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Life and Fire Insurance Company of New York v. Christopher Adams, The 573 (1835)

handle is hein.slavery/ussccases0114 and id is 1 raw text is: JANUARY TERM 1835.                           573
THE LIFE AND FIRE INSURANCE COMPANY Or NEW YORK
V CHRISTOPHER ADAMS.
Louisiana. Mandamus. In the district court of the United States, for the dis-
trict of Louisiana, the district judge refused to extend a judgment previously
entered in the district court, so as to cover other instalments due to the
plaintiffs, which became due after it was entered, and to enter a judgment
in favour of the plaintiffs, mortgagees, upon a proceeding which had been
entered into, with the mortgagor, in relation to the debt due to the mortga-
goes, in which it was stipulated that judgment should be entered for certain
instalments to be paid to the plaintifis, on the non payment of the same
the districtjudge not considering the plaintiffs entitled to have the judgment
entered according to the terms of the proceeding, without notice to the
debtor and his syndics, into whose hands his property had passed under the
insolvent law of Louisiana, after the execution of the transaction, and after
ajudgment for part of the debt had been entered, which was the judgment
asked to be extended. The district judge was also required to receive a
confession ofjudgment against the mortgagor and the insolvent, by an agent
of the plaintiffs, and whose powers to confess the judgment, the districtj udge
did not consider adequate and legal for the purpose. An execution had
been issued for a part of the debt, upon the previous judgment in the district
court, and the execution was put into the hands of the marshal of the United
Ptates ; who, finding the property of the insolvent defendant, the property
mortgaged to the plaintiffs, in the hands of the syndics of the creditors of the
mortgagor, according to the insolvent laws of Louisiana, refused to proceed
and sell the same, and returned the execution unexecuted. An application
was made to the supreme court for a mandamus, to command the district
judge to enter the judgment required of him, and to receive the confession
of the judgment by the agent of the plaintiffs, and award execution thereon,
and also to compel him to oblige the marshal to execute the execution in his
hands, on the property of the defendant wherever found. The court re-
fused to award a mandamus on any of the grounds, or for any of the pur-
poses stated in the application.
To extend a judgment to subjects not comprehended in it, is to make a new
judgment. This court is requested to issue a mandamus to the court for
the eastern district of Louisiana, to enter a judgment in a cause supposed
to be depending in that court; not according to the opinion which it may
have formed on the matter in controversy, but according to the opinions
which may be formed in this court, on the suggestions of one of the parties.
This court is asked to decide that the merits of the cause are with the
plaintiff; and to command the district judge to render judgment in his favour.
It is an attempt to introduce the supervisory power of this court into a
cause while depending in an inferior court, and prematurely to decide it.
In addition to the obvious unfitness of such a procedure, its direct repug-
nance to the spirit and letter of our whole judicial system cannot escape
notice.

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