Case ID: shan-cas_1/html/0439-02.html
Source: Caselaw Access Project
Author: {"author": "Nicholson, C. J.,", "license": "Public Domain", "url": "https://static.case.law/"}
Date Created: 2024-08-24T03:29:51.129683

WATKINS ET AL. v. CLEVELAND NATIONAL BANK.
    (S. C., 3 Leg. Rep., 148.)
    Knoxville,
    June Special Term, 1875.
    PLEADING AND PRACTICE. Scire facias to revive suit against administrator.
    When the object of a scire facias is to revive a suit in the name of and against an administratrix, and not to revive a final judgment rendered against her intestate, a plea in abatement that six months have not elapsed since her qualification is demurrable. [See Code, on scire facias, secs. 4571, 4716-4718, 5937(5), 6337-6340; on the six months, secs. 4007-4014, notes and references.]
   Nicholson, C. J.,

delivered the'opinion of the court.

On the 5th of December, 1874, Watkins appealed from a judgment rendered against him, in the circuit court of Hamilton county, and gave E. D. Hamilton as surety on his recognizance or appeal bond. Before the judgment was affirmed in this court at its present term, E. D. Hamilton died, and his widow, Mary H. Hamilton, qualified as administratrix. Upon the affirmance of the judgment here scire facias was ordered'to issue to Mary H. Hamilton, to show cause why the suit should not be revived against her as such administratrix. She appears and pleads in abatement to tbe sci. fa. that six months have not elapsed since her qualification as administratrix of her intestate, and therefore she is not liable to be sued. To this plea the plaintiff has demurred.

The demurrer is well taken. The scire facias is not to' revive a final judgment rendered against the intestate, which would be a new suit; the object of the scire facias in this case is, that the suit may be revived in the name of the administratrix, to the end that judgment may be rendered against her. It is, therefore, a continuation, of a suit already pending in which the intestate was not affected by the provision of the Code [Shannon’s Code, sec. 4007], which exempts administratrix from suit for six months. The demurrer is, therefore, sustained, and judgment will be rendered.