All Persons Executing Void Judgments or Sentences are In Law, Trespassers

Where a Court has jurisdiction, it has a right to decide every question which occurs in the cause; and whether its decision be correct or otherwise, its judgment, until reversed, is regarded as binding in every other Court. But, if it act without authority, its judgments and orders are regarded as nullities. They are not voidable, but simply void; and form no bar to a recovery sought, even prior to a reversal, in opposition to them. They constitute no justification; and all persons concerned in executing such judgments or sentences, are considered, in law, as trespassers. 

This distinction runs through all the cases on the subject; and it proves, that the jurisdiction of any Court exercising authority 341#####341 over a subject, may be inquired into in every Court, when the proceedings of the former are relied on and brought before the latter by the party claiming the benefit of such proceedings. 

It is well known that the jurisdiction and authority of the County Courts of Kentucky are derived wholly, from the statute law of the state. In argument, we were referred to no statute which was supposed, either in terms, or by fair construction, to confer upon the County Court any supervising or controlling power over the acts of the clerk, in taking, in his office, the acknowledgment of a deed, or in recording it, upon an acknowledgment there taken by him. We have sought in vain for such a provision, and it is believed none such exists. No such supervising and controlling power can result to the Court, from the general relations which exist between a Court and its clerk; for in this case, the statutes confer upon the clerk, in his office, a distinct, independent, personal authority, to be exercised by him upon his own judgment and responsibility. We think, therefore, with the Circuit Court that the County Court had no jurisdiction or authority to order the after certificate of Mrs. Elliott's privy examination to be made and recorded. Elliott v. Peirsol, 26 U.S. 328, 340-41 (1828) http://94189ba3.linkbucks.com