Moore v. Letchford

Citations

• 35 Tex. 185

Syllabus

<p>1. The first section of the act of November 9, 1866 (General Laws of 1866, p. 118), enacted that “whenever final judgments shall be rendered in any court of record of this State, said judgment shall become a lien on all the real estate of the judgment debtor situate in the county where the judgment is rendered.” Held, that by this enactment a judgment which had been rendered previous to its passage, as well as those rendered after it, operated a lien upon the defendant’s real estate situate within the county where the judgment was rendered; and the retroactive effect of the statute in this respect does not render it obnoxious to the constitutional inhibition of laws impairing the obligation of contracts. (Ogden, J., dissenting.)</p> <p>2. After the passage of the act of November 9, 1866, a judgment rendered in July, 1861, though never recorded in the county clerk’s office, took lien upon the defendant’s real estate within the county; and if the stay law of November 10, 1866, hindered the plaintiff from obtaining execution, the lien of his judgment was not lost. (Ogden, J., dissenting.)</p> <p>3. Laches is not imputable to a party while his legal remedies are suspended, or have been taken away by the supreme power of the State; and it is immaterial whether the legislation depriving him of his remedies be constitutional or unconstitutional.</p> <p>4. See the opinion of Mr. Justice Ogden, for the reasoning and authorities on which he dissents from the principal rulings in this case.</p>