Howell v. Foster

• Decision Date: 27 September 1887
• Citation: 122 Ill. 276,13 N.E. 527
• Parties: HOWELL v. FOSTER.
• Court: Illinois Supreme Court

122 Ill. 276

13 N.E. 527

HOWELL

v.FOSTER.

Supreme Court of Illinois.

September 27, 1887.

Error to appellate court, Third district.

H. Pasco and B. I. Sterrett, for plaintiff in error.

Outten & Vail, for defendant in error.

MULKEY, J.

The present writ of error brings before us for review a judgment of the appellate court for the Third district, affirming an order and decree of the circuit court of Macon county, dismissing a bill in equity filed therein by Ezekiel Howell against William Foster, the sheriff of the county to restrain him from selling certain real estate belonging to the former, under numerous fee-bills and executions then in his hands in favor of various parties, and for divers small sums of money, amounting in the aggregate to over $500. The bill charges ‘that on the twenty-fifth of February, March the 3d and March 9th, 1886, one Fredrick Aholtz, deceased, by warranty and quitclaim, and for a valuable consideration by your orator to him paid, deeded and conveyed to your orator all and each and every part and parcel of the property hereafter mentioned and described, then owned and claimed by the said Aholtz, situated in Macon county, Illinois; that said deeds of conveyance are on record in said county of Macon; that prior to the time of making such conveyances by said Aholtz to your orator, to-wit, at the times hereinafter by the proceedings shown, divers judgments for costs were rendered against the said Aholtz in the circuit court of Macon county. All of the said judgments, or nearly all of them, were over seven years old at the time said conveyances were made by the said Aholtz to your orator, and said judgments, or nearly all of them, were over seven years old at the time the divers executions or fee-bills were issued on the same as herein complained of,-all of which judgments, executions, or fee-bills, and the levies by the sheriff made thereby, together with the different pieces of property thereon levied, are hereinafter fully described and set forth; that by reason of the lapse of time, to-wit, more than seven years, the said judgments had all or nearly all become stale, and ceased to be liens on said real estate, or any part thereof, by reason of limitation as aforesaid prior to the time such fee-bills or executions were issued and said conveyances made by Aholtz to your orator; that on or about December 24, 1885, about 18 fee-bills or executions were issued and placed in the hands of the sheriff of Macon county...