Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 1.djvu/676

 668 FEDERAL REPORTER. �as a Talid judgment against him. It is void for want of the essential and vital ingredients of a judgment. �The proceeding was not a proceeding in rem, so that the Beizure of the property itself by the officer of the court could be considered as constructive notice. There was no seizure anterior to the deeree or judgment declared to be binding on him. In ail proceedings in rem the seizure precedes and supports the deeree. Here the deeree is relied on as justify- ing a possession subsequently taken. Nor was his property taken under the taxing power of the state, where the "due proeess of law" may be, in the first instance, at least, an exec- utive proceess, and nofc a proceeding by judicial forms. Murray's Lessees v. Hoboken L. e I. Co. ut supra; Davidson V. New Orleans, 96 U. S. 162. �It is, however, insisted that the proceedings are by "due proeess of law," because, by going out of the state and re- maining away for so long a time, the plaintiff subjected his property to the operation of the laws of the state; It is also claimed that a presumption of deatb arose from his absence for more than seven years. In the case of lîoderigas v. East River Savings Institution, 63 N. Y. 473, Judge Miller gives a» a reason why the statute making the finding of the surrogate conclusive on the supposed decedent, in favor of innocent persons dealing with the administrator, is not to be regarded as taking his property without due proeess of law, that it is competent for the legislature "to provide safeguards for the protection of innocent persons who act under the deeree of a competent court, and thus remody the evils which would resuit from a want of such power." Ile says : "At most such laws are but regulations in regard to a subject of gen- erai interest to the community, and are essential to the wel- fare of society, the promotion of justice, and the proper administration of estates. In the case at bar it was no fault of the defendants that they paid the demand to an administrator duly qualified, and the blame, if any, rests with the party who, by a long absence, placed himself in a posi- tion where be was supposed to be dead. " �This justification of the statute is an attempt to bring this ��� �