Sessums v. Botts

Citations

• 34 Tex. 335

Syllabus

<p>!. The act “regulating the collection of debts,” approved November 10, 1866, (and held unconstitutional by this court in February, 1868,) provided that “ on all judgments rendered prior to the 1st of January, 1867, the judgment debtor shall have twelve months thereafter within which to pay to the plaintiff, his agent or attorney, one-fourth part of said judgment and all costs; and that no execution shall issue thereon until the expiration of the time aforesaid.” Held, that from the enactment of this provision'and until it was adjudged unconstitutional by this court in February, 1868, it had the force and effect cf law, so far as to protect clerks of courtsand other ministerial officers in obeying its mandates, and also to protect judgment creditors from losing their liens, or the imputation of laches, in consequence of the non-issuance of executions on their judgments within one year, as required by the act of 1842.</p> <p>2. After the passage of the act of 1866, above referred to, and until it was decided unconstitutional in February, 1868, the requirement of the act of 1842, (Paschal’s Digest, article 3783,) respecting the issuance of execution within twelve months from the date of the judgment was not “ in force,” though not repealed by the unconstitutional act of 1866.</p> <p>3. It is advisable for every good citizen to obey whatever the law-making power promulgates as law, until it be adjudicated by the judicial tribunals not to be law; and the rights of the citizen are not to be prejudiced by reason of such.obedience.</p> <p>4. A judgment rendered by a district court in November, 1866, took lien on the defendant’s land within the county, and did not lose its lien before July, 1868, when the first execution issued; and a purchaser under the execution acquired a clear title as against all conveyances made by the defendant after the rendition of the judgment.</p>