Case ID: ala_82/html/0411-01.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "SOMERYILLE, J.", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

Cooper & Co. v. Jacobs & Belsinger.
    
      Statutory Trial of Right of' Property.
    
    1. Form and validity of execution.— An execution, issued by a justice of the peace, which does not state the name of the plaintiff in the judgment, is void, although the names of the parties are properly indorsed on it.
    Appeal from the Circuit Court of Calhoun.
    Tried before the Hon. Leroy F. Box.
    The appellants in this case, C. J. Cooper & Co., having-obtained a judgment before a justice of the peace against Hayes & Roberts, caused an execution thereon issued to be levied on a barrel of whiskey, as the property of said Hayes & Roberts. A claim to the barrel of whiskey was thereupon interposed by Jacobs & Belsinger, and bond given to try the right of property. On appeal by .the claimants, the case was removed into the Circuit Court, and an issue was there made up between the parties under the direction of the court. On the trial, as appears from the bill of exceptions, the plaintiffs offered, in evidence the execution under which the levy was made, which was a printed blank in the usual form, issued by C. T. Hilton as justice of the peace, addressed to any constable of the county, and commanding him to make, of the goods and chattels of Hayes & Roberts, the sum of $32.28, &o., “ which was recovered before me, of him, on the 9 th day of July, 1886 ;” the names of the plaintiffs having been omitted in filling up the blanks, and nowhere appearing on the execution, except in an indorsement of the parties’ names on the back. On-objection by the claimants, the court ruled out the execution as evidence, holding that it was void. The plaintiffs excepted to this ruling, and they now assign it as error.
    Bishop & Hanna, for the appellants,
    cited Deloach v. State Bank, 27 Ala. 437; B> own v. Hurt & Pro., 31 Ala. 146; Couch v. Anderson, 32 Ala. 633 ; 38 Ala. 142; 13 Ala. 282.
    
      Brothers & Willett, contra,
    
    cited Graham v. Chandler, 15 Ala. 345 ; Steioart v. Nuchols, 15 Ala. 231; Ereeman on Executions, §§ 86, 38, 42 ; Smith v. Alexander, at the present term ; JacJeson v. Baine, 74 Ala. 328.
   SOMERYILLE, J.

— The execution issued by the justice of the peace, Hilton, was properly excluded from admission in evidence, being void on its face. It fails to show in whose favor it was issued, and amounted to nothing more than a roving commission to any constable of the county to make a certain sum of money out of the goods and chattels of Hayes and Roberts. The indorsement on the back of the execution was no part of it, and can not be looked to in aid of this fatal defect.

Affirmed.