Henry Baldwin

“ If the validity of a sale under its process can be questioned for any irregularity preceding the judgment, the court which assumes such power places itself in the position of that which rendered it, and deprives it of all power of regulating its own practice or modes of proceeding in the progress of a cause to judgment. If after its rendition it is declared void for any matter which can be assigned for error only on a writ of error or appeal ”

“ If a judgment is reversed for error, it is a settled principle of the common law coeval with its existence, that the defendant shall have restitution only of the money; the purchaser shall hold the property sold ”

“ Acts of limitation become useless if a defendant is allowed to evade them by avoiding judgments or executions, on the suggestion of defects or omissions in the record, which can be reviewed only by an appellate court: a direct premium is held out for delaying the resort to the mode pointed out by law for correcting the errors of judicial proceedings. ”

“ In the one case, it is a record importing absolute verity; in the other, mere waste pape: there can be no middle character assigned to judicial proceedings, which are irreversible for error. Such is their effect between the parties to the suit; and such are the immunities which the law affords to a plaintiff who has obtained an erroneous judgment or execution. It would be a well merited reproach to our jurisprudence, if an innocent purchaser, no party to the suit, who had paid his money on the faith of an order of a court ”

“ The only questions which can arise, between an individual claiming a right under the acts done; and the public, or any person denying their validity; are power in the officer, and fraud in the party. All other questions are settled by the decision made, or the act done by the tribunal or officer; unless an appeal or other revision of their proceedings is prescribed by law. 6 Peters 729, 730.
These are rules of property which have been established so far as the authority of this court can do it: they apply to and must govern this case on the broad principles laid down ”

“ If he objects to the mode in which he is brought into court, he must do it before he submits to the process adopted. If the proceedings against him are not conducted according to the rules of law and the court, he must move to set them aside for irregularity: or, if there is any defect in the form or manner in which he is sued, he may assign those defects specially, and the court will not hold him answerable till such defects are remedied. ”

“ This case comes up by a writ of error from the circuit court for the district of Ohio, to reverse a judgment in an action of ejectment, obtained by the defendants against the plaintiffs in error. The sole question in the court below, was the validity of a sale of the premises in controversy, under a judgment of the court of common pleas of Hamilton county, Ohio, in a case of foreign attachment, rendered against Seth Cutter in 1808 at the suit of Samuel Foster. ”

“ On the broadest ground, therefore, which has been taken in any of the specified objections to the proceedings of the court of common pleas in the attachment suit; we are most clearly of opinion, that none of them can be sustained, without the violation of principles which ought to remain inviolable.
The remaining objection is, that the auditors did not make their deed to the person who purchased at the sale under the order of the court. This is a matter entirely between such person and those to whom the deed was made: to Cutter, it is immaterial to whom the conveyance was made ”