People ex rel. Gregg v. Palmer

Citations

• 46 Ill. 398

Syllabus

<p>1. Sheriff—liability for failure to levy execution. Where a sheriff receives an execution from a foreign county, against a party defendant, residing in his county, who is in possession of land, of sufficient value in excess of the incumbrance upon it to make the debt, the reasonable diligence which the law requires, will not excuse such officer from making a levy, and filing a certificate of the same in the recorder’s office of his county.</p> <p>2. So, in regard to personal property found in the defendant’s possession; the fact that he is informed that such property, then in the defendant’s possession, is not the property of defendant, will not exempt him from liability for not levying, if it afterward appear that the property at the time was the property of defendant.</p> <p>3. Notice—of levy. It is the duty of the officer having an execution in his hands, before he proceeds to take or seize any of the personal property of the defendant in the execution, by a levy thereon, to notify such defendant, if practicable, of his having such execution in his hands, and on so doing, the right arises to the defendant to select such property as he desires to retain under the statute, surrendering to the officer all his other property not thus selected or specifically exempt, for the satisfaction of the execution; and if the defendant so neglects or refuses to make a selection of property, the officer may proceed to levy upon any of his property not specifically exempt, and sell it, regardless of any claim the defendant may subsequently set up to such property as having been selected by him. But in case if tiie absence of the defendant from the county, while the sheriff had the execution, and could not therefore be notified, it was the duty of the sheriff to make a levy'on all property not specifically exempt, and thereafter the defendant may make his selection of the property so levied on, of the same quality and value as before the levy. But in such case, the defendant sh