SCIRE FACIAS, is a writ used to enforce the execution of, or vacate, some already existing record. It directs the sheriff to give notice (" Scire facies," whence the name) to the party against whom it is obtained to appear and show cause why the purpose of it shall not be effected. A summons to this effect should be served on the party, whose duty then is to enter an appearance, after which a declaration is delivered to him, to which he may plead, or demur, the subsequent proceedings being analogous to those in an ordinary action. &ire fades may be resorted to,— I. Where, the parties remaining the same, it is necessary to revive or set in operation the record.
2. Where another party seeks to take the benefit of it, or becomes chargeable, or is injured, by it.
Formerly, when a year and a day had elapsed since judgment was signed, the law presumed that the judgment had been satisfied ; and execution could not issue against the defendant until he had an oppor tunity, by means of the notice given him under a seire fadas, of appearing and showing any cause which might exist why execution should not issue against him. But a simpler, less expensive, and less dilatory method of proceeding was provided by the Common Law Pro cedure Acts, 1352 and 1853, the former statute having at the same time extended the period during which execution may issue, from a year and a day to six years. In case of a change by death, marriage, bankruptcy, or otherwise, in one of the parties to an action, the repre sentative of that party may now enter a suggestion of the fact, and put himself in his place. The opposite party is also enabled to call upon the representative to do so, and if he fails to stop the proceedings.
The proceeding by suggestion on the roll is adapted to the most simple cases of change in the parties to a suit. If it be not adopted, a writ of Reviver, as it is now called, may be issued, the object of which is the same as that of a seire fades. It is, however, directed to the party and not to the sheriff, as was the writ of ad. fa., and it may be served any where by the party, and not as formerly by the sheriff of the county where the renue in the original action was laid. The subsequent pro ceedings in Reviver resemble those of an ordinary action.
The writ of seire fades is not itself abolished. In some eases it is still the only method of proceeding; for instance, to enforce a judg ment against the terre tenants of a deceased judgment debtor. So when a plaintiff, having had execution by elegit, under which he obtains possession of a moiety of the rents and profits of the defendant's land, has had the debt satisfied by payment or from the profits of the Lard, ache fades may be brought to recover the land.
A wire fades, again, is the only proceeding for the purpose of re pealing letters patent by which the crown has made a grant injurious to some party, as where he has granted the same thing which he had already granted to another person ; or a new market or fair is granted to the prejudice of an ancient one, &c. The sovereign may also have a seire facies to repeal his own grant, and any subject who is injured by it may petition the crown to use the royal name for its repeal. A man may have a wire fades to recover the money from a sheriff who has levied under a fieri fades and retains the proceeds.