EXECUTION. The accomplishment of a thing; the completion of an act or instru ment; the fulfilment of an undertaking. Thus, a contract is executed when the act to be done is performed ; a deed is executed when it is signed, sealed, and delivered.
In Criminal Law. Putting a convict to death, agreeably to law, in pursuance of his sentence. Tbis is to be performed by the sheriff or his deputy. See 4 Sharswood, Blackst. Comm. 403.
In Practice. Putting the sentence of the law in force. 3 Blackstone, Comm. 412. The act of carrying into effect the final judgment or decree of a court.
The writ which directs and authorizes the officer to carry into effect such judgment. Final execution is one which authorizes the money due on a judgment to be made out of the property of the defendant.
Execution quousque is such as tends to an end, but is not absolutely final: as, for ex ample, a capias ad satisfaciendum, by virtue of which the body of the defendant is taken, to the intent that the plaintiff shall be satis fied his debt, etc., the imprisorment not being absolute, but until he shall satisfy the same. 6 Coke, 87.
2. Execution, in civil actions, is the mode of obtaining the debt or damages or other thing recovered by the judgment; and it is either for the plaintiff or defendant. For the plaintiff' upon a judgment in debt, the execu tion is for the debt and damages; or in as sumpsit, covenant, case, replevin, or trespass, for the damages and costs ; or in detinue, for the goods, or their value, with damages and costs. For the defendant upon a judgment in replevin, the execution at ccmmon law is for a return of the goods, to which damages are superadded by the statutes 7 Hen. VIII. c. 4, 3, and 21 Hen. VIII. c. 19, 3 ; and in other actions upon a judgment of non pros., non suit, or verdict, the execution is for the costs only. Tidd, Pract. 993.
After final judgment signed, and even be fore it is entered of record, the plaintiff may, in general, at any time within a year and a day, and whilst the parties to the judgment continue the same, take out execution; pro vided there be no writ of error depending or agreement to the contrary, or, where this is allowed, security entered for stay of execution. But after a year and a day from the time of signing judgment (five years in Pennsylva nia) the plaintiff cannot regularly take out execution without reviving the judgment by scire facias, unless a,fieri facies or capias ad satisjecciendum, etc. was previously sued out,
returned, and filed, or be was hindered from suing it out by a writ of error; and if a writ of error be brought, it is, generally speaking., a supersedeas of execution from the time of its allowance ; provided bail, when necessary, be put in and perfected in due time. See Tidd, Pract. 994.
Writs of execution are judicial writs issuing out of the court where the record is upon which they are grounded. Hence, when the record has been removed to a higher court by writ of error or certiorari, or on appeal, either the execution must issue out of that court, or else the record must be returned to the in ferior court by a remittitur (q. v.) for the pur pose of taking out execution in the court below. The former is the practice in England ; the latter, in some of the states of America.
3. The object off execution in personal actions is effected in one or more of the three following ways. 1. By the seizure and sale of personal property of the defendant. 2. By the seizure of his real property, and either selling it or detaining it until the issues and profits are sufficient to satisfy the judgment. 3. By seizing his person and holding him in j custody until he pays the judgment or is u dicially declared insolvent.
These proceedings, though taken at the in stance and under the direction of the party for whom judgment is given, are considered the act of the law itself, and are in all cases performed by the authorized minister of the law. The party or his attorney obtains, from the office of the court where the record is, a writ, based upon and reciting thejudgment, and directed to the sheriff (or, where he is interested or otherwise disqualified, to the coroner) of the county, commanding him, in the name of the sovereign or of the state, that of the goods and chattels or of the lands and tenements of the defendant in his bailiwick he cause to be made or levied the sum reco vered, or that he seize the person of the de fendant, as the case may be. and have the same before the court at the return-day of the writ. This writ is delivered by the party to the officer to whom it is directed, who thence forth becomes responsible for his performance of its mandate, and in case of omission, mis take, or misconduct is liable in damages to the person injured, whether he be the plain tiff, the defendant, or a stranger to the writ.