By the Court.
delivering the opinion.
[1.] The Act of 1823 is not intended for the benefit of judgment debtors ; it is not a limitation act, except so far as other creditors and purchasers are concerned. It was intended for their benefit and protection, and the object is effected by extinguishing the lien, and incapacitating the judgment for enforcement. For all other purposes, it remains unimpaired. It is the evidence of a debt, and an action can be sustained upon it. See Lockwood vs. Barefield, 7 Ga. Rep. 393. The decision that a dormant judgment is evidence of a debt due, is decisive of this case. The reasoning upon which that decision goes, may be seen by reference to the case referred to above, and need not be repeated here. This is an action brought by the ward, to charge the sureties of the guardian. The record of a judgment and execution, obtain
The entry, by the Sheriff, of nulla bona, made when the judgment was unimpaired — before it had become dormant, under the Act of 1823 — establishes the second thing to be proven, to-wit, the refusal or inability of the guardian to pay the demand. This entry was competent to prove this, before the judgment became dormant. It was then competent to prove that there were no goods of the defendant to be found, out of which to satisfy the judgment. How has it lost this competency? The judgment is not extinct — it is only dormant. It has lost its lien, and until revived, cannot be enforced. In all other particulars, it subsists. It subsists as evidence, and it subsists as upholding and continuing the legal operation of entries made upon the execution before it became dormant. The entry of nulla bona has the legal effect now, that it would have if the judgment was not dormant, because it was made at a time when the judgment was capable of enforcement — when a levy could have been made, if there had been property found — and when it was competent for the Sheriff to make it.
Let the judgment of the Court below be reversed.