2 Ind. 114 | Ind. | 1850
A statement of facts was submitted to the Circuit Court to the following effect:
A judgment was rendered by the Washington Circuit Court in favor of one Hartley, against Archibald and Josiah Spurgin, for 92 dollars and 87-J- cents, in June, 1840. James Thompson had also, in March, 1840, recovered a judgment before, a justice of the peace against the
The Salem Savings Institution also recovered a judgment in the same Court on the 29th of September, 1840, against Archibald Spurgin, Charles Hay, John C. Clarke, and Micah Newby, for 609 dollars and 10 cents. This judgment was rendered for a debt in which A. Spurgin was the principal, and Hay, Clarke, and Newby, his sureties. To save the latter from loss as such sureties, Spurgin had, in February, 1840, mortgaged to them certain lands in Washington county.
Executions upon all these judgments having come to the hands of McMahon, who was sheriff of Washington county, he levied them upon the lands thus mortgaged; and, at a sale to satisfy said executions, they were purchased by one Cutshaw at the price of 748 dollars.
The sheriff applied the money thus made — first, to the payment of the judgment in favor of Hartley, rendered in June, 1840, which he satisfied in full; and, secondly, to the payment of the judgment in favor of the Salem Savings Institution; and there not being a sufficient amount to satisfy that judgment in full, he applied none to the judgment in favor of Thompson.
Thompson was present at the sale by the sheriff, and knew that the mortgaged premises had been levied on to satisfy the three executions, and also knew that A. Spurgin, Hay, Clarke, and Newby, had directed the sheriff to levy on those premises to satisfy the execution in favor of the Salem Savings Institution.
The present suit was brought by Thompson against McMahon, the sheriff, to obtain a decision upon the question whether the proceeds of the sale above mentioned ought not to have been applied to the payment of his
We cannot perceive any error in the judgment of the Circuit Court. The lien of Thompson's judgment, which took effect at the time the transcript was filed and recorded, was, evidently, older than that of the Salem Savings Institution's judgment; and the facts that Say, Clarke, and Newby, held a mortgage to indemnify them as sureties for the payment of the debt upon which the latter judgment was rendered, and that the date of their mortgage was prior to that of Thompson's judgment, did not authorize the sheriff to appropriate the proceeds of the sale to the satisfaction of that mortgage or for the benefit of the mortgagees. He was only authorized, by the executions in his hands,-to sell the interest of the execution-defendants, subject to execution, in the land levied upon; and having made the sale, it was his duty to apply the proceeds to the satisfaction of the several executions according to the priority of the liens of the judgments.
The judgment is affirmed with 2 percent. damages and costs, &c.