52 S.C. 305 | S.C. | 1898
The opinion of the Court was delivered by
Judgment by default was entered, February 17, 1896, against the defendant in this case, pursuant to an order for judgment by Judge R. C. Watts, dated February 5th, 1897, as follows: “It appearing that the notes sued on herein were given for the purchase money of defendant’s homestead, and there is due thereon to plaintiff the sum of $336.11', and defendant having made no answer, on motion of W. F. Stevenson, plaintiff’s attorney, it is ordered, that plaintiff have judgment against the defendant for $336.11, and I certify that the same is for the purchase money of defendant’s homestead, and for nothing else; and the clerk is ordered to indorse a copy of this certificate on all process issued in this case for the collection of said debt.” When the plaintiff’s attorney asked for judgment, he stated that he desired a certificate that the debt was for the purchase money of defendant’s homested, and wished to swear a witness as to that matter. The plaintiff was then sworn, and testified that the notes sued on were given for the purchase money of a tract of land bought by defendant from Isham A. Wallace, the payee of the notes; that lately, since plaintiff (to whom Wallace had assigned the notes) had been insisting on payment of the debt, the defendant had exchanged that tract for the tract in his possession at the time of the trial, and that he owned no other land. The question was then submitted to Judge Watts, whether the debt sued on was the purchase money of the defendant’s homestead, and Judge Watts held that the same consideration ran through the entire transaction, and that the land in the possession of defendant stood with reference to the debt as the original tract for which the notes were given, and so gave the certificate asked for.
Under an execution issued on said judgment, the sheriff of Chesterfield County levied upon the land in defendant’s
Then defendant appealed from the order of Judge Klugh and also from the order of Judge Watts. Under the view we take, it will not be necessary to consider the grounds of appeal in detail; but we will announce the principles that determine the appeal.
The judgment of the Circuit Court is affirmed.