Strain v. Babb

Citations

• 30 S.C. 342
• 9 S.E. 271
• 1889 S.C. LEXIS 107

Syllabus

<p>1. The provision of fcho Code (<S 123) that an action may be brought on a claim against one deceased within one year after the grant of administration, applies only to those cases where the statute commenced to run in the life-time of decedent, and the statutory period has expired before administration taken.</p> <p>2. Action to recover from a clerk' of court and his sureties, damages sustainecl by plaintiff through the neglect of the clerk to enroll a judgment in November, 1880, is an action on his official bond, and this not being a bond “for the payment of money only,” the time within which action may be brought against principal and sureties is twenty years. Code, l 111.</p> <p>3. This ease distinguished from State v. Lalce, ante, 43, which involved a transaction governed by a prior and different law.</p> <p>4. Where a senior lien loses its rank through the clerk’s neglect to enroll it, the measure of damages is the amount lost to plaintiff through such neglect, and this depends upon the amount of the lien so postponed, and of the junior liens, and the value of the debtor’s property.</p> <p>5. The judgment in an action on an official bond should be for the penalty and stand open for the benefit of all who may show that they have been injured thereunder.</p> <p>6. The demand for judgment does not give character to the action. The plaintiff is entitled to such relief as the facts stated in his complaint will warrant.</p>