39 S.C. 477 | S.C. | 1893
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This was a summons to renew an execution issued to enforce a judgment, originally docketed on the 14th day „of September, 1866, which, as the plaintiff alleges, was renewed first by an order of court bearing date 10th September, 1875. The defendant in her answer showed for cause why said execution should not be renewed: 1st. “That the judgment debt which purports to be represented by the alleged execution has been fully paid and discharged in law. 2d. That she denies the allegation in the said summons contained, that the execution was renewed in 1875, and alleges that the pretended renewal thereof is void. 3d. That she is advised, and, therefore, alleges, that there is no valid record upon which to base an execution in this case. 4th. The respondent has been recently informed that there is a purported order of renewal of the alleged execution in the above cause. She is surprised at this, for the reason that no notice or summons was ever served upon her informing her that application would be made to renew the execution in this case. She is further informed that there is a notice in the record of this case which has upon it a certificate or statement purporting to be made by Sheriff Spofford, to the effect that by his special deputy, Isham Drake, he served a copy of said notice upon her on the 2d day of January, A. D. 1875, at deponent’s place of residence in Chesterfield County. That the said certificate is based upon an erroneous statement of facts. That Isham Drake never delivered to respondent any such copy notice or other paper on 2d day of January, 1875, nor at any other time.” Appended to her answer was the affidavit of one Isham Drake, in which he says: “That he never served any papers for Sheriff Spofford on Mrs. Mary A. Dickson in his life, and that said
The case came before his honor, Judge Witherspoon, for hearing, when the original record, showing that judgment had been duly entered as stated in the summons in the present case, and accompanying said record, as a part thereof, were the proceedings showing that the execution had been renewed in 1875, to wit: the summons, bearing date the 1st of January, 1875, calling upon defendant to show cause why a new execution should not issue, upon which were the following endorsements: “Lodged 1st January, 1875. (Signed) P. F. Spofford, S. C. C. By my special deputy, Isham Drake, delivered a copy of this notice to Mary A. Dicksoh personally, at her place of residence in Chesterfield County, on the 2d day of January, 1875, and left the same with her. (Signed) P. F. Spofford, S. C. C.” Also, an affidavit of the plaintiff to the effect that no part of the judgment had ever been paid, but the same remains wholly unsatisfied for the whole amount; and an order signed by his honor, Judge Townsend, renewing the execution. The plaintiff in the case was permitted to testify, against objection by defendant, that no part of the judgment, had ever been paid.
The Circuit Judge rendered judgment that the plaintiff was entitled to renew his execution, and granted an order of renewal accordingly. From this the defendant appeals, upon the several grounds set out in the record, which, under the view we take, need not be repeated here.
3 Unless, therefore, the present proceeding can be regarded as a direct proceeding instituted for the purpose of correcting an alleged error in the record of the proceedings instituted in 1875, it is very obvious that the court could not now enter into any inquiry as to whether the defendant was in fact served with the summons by which that proceeding was inaugurated. It seems to us that it can not be so regarded, for, in the first place, this proceeding was not instituted by the party claiming, that there was an error in the record; and if the defence which is set up here should be allowed to prevail, the record would still stand as it stood before. This matter of correcting errors in records is too serious a matter to allow any laxity in the proceedings for that purpose. The public records are designed for the information of all persons who may have occasion to consult them, and hence the importance of the rule that a proceeding to correct an error in the record must be taken in the same case (Crocker v. Allen, supra), so that the inquirer may at once see that what purports to be a valid judgmept is not so in fact. We do not think, therefore, that the defendant can be permitted, by way of defence to another proceeding, to set up an alleged error in the record; and hence any inquiry into the fact of service upon her of the summons
The judgment of this court is, that the judgment of the Circuit Court be affirmed.