Page:Federal Reporter, 1st Series, Volume 4.djvu/226

 212 S^pi!I(4.I>, BBPOBTSB. �on the 27th of April, np judgment might have l)een enteted upon the bond, or might.not be entered finally for an indefi- nite time; still, under the law of thia state, when the suit was commencedon suoh instrument, an inchoate lien had taken effect on ail the property of the bankrupt within the jurisdic- tion of the court, and -whenever judgment was finally entered it operated by relation to the time when the suit was com- menced. The liens of judgments depend very much, in fact, I may say exclusively, in a case at law, upon the particular legislation of each state. In some of the states we know that a lien of a judgment operates from the first day of the term when the judgment is rendered. In some states it operates from the last day of the term when the judgment is rendered. In other states it operates from the time the judgment is rendered, irrespeotive of the first and last days of the term. In this case there is an express statute upon the subject, and, as I understand, the supreme court of this state has held that administrator's bonds are within the terms of this law, and that a lien upon such a judgment relates back to the time the suit was commenced. Then there was an inehoate lien on the 27th d.ay of April, on the property of the bankrupt, which became consummated by relation when the judgment was rendered, and it cat off, therefore, any claim which the assignee might have on the bankrupt's property which related back to a time subsequent to that of the commencement of the suit. It is insisted with a great deal of force, on the part of counsel, that it has been decided in Ira re Joslyn, 2 Biss. 235, that the lien of a landlord, which he acquires by virtue of a distress warrant, is similar to that acquired by this judg- ment crediter, and that the same principle which operates upon a lien of attachment and destroys it, also operates upon the lien of the judgment. That case was decided under the peculiar legislation of Illinois in relation to proceedings by landlords to enf orce their rights against tenants. It required that when a distress warrant should issue and seize the prop- erty, that there should be a suit, or an inquiry by the court, as to the amount due ; and what was found due was in the nature of a judgment, on which execution could issue against ����