22 Wend. 566 | N.Y. Sup. Ct. | 1840
By the Court,
An unqualified mailing of the writ and its receipt by the deputy sheriff would undoudedly have been an issuing of it, and that would' have been irregular until the jud'gment had been perfected. Marvin v. Herrick, 5 Wendell, 109. But he was directed by the plaintiffs’ attorney to endorse it as received at a time after the record was in fact filed, and he did so—doing no act under it till after the judgment was perfect. I do not see why the delivery may not as well be thus qualified and rendered finally effectual, as if it had been sent to a neighbor of the sheriff, to hold as agent for the plaintiffs’ attorneys. The sheriff may be made their special agent as well as any other person, and cannot be said to hold the writ as sheriff till the time expired. In that sense, the writ was not issued till the proper time. It may be said to have lain with him as a private agent till that period ; for he was, in this respect, under the control of the plaintiffs’ attorneys. The delivery of a writ is as much an "act in pais as the delivery of personal property, which may always be qualified so as to make the receiver a mere bailee or agent up to a certain time, and the absolute owner afterwards. A man sends his agent a general power to sell his horse, but in the letter enclosing it directs him to sell on a certain day ; the general agency does not take effect till the day ; for both must be considered to operate as one instrument, the special qualifying the general power."
In short, the result of the cases seems to be, that the attorney for the party in whose favor process issues, may give such directions to the sheriff as will not only excuse him from his general duty, but bind him. The attorney may make him pro tanto a special agent, by restricting his general power in any way which shall not amount to an abuse of the process, although he cannot enlarge the power. Both the process and the law which confers authority under it are for the benefit of the party ; and it is a general rule
Nor is thé sending out an execution conditionally, forbidden by the statute. 2 R. S. 284, § 11. Id. 288, § 10. By the 11 th section cited, “no judgment shall be deemed valid, so as to authorize any proceedings thereon,- until the record thereof shall have been signed and filed; and by the 10th Section cited, the officer is bound to endorse the hour of the day when he receives any execution. By regarding the deputy as the private agent of the attorneys, up to the hour when the record was filed, the case is the same in legal effect, as if the writ had; been made out provisionally, but suffered to lay in the attorneys’ office. It was not delivered out, nor endorsed, till the hour appointed by the attorneys; therefore, it was not a proceeding in the cause till that time.
I think the attorneys proceeded regularly, and that the motion must therefore be denied.