Case Name: Rankin & Schatzell, Plaintiffs in Error, against Scott, Defendant in Error
Court: Supreme Court of the United States
Jurisdiction: United States
Decision Date: 1827-01-23
Citations: 12 Wheat. 177
Docket Number: 
Parties: Rankin & Schatzell, Plaintiffs in Error, against Scott, Defendant in Error.
Judges: 
Reporter: United States Reports
Volume: 25
Pages: 177–227

Head Matter:
[Judgment Lien. Locad Law.]
Rankin & Schatzell, Plaintiffs in Error, against Scott, Defendant in Error.
The lien of a judgment on the lands of the debtor, created by statute, and limited to a certain period of time, is unaffected by the circumstance of the plaintiff not proceeding upon it, (during that period,) until a subsequent lien has been obtained and carried into execution.
Universal principle that a prior lien is entitled to prior satisfaction out of the thing it binds, unless the lien be intrinsically defective, or is displaced by some act of the party holding it, which shall postpone him at law or in equity.
Mere delay in proceeding to execution is not such an act.
Distinction created by statute, as to executions against personal chattels, and reasons on which it is founded.
ERROR to the District Court of Missouri.
This was an action of ejectment, brought in the Court below by the defendant in error, Scott, to recover the possession of a house and lot in the town of St. Louis. At the trial, a special verdict was found, stating, that in the year 1816, John Little married Marie Antoinette Labadie, who was then seised in fee of the house and lot in question. She died without issue, leaving the husband seised in fee of a moiety of the premises. He soon afterwards died wifhout issue, and intestate. In April, 1821, judgment was rendered in the Circuit Court of the county where the premises lay, against the administrator of Little, in favour of Schatzell and another, for 2,747 dollars and 19 cents. In March following, another judgment was rendered against the same, in favour of B. Pratte, for 1,241 dollars. Execution was immediately issued upon the latter judgment, and the premises in question sold under it to Scott, the plaintiff in ejectment; and soon afterwards, another execution issued upon the first judgment, and the same premises were sold to Schatzell, one of the defendants below, and conveyed to him by the sheriff’s deed. Rankin, who was tenant to Little in his lifetime, remained in possession of the premises after his death. and attorned to Schatzell. The question raised upon these facts was, whether the sale by the Sheriff, under the second judgment and first execution, devested the lien of the first judgment ? The Court below determined it in the affirmative ; and.the cause was brought, by writ of error, before this Court.
Jan. 15th.
Jan. 23d.
Mr. Benton, for the plaintiffs in error,
relied upon the express provisions of the statute of Missouri, to show that the local law made the first judgment a lien upon the land for the term of five years, within which time it was enforced, and Shatzell purchased under it. For the general effect of a judgment lien, he cited the authorities in the margin State of New-York, now in question, were not laws í; mi-pairing the obligation of contracts,” in the sense of the constitution. •
Mr. Talbot, contra.
Geyer’s Dig. LL. Missouri, 264. 267.
1 Johns. Cas. 224. 13 Johns. Rep. 463. 533. 1 Dall. 481. 486. 4 Dall. 450.
1 Term Rep. 729. 1 Lord Raym. 251. 1 Burr. 20. 8 Co Rep. 171. Cro.Elix. 181. 1 Salk. 320.

Opinion:
Mr. Chief Justice Marshall
delivered the opinion of the Court, and after stating the case, .proceeded as follows :
The act of the then territorial government of Missouri, on which this question depends, is in these words: " Judgments obtained in the General Court shall be a lien on the lands and tenements of the person or persons against whom the same has been entered, situate in any part of this territory ; and judgments obtained in a Court of Common Pleas of any district, shall be a lien on the lands and tenements of the person against whom the same has been entered, situate in such district." The act contains a proviso, " that no judgment hereafter entered in any Court of record within this territory, shall continue a lien on the lands and tenements against whom the same has been entered, during a longer term than five years from the first return day of the . term of which such judgment may be entered, unless the game shall have been revived by scire facias," &c.
Since the territory of Missouri was erected into a Stale, the Genéral Court has received the appellation of the Superior Court, and the Court of Common Pleas for the district has been denominated the Circuit Court for the county. The execution on the first judgment was issued within a short time after it was rendered, arid while the lien it created was in full force, unless it was removed by the execution and sale under the second judgment.
There is no expression in the law of Missouri which can suggest a doubt on this subject. By that law, judgments are to be a lien on all the lands of the debtor. This lien commences with the judgment, and continues for five years. The principle is believed to be universal, that a prior lien gives a prior claim, which is entitled to prior satisfaction, out of the subject it binds, unless the lien be intrinsically defective, or be displaced by some act of the party holding it, which shall postpone him in a Court of law or equity to a subsequent claimant. The single circumstance of not proceeding on it until a subsequent lien has been obtained and carried into execution, has never been considered as such an act. Take the common case of mortgages. It has never been supposed that a subsequent mortgage could, by obtaining and executing a decree for the sale of the mortgaged property, obtain precedence over a prior mortgage in which all the requisites of the law had been observed. If such a decree should be made without preserving the rights of the prior mcr'gagee, the property would remain subject to those rights in the hands of the purchaser. So, in cases of judgment, where an elegit may he sued out against the iáads of the debtor. The implied lien created by the first judgment, retains the preference over the lien created by a second judgment, so long as an elegit can issue on the first. A statutory lien is as binding as a mortgage, and has the same capacity to hold the land so long as the statute preserves it in force.
The cases cited of executions against personal property, do not, we think, apply. In those cases, the lien is not created by the judgment, or by any matter of record. The purchaser of the goods cannot suppose that the officer has committed any impropriety i« the performance of his duty. and this circumstance has induced Parliament to secure him. It is stated by Ashhurst, Justice, in 1 Term Rep. 731. that this was the sole object of that part of the statute ol frauda which relates to this subject. In the case at bar, the judgment is notice to the purchaser of the prior lien, and there is no act of the legislature to protect the purchaser from that lien.
We think, then, that the deed made by the Sheriff to the purchaser, under the first judgment, conveyed the legal title to the premises; and that the judgment on the special verdict ought to have been in favour of the plaintiff.
Judgment reversed.