Hancock County IL Archives Court.....Scott, Inman H Triplett V David 1850
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Deb Haines http://www.genrecords.net/emailregistry/vols/00003.html#0000719 May 19, 2008, 8:49 am

Source: Reports Of Cases
Written: 1850

Inman H. Triplett, Plaintiff in error, v. David Scott, defendant in error.

Error to Hancock.

If A recovers judgment in his name for the use of B, the former cannot receive 
satisfaction of the judgment, although the legal interest is in his name, and 
if suit is brought on that judgment, it must be brought in his name. (a)

A payment to a nominal plaintiff, is not a satisfaction of the debt.

This suit was originally commenced by Triplett in his name alone, against 
Scott, before a justice of the peace, in Hancock county.

The foundation of the suit was a judgment rendered before the same justice, 
entered in the name of "Dennis Clancy, for use of Inman H. Triplett." Triplett 
obtained judgment in his own name against Scott for the sum of four dollars, 
the amount of the judgment sued on.

Scott appealed to the Circuit Court. In the Circuit Court of Hancock county, 
Minshall, Judge, presiding, the cause was submitted to him upon an agreement 
of this substance:

That the plaintiff was the owner of a note made by the defendant to one Clancy 
or bearer. That plaintiff sued it in the name of Clancy to his use. That 
Clancy, the nominal plaintiff, without the knowledge or consent of Triplett, 
the real plaintiff, receipted the judgment upon the docket of the justice.

The Circuit Court, at September term, 1850, dismissed the suit. Triplett sued 
out this writ of error, and seeks to reverse the judgment of the Circuit Court.

G. Edmonds, Jr., submitted the cause ex parte.

Caton. J.  Triplett brought a suit against Scott in the name of Clancy, the 
record showing that it was for the use of Triplett. Without the knowledge or 
consent of Triplett, Scott paid the amount of the judgment to the nominal 
plaintiff, and took his receipt therefor. Triplett then brought this suit upon 
that judgment in his own name, which the Circuit Court decided he could not 
maintain; and, we think, properly. It is true that the payment by Scott to the 
nominal plaintiff was made in his own wrong, and, it may be admitted, did not 
satisfy the judgment. Still the legal title to the judgment remained in the 
nominal plaintiff, and Triplett could no more recover in his own name in a 
suit upon that judgment than he could have sued in his own name upon the note 
upon which the first suit was brought. That note was payable to Clancy, and 
was transferred to Triplett without endorsement. Hence, Triplett had to sue 
upon that note in the name of Clancy, because the legal title still remained 
in him, although the equitable title had passed to Triplett. The legal and 
equitable titles to the judgment were the same as they had been to the note, 
and Triplett was under the necessity of enforcing his rights in the same way, 
that is, by the use of the name of Clancy, the trustee. The receipt of Clancy 
for the amount of the judgment could present no more impediment to the 
recovery, in his name upon the judgment, than a receipt given by him for the 
amount due on the note would have defeated a recovery on the note.

The judgment is affirmed, with costs.

Judgment affirmed.

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(a) See Trustees of Schools v. Douglas, 4 Scam., 209. In such case the 
defendant cannot be garnished by judgment creditors of the nominal plaintiff: 
Hodson v. McConnel, post 170.

Additional Comments:
Reports of Cases Determined in the Supreme Court of the State of Illinois from 
November Term, 1850, to June Term, 1851, both inclusive by E. Peck, Counsellor 
at Law. Volume XII. Reprinted from the Original Edition, with Annotations by 
William Gordon McMillan of the Chicago Bar. Callaghan & Company, Chicago, Ill. 
1881.

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