856 | 5th Cir. | 1895
The bill was brought in the court below by Julie Runge, residing in the city of Hanover, in the empire of Germany, and a subject of the empire of Germany, against John A. Loomis and others named, all citizens of the state of Texas, except the Ostrander & Loomis Land & Live-Stock Company, a corporation under the laws of the state of New Jersey, having its principal office and place of business in Concho county, Tex., of which John A. Loomis is agent and manager. Complainant says in her bill: That she is the widow of Henry Runge, deceased, who died on or about the 17th day of March, 1875, and at the time of his death had a large estate, consisting of lands and personal property, in the state of Texas, all of which was community property of their marriage, owned by decedent and complainant. That said Henry Runge died testate, and devised by his last will, which was probated, his share in the community lands in the state of Texas to the children born of their marriage, who are named in the bill, and from whom it is charged complainant purchased, for
The question is the validity of the sheriff’s sale made under execution issued upon judgment of Ilenry Bunge v. German Emi-
The appellee insists that the return day of the execution in question was not as stated in it,' for that, after it was issued, and in July, 1856, the legislature of the state of Texas passed an' act which extended the return day of this execution to the first Monday in December, 1856, a date subsequent to the sheriff’s sale. There were two acts of the legislature of Texas passed in July of this year touching the subject, — the first one, "An act to change the time of holding the district courts in the Tenth and Fourteenth judicial districts,” passed July 11; 1856, and “An act supplemental to an act entitled ‘An act to change the time of holding court in the Tenth and Fourteenth judicial districts,”’ passed July 29, 1856. The first act changed the time for holding the court in Calhoun.county to the first Mondays in February and August, and the latter act, called a “supplemental act,” provided that “so much of the above entitled act as requires the district court to be held in the county of Calhoun on the first Monday of August and in the county of Victoria on the second Monday after the first Monday of August shall not take effect until the first of January, 1857, and that the fall term of said court, 1856, shall be held in Victoria county on the second Monday of November and may continue in session two weeks and the fall term, 1856, of said court for the county of Calhoun shall be held on the first Monday of December, 1856, * * * and that all process returned to these courts at any other time shall be returnable at the time fixed by this act.” The intention and purpose of this latter act is clear, and, if a valid act, extends the life of the execution until after the day of sale. But the appellant’s proposition is that this act is void, and can have no such effect; that, while it is called a “supplemental act,” it is in reality an amendatory act, and is in violation of the constitution of the state of Texas in force at the time, which provided (section 25, art. 7): “No law shall be revised or amended by
In the view taken of the case, we need not consider the evidence relied on by the complainant to sustain the charges of conspiracy and fraud on the part of the defendants, nor the evidence of defend