Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 4.djvu/135

119 EQUITY JURISDICTION, 119 (by cutting and gathering) any crops which he might find on his debtor's land,^ but he could not acquire any right to the pos- session of the land, — still less could he sell it, or become himself the owner of it.^ And even when the Legislature interfered in favor of judgment creditors (as it did in the thirteenth year of Edward I.),^ by giving them the right to have their debtors' land extended {i.e,, the annual value of it appraised, and the possession of it delivered to them, with the right to retain such possession at the appraired value, until by that means their judgments were satisfied), such right was limited to one half of the debtor's land ; and it was not till nearly six hundred years later (namely, in 1838)^ that judgment creditors acquired in England the right to have the whole of their debtors' land thus extended ; and to this day they cannot, in England, either sell their debtors' land upon execution, or themselves become the owners of it. What were the rights, at common law, of the creditors of a deceased d£btor against the land of the latter which had descended to his heir? The answer is, that, as creditors of the ^deceased debtor, they had no rights whatever. As, however, the heir had a legal right to inherit all the land of which his ancestor died seised in fee, of which right the ancestor could not deprive him, so the ancestor had a right by deed to bind his heir to the extent of the land which descended from him to the latter. Hence, whenever a bond was given by which the obligor in terms bound not only himself, but also his heirs, the consequence was that, upon the death of the obligor, his heir became personally liable on the bond, just as if he had given it himself, except that his liability was limited to the land which descended to him. This liability of the heir was, however, limited to debts by specialty for which the heir was expressly bound. It was a privilege in which even debts by matter of record did not share. And even in re- spect to specialty debts for which the debtor's heir was expressly bound, the right of the creditor to proceed against the heir became 1 This was done under the writ of levari facias, — a writ which has long been ob- solete, except in a few special cases. From it, however, we have derived the familiar term "levy," — a term which is constantly applied, though not with strict accuracy, to a writ oi fieri facias. Thus under a writ oi fieri facias the sheriflf is said to "levy" the amount due on the judgment, though the writ commands him to "make" that amount. 2 See Sir William Harbert's Case, 3 Rep. ir b-a,
 * Namely, by statute of Westminster 2, c. 18.
 * By I &2 Vict. c. no, § 11.