Ryan v. Kanawha Val. Bank

• Decision Date: 11 November 1895
• Docket Number: 119.
• Citation: 71 F. 912
• Parties: RYAN et al. v. KANAWHA VAL. BANK.
• Court: U.S. Court of Appeals — Fourth Circuit

71 F. 912

RYAN et al. v. KANAWHA VAL. BANK.

No. 119.

United States Court of Appeals, Fourth Circuit.

November 11, 1895

F. B Enslow(of Simms & Enslow), for appellants.

J. F Brown(of Brown, Jackson & Knight; E. L. Buttrick on the brief), for appellee.

Before SIMONTON, Circuit Judge, and HUGHES, District Judge.

HUGHESDistrict Judge.

Under the law of West Virginia, a plaintiff, after obtaining judgment for his debt, can issue a writ of fieri facias against the personalty of the defendant.If the execution be returned unsatisfied, in whole or in part, and he wishes to reach the land of the defendant, he must file a bill in equity in aid of the execution.The judgment which he has obtained is a lien upon the defendant's land in any county in the state, although, as against a purchaser of the land without notice, the lien does not hold unless it be docketed in the county in which the land lies.In 1877, the plaintiff, appellee in this cause, recovered judgment against Lewis G. Huling et al., in Kanawha county, for $3,540.72.This judgment was docketed in 1878 in Kanawha and Clay counties, and in May 1880, in Nicholas county.In these two last counties the defendant Huling owned lands.The docketing of the judgment in Clay and Nicholas counties gave notice that the original suit, in which judgment has been entered, was in Kanawha county.The writ of fieri facias issued on the judgment in April, 1878, having been returned 'no property found,'the plaintiff, in October, 1878, brought its bill in equity in Kanawha county to subject lands in that county to its judgment.The case was referred, in June 1880, to a commissioner.His report was filed and confirmed in April, 1881.Sale of the lands in Kanawha county was ordered, and sale of them was made and confirmed in October, 1884.On the 22d of September, 1880 Huling conveyed the lands in Clay and Nicholas counties to the vendors of the defendant, appellant in this suit, who were thus purchasers pendente lite, in respect to the chancery suit in Kanawha county.There can be no doubt but that the statute of limitations began to run against the original judgment, at its date, in 1878, as to the lands in Clay and Nicholas counties.But the question in the case is whether the chancery suit, begun in October, 1878, brought to complete the relief of the judgment, was a continuation of the judgment, and kept it alive, as against the running of the statute of...