Woodward v. Carson

• Decision Date: 11 February 1878
• Citation: 86 Pa. 176
• Parties: Woodward <I>versus</I> Carson.
• Court: Pennsylvania Supreme Court

86 Pa. 176

Woodward versus Carson.

Supreme Court of Pennsylvania.

January 30, 1878.

February 11, 1878.

January 30th 1878.

Before AGNEW, C. J., SHARSWOOD, MERCUR, GORDON, PAXSON, WOODWARD and TRUNKEY, JJ.

Error to the old District Court of Philadelphia county: Of July Term 1876, No. 97 R. P. White, for plaintiff in error.—Debts in suit and judgments may be attached: McCarty v. Emlen, 2 Dallas 277; Crabb v. Jones, 2 Miles's Rep. 130; Sweeny v. Allen, 1 Barr 380; Fithian v. Railroad Co., 7 Casey 114.

An action of debt will lie on a foreign judgment, notwithstanding the pendency of an appeal from the decision of the foreign court: Ins. Co. v. DeWolf, 9 Casey 45; Falkner v. Franklin Ins. Co., 1 Phila. R. 183.

When a judgment is entered the cause of action ceases to exist, and is wholly merged in the judgment, which is conclusive between the parties until reversed: Bank v. Wheeler, 28 Conn. 433; Doe v. Wright, 10 A. & E. 763; Benwell v. Black, 3 Tenn. 643; Nill v. Comparet, 16 Ind. 107; Burton v. Reeds, 20 Id. 92; Taylor v. Shew, 39 Cal. 539; Cole v. Conolly, 16 Ala. 271; Scott v. Pilkington, 110 E. C. L. R. 10; Suydam v. Hoyt, 1 Dutcher (N. J.) 230; Rheem v. Wheel Co., 9 Casey 357; Ins. Co. v. DeWolf, 9 Id. 45; Falkner v. Franklin Ins. Co., 1 Phila. R. 183. Nor is there any danger of injury to a garnishee in holding a judgment as conclusive pending a writ of error. The court, in the exercise of its equitable powers, can and will protect him.

A. Sidney Biddle and R. C. McMurtrie, for defendants in error.—The question is, was the record evidence of the debt to establish the right in favor of a stranger? If so, it is conclusive. It creates a debt of record by the defendant to the attaching creditor, and by a process that leaves no trace of the mode of doing this. If the judgment used as evidence is reversed, our liability will remain. A stranger cannot use a record to establish a fact determined until it has become conclusive, right or wrong. The judgment only proved a fact depending on a contingency and that was incapable of trial. A general verdict for a specific sum is bad in attachment execution: Bonnaffon v. Thompson, 2 Norris 460.

The judgment of the Supreme Court was entered, February 11th 1878, PER CURIAM.

The record of the judgment of Woodward v. Carson, offered in evidence, was standing in full force and unreversed, and was therefore evidence of an attachable debt. This necessarily demanded its admission in evidence, and carried it to the jury. But the record showed a delivery of a writ of error. This, however, did not destroy the effect of the judgment. Non constat that the judgment would be reversed. Hence the evidence of the existing debt must carry the verdict on the plea of nulla bona. But as the court has power to administer equity, through the...