Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 3.djvu/637

 630 FEDERAL REPORTER. �execution of English in this case did not continue the lien which the first had acquired, and thct the execution which was issued by Kregelo between the date of the English first execution and the second has the priority of lien. It seems to me that that is the simplest and most satisfactory view to take of the question — the one freest from dif&culties and com- plications of various kinds. In that way only can we earry out the spirit of the law of this state in reference to execu- tions. When an execution, is delivered to an officer, the per- sonal property of the defendant is bouild, if within the juris- diction of the officer, but it is bound how long? Does it continue after the retum of the execution, if no levy is made upon the property? I think not. It seems to me that -when an execution is returned that it ceases to operate by way of a lien upon Personal property, and the language of the statute gives emphasis to this view of the question. It declares that when, under an execution, there shall be a levy upon the prop- erty, and it is returned, the lien shall not be lost, but that it shall continue. It màkes no such declaration where there is no levy made. It does not continue any lien to the second, which the first execution created, upon the personal property. It expresses in the one case that the lien continues, and it says nothing about it in the other. This argument is not without force. �Again, it seems to me that, if we hold an execution con- tinues a lien under the law, we involve ourselves in inextri- cable difficulties and embarassments. It is stated in some of the authorities, and by some of the text writers, that if a sec- ond execution issues "timely" it continues the lien. How much tjme is to elapse before a second execution shall issue in order to continue the lien? What is meant by the word "timely?" Does it mean a week or a month? How much of that which wecall timemust there be,in order that a second exe- cution may be said to be " timely?" In this case there was only an interval of a day. The execution was returned on the sixteenth of April, and an alias came into the hands of the sheriff on the morning of the seventeenth. Now, it is to be observed thatthe execution issued on the sixteenth had, per ����