Case Name: William Daniels v. James W. Alexander
Court: Delaware Superior Court
Jurisdiction: Delaware
Decision Date: 1858
Citations: 2 Houst. 39
Docket Number: 
Parties: William Daniels v. James W. Alexander.
Judges: 
Reporter: Delaware Reports
Volume: 7
Pages: 39–40

Head Matter:
William Daniels v. James W. Alexander.
A fi, fa. without clause to levy on goods, and levied on the lands of the defendant, issued out of court on a duly certified transcript of a judgment, execution and return of nulla bona thereon before a justice of the peace, filed.in court, is regular. They?, fa. and return of nulla bona below, is equivalent to the same return on a f. fa. against the goods issued on the transcript out of court, and no goods will therefore be presumed, unless the contrary is shown.
Daniels the plaintiff,
had obtained a judgment before a justice of the peace against the defendant Alexander, on which an execution had been issued and a return of nulla Iona made by the constable; and thereupon had a duly certified transcript of the docket entries of the judgment and execution filed in this court pursuant to the provisions of the statute, on which a writ of fieri facias was afterwards sued out of this court, without containing any clause or direction for seizing and taking in execution the goods and chattels of the defendant, and which was returned levied on his lands and tenements.
Rodney, for the defendant,
now moved to quash the writ for this reason. Because it should have c ontained such a clause, in order that it might appear by the return of the sheriff that there were no goods, or not sufficient to satisfy the judgment, before the lands and tenements of the defendant were liable to be seized and levied on under the judgment.
Spruanee for the plaintiff:
The fi. fa. and return of nulla bona on the judgment below, and before its entry in this court on transcript by virtue of that return, was sufficient for this purpose.

Opinion:
By the Court:
The object of the statute in providing for the entry of the judgment here on transcript after a return of nulla bona to a fi. fa. issued by the justice of the peace, on the judgment, is to make it a lien on the real estate of the defendant, if he has any, and to give the plaintiff an execution against the lands of the defendant, which he had not below, and not against his goods, which he had below. The transcript of the execution and return of nulla bona filed of record here, was equivalent under the circumstances and according to the operation and design of the statute, to a return of nulla bona on a fi.fa. issued out of this court in the case, because it appears by the record that there were no goods; and such must be presumed to be the fact, unless the contrary were shown. The execution is therefore regular, and the motion must be refused.