JOHN MERCER, APPELLANT,
v.
WILLIAM B. HOOKER, APPELLEE

Fla. | 1853-01-01
5 Fla. 277 Florida Supreme Court (1853) Caution
Cited by 9 cases

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Holding

An execution lien on personal property attaches from the time the writ reaches the sheriff's hands and remains in full force until satisfied, and a married woman's separate personal property is liable for her husband's debts unless an inventory is recorded in the clerk's office within six months of acquisition.


Headnotes

[1] A married woman's separate personal property acquired during coverture is liable for her husband's debts unless an inventory describing the property is recorded in the cl…

[2] An execution writ creates a lien on the defendant's personal property from the time it comes into the sheriff's hands and remains in full force until satisfied, regardles…

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Key Quotes

“It created a lien upon the personal property of the defendant from the time it came to the hands of the sheriff, without respect to the rights of third persons, who may subsequently have acquired title to the same.”

Explaining the effect of an execution writ and when the lien attaches to property.

Facts & Procedural History

In 1850, Kendrick purchased a bay horse from Hagler, with the bill of sale executed to Kendrick's wife; Kendrick later traded this horse for another, …

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Opinion of the Court
SEMMES, J.:

SEMMES, J.:

In this case, an execution in favor of William B< Hooker against Edward T. Kendrick, issued in 184Y, was levied on a horse, as the property of the defendant, and to which the ajapellant, John Mercer, interposed his claim.

Upon the trial of the issue in tbe Court below, the following facts appeared in evidence: In 1850, Kendrick purchased a bay horse of one Hagler, who at the request of Kendrick, executed a bill of sale to the wife of the latter.

Some few months thereafter, Kendrick traded this horse for the one in controversy, and shortly after sold the latter to one Cowart, who subsequently sold the same to the present- claimant.

To support his claim in the Court below, the appellant relied mainly upon the alleged previous title of Mrs. Kendrick to the horse originally purchased, as well as the one in controversy.

It is unnecessary to notice specifically the several instructions given to the jury by the Court below, and to which the counsel for the appellant excepted.

The execution it appears, came to the hands of the sheriff in December, 1848, who afterwards endorsed upon it a nulla Iona?* Counsel are mistaken, in supposing that it ■ was the duty of the sheriff, after having made his return, to deposite the execution in the clerk’s office, or that the Writ itself became inoperative after the endorsement. On the contrary, it was the duty of the sheriff to retain the writ in his hands, and it was by its very terms, in full force until satisfied. Thomp. Dig., 355. It created a lien upon the personal property of the defendant from the time it came to the hands of the sheriff, without respect to the rights of third persons, who may subsequently have acquired title to the same.

To’establish the title originally in Mrs. Kendrick, it was not only necessary for the claimant to prove that the pur'chase was made for her and with her money, but that the 'property was inventoried and recorded in the clerk’s office of the Circuit Court within sis months after said property was acquired by her.

In this State, married women may acquire a separate and independent title to both real and personal property during coverture, by bequest, demise, gift, purchase or distribution, subject, however, to the same becoming liable to the debts of her husband, unless an inventory thereof is recorded within six months from the time the title vests in her. Thomp. Dig., 221. The record, however, of title papers particularly describing the property, is a sufficient inventory and eomjiliance with the statute.

The Court below was right in deciding that the husband and wife should join in all sales, transfers and conveyances of the separate property of the latter. Thomp. Dig., 221.

The exclusion by the Court of the bill of sale, as evidence, because its execution had not been proved before it was admitted to record, is clearly erroneous, because there was no • necessity of its being recorded. But this ruling cannot affect the judgment below, inasmuch as the claimant was not damnified thereby. It does not aj>pear from the bill of sale, that the horse was the separate property of Mrs. Kendrick; on the contrary, it appears from the evidence that the property was purchased and paid for by the husband, there being no evidence that the money was that of the wife.

These points embrace all the rulings of the Court below upon the trial of the cause, and with the exception stated, we are not disposed to overrule them. They are made in conformity with our statute, and we see no reason to doubt their correctness.

Judgment below affirmed.


Cases With Similar Vibessemantic neighbors from the corpus


Citator

Cited By

  • Huttig v. Huffman, 151 Fla. 166 (Fla. 1942)
    …een alleged or proved. No fraud in the purchase of the boat with funds of and in the name of the corporation is shown. It appears to us that none of the cases cited by counsel are applicable here. Appellant relies on the cases of Mercer v. Hooker, 5 Fla. 277, and Craig v. Gamble, 5 Fla. 430, for support of the contention that the property here involved is subject to execution. We have carefully considered these cases and find them to be not in point. The question here presented is whether the boat on w…
  • …that the property so acquired should be inventoried and recorded in the clerk’s office of the county in which the property was situated at the peril of being liable for her husband’s debts “as if this act had not been passed.”' See Mercer v. Hooker, 5 Fla. 277; Price v. Sanchez, 8 Fla. 136. The Constitution of 1868, Art. IV, Sec. 26, secured to the married woman all property, real and personal, owned by her before marriage, or lawfully acquired afterward, as her separate property, and provided that it sh…
  • Smith v. Purdy, 272 So. 2d 545 (Fla. 3d DCA 1973)
    …such as for the purpose of seeking execution thereon elsewhere) would not vitiate the lien of the judgment on personal property of the judgment debt- or in the county, which delivery of the execution to the sheriff had created. See Mercer v. Hooker, 5 Fla. 277, 278; Ryan’s Furniture Exchange v. McNair, 120 Fla. 109, 162 So. 483, 487. But while the effectiveness of an execution will continue, during its authorized period of existence, as long as it remains unsatisfied, it does not necessarily follow that a…

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