74 Mo. 108 | Mo. | 1881
This is an action of ejectment instituted in the circuit court of Miller county, by the heirs of Owen Riggs, deceased, to recover the possession of several tracts of land described in the petition. The answer denies that plaintiffs have either title to the lands sued for, or the right to the possession of them, and sets up title in the defendant. Upon a trial of the cause, plaintiffs obtained judgment, from which the defendant has appealed.
Both parties claim through Daniel Cummings, as the common source of title. The plaintiffs claim under a sheriff’s deed executed in virtue of a sale made by the sheriff of Miller county on the 6th day of October, 1869, under an execution which issued upon a judgment in favor of
The defendant, in support of his title, offered evidence showing that on the 15th day of April, 1868, Milo Blair, register in bankruptcy, made an assignment of all the real and personal property owned by said Daniel Cummings, a bankrupt, on the 22nd day of February, 1868, to Samuel
At the time the judgment was rendered, tne act of March 17th, 1863, (Acts 1863, p. 24,) was in force, and provided that the lien of a judgment should continue for five years from the rendition of the same. Under this law the lien of the judgment would not have expired till the 27th day of April, 1869, and if this law is to govern, the lien of the judgment was in full force on the 20th day of January, 1869, at which time defendant purchased the property in dispute at the sale made by said Harrison; and under the authority of the cases of Fisher v. Lewis, 69 Mo. 629; Seibel v. Simeon, 62 Mo. 255; McGready v. Harris, 54 Mo. 137, the title acquired by defendant at such'sale was subject to the lien of said judgment. It is,'however, claimed that under section 3 of General Statutes 1865, page 636, which provides that the lien of a judgment shall commence on the day of its rendition and continue for three years, the lien of said judgment of North & Scott had expired. The General Statutes of 1865 did not go into effect till the 1st day of August, 1866, and whether the above section be so construed (as it might well be under the authority of the cases of State ex rel. v. Ferguson, 62 Mo. 77; State ex rel. v. Hays, 52 Mo. 578), as to give it only prospective operation on judgments that might thereafter be rendered; or so construed as to give it a retrospective operation on judgments which had been theretofore rendered, the result in