ON THE LAW OF EXECUTIONS IN CIVIL CASES, AND OF PROCEEDINGS IN AID AND RESTRAINT THEREOF. BY ABRAHAM CLARK FREEMAN, Author of a Treatise on the Law of Judgments, and also of a Treatise on the Executio est fructus et finis legis. SAN FRANCISCO: SUMNER WHITNEY & COMPANY. 1882. PREFACE. The prejudice against the increase of law books is unquestionably great. So well is this fact understood, that an author is expected to introduce his book by an attempt to justify its existence. I can offer this apology for the production of each of my prior works-that it treated of subjects of prime importance and frequent recurrence, not recently nor extensively considered by any other writer. I long hoped that the same apology might be urged in favor of this book; and that any asperities which might be aroused by observing defects in its execution would be mollified by the remembrance that it was the only effort which had been made to collect, arrange, and interpret a mass of authorities so vast that their numbers bore unquestionable evidence of the difficulty and importance of the subject with which they were connected. When this book was about half completed, I was deprived of a portion of my coveted apology by the publication of a work on the same topic. My first impulse was to discontinue my own labors. But a work on Executions was so clearly a sequel to my work on Judgments; my thought and research in the preparation of the latter were so evidently of a character to fit me for the prosecution of the former; and, beyond all, I was so thoroughly interested in my theme, that I determined to proceed. The result of this determination is now before the reader. If, after a patient examination of my work, he can truly say that there was no need of its publication, and that it will prove of no material aid to the bench and bar of my country, then both myself and my publishers will deserve his commiseration as much as we shall merit his censure. This work, though not formally subdivided in that manner, consists of three parts. The first treats of executions against 21245 |