Page:United States Reports, Volume 257.djvu/103

22 Rh in this view, and the absence of any specific form for a levy in the section confirms us in it, then of course, a certificate of shares issued to the debtor and found in the custody of his agent or trustee is the proper subject of levy and sale under the section. This statutory method of treating shares of stock and certificates for them as the same for purposes of levy and "as goods and chattels" is not without parallel. People v. Grifenhagen, 152 N. Y. S. 679 Mitchell v. Leland Co., 246 Fed. 102; Beal v. Carpenter, 235 Fed. 273; Puget Sound National Bank v. Mather, 60 Minn. 362.

We think the levy was valid.

Counsel for respondent criticise the recitals of the return as to a venditioni exponas and urge that neither ground nor time enough was shown for the issue and return of such a writ. Under the Code of Mississippi, as elsewhere, this is a writ used to compel an officer to proceed to a sale under a fieri facias, if any of the property taken remains in the hands of the officer unsold. The writ is not necessary to enable the officer to proceed with the sale unless the return day of the writ has gone by. With this exception, it gives him no authority not previously possessed. Reference to it in the return may well be treated as surplusage, not affecting the validity of the proceedings, if in other respects they are regular.

The chief objection of respondent is to the place of sale, which was at the western door of the United States court house for the Western District of Mississippi in the town of Oxford. Counsel for respondent contend that, under the Mississippi statute, the place of the sale should have been at the court house of Coahoma County at Clarksdale, the county of the judgment debtor, and where the certificate of stock was levied on, and that the sale at the court house of the United States where the judgment was entered and execution issued was void.