SCIRE FIERI INQUIRY. In Eng lish Law. The name of a writ formerly used to recover the amount of a judgment from an executor.
The history of the origin of the writ is as fol. lows. When on an execution de bold+) teatatorie against an executor the sheriff returned ntdia bona and also a devaetarit, a fieri faciae, de b,onie pro priie, might formerly have been issued against On executor, without a previous inquisition finding a devaetavit and a ears facia*. But the most usual practice opon the sheriff's return of nulla bona to a fierti facia& de bonie testatorie was to soe out a special writ of fieri faciaa de bonie teetatorie, with a °lame in it, "et si tibi constare, poterit," that tha executor bed wasted tbe goods, then to levy de bones propriis. This was the practice in the king'e bench till the time of Charles I.
2. In tbe common pleas a practice had pre vailed in early times upon a suggestion in the special writ of /ism' farina of a deraetovit by the executor, to direct the sheriff to inquire by a jury whether the executor had wasted the goods, and if the jury found he had, thee a seire faciae was leaned out against him, and, unleas he made a good defence thereto, an execution de bolas propride WRS awarded against him.
The practice of the two courts being different, several cases were brought into the king's bench on error, and at last it became the practice of both courts, for the sake of expedition, to incorporate the fieri facing inquiry, and 'mire facias, into one writ, thence called it seire fieri inquiry,—a name compounded of the first words of the two write of ecire facias and fieri faciae, and that of inquiry, of which it consists.
3. This writ recites the fieri foam, de bonie tee tatorie sued out on the judgment against the execu tor, the return of mina bona by the sheriff, and then, suggesting that the executor had aold and converted the goods of the testator to the value of the debt and damages recovered, commands the sheriff to levy the said debt aod damages of the goods of the testator in the hands of the executor. if they could be levied thereof, hut if it should ap pear to him by the inquisition of a jury that the executor had wasted the goods of the testator, then the sheriff is to warn the executor to 'Appear, eto.
If the judgment had been either by or against tbe testator or intestate, or both, the writ of fieri faeias reeites that filet, and also that the oourt had ad judgod, upon a acire facias to revive the judgment, that the executor or administrator should have exe cution for the debt, etc. Clift, Entr. 659 ; Lilly, Entr. 664.
4. Although this practice is sometimes adopted, yet the most usual proceeding is by action of debt on the judgment, suggesting a devaatavit, because in the proceeding by scire fieri inquiry the plaintiff is not entitled to costs unless the executor appears and plelids to the vire facias. 1 Saund. 219, n. 8. See 2 Archbold, Pract. 934.