*

ALLEN v. BURKE. 545

proceedings in chancery. It certainly cannot be considered as
embracing any cases of abatement after a decree; because its
phraseology expressly refers to cases which have not been brought
to a termination, and to suits where " such final decree as to right
shall appertain," remains to be made; and also, because it could
not have been the intention of the legislature to provide a new
mode of proceeding more expensive and less energetic than one
already well established; as is the case in suits abating by the
death of a party after a decree.

According to the course of proceeding in chancery, where a
party dies, or a female plaintiff marries, after the final decree has
been enrolled, such decree and proceedings must be revived by a
subpoena scire facias. Which mode of reviving a suit, however,
can only be pursued by or against the heir, the legal representa-
tives, or those who are privy in blood or contract to the deceased
party; and who, as such, may be benefited or bound by the decree :
but they are precluded from going into its merits; and upon the
same principles the merits of the decree cannot be questioned even
on a bill in nature of a bill of revivor by an assignee or a devisee, (a)
If the party summoned fails to shew cause, or the cause shewn
should be deemed insufficient, he may, if required, be examined
on interrogatories as to any matter necessary to the proceedings.
But where there have been any proceedings subsequent to the
decree, this process will be ineffectual, as it revives the decree only
and nothing more, (o) It is said, that in England it has become
the practice to revive in all cases indiscriminately by bill, because
of its having become unusual to enroll decrees; but in Maryland
all decrees are considered as enrolled so soon as they are signed ;(c)
and consequently, a bill of revivor, or this mode of reviving a suit,
which has abated after a decree, by a subpoena scire facias, must
be considered as the most regular, if not in fact the only modes by
which a suit can properly be revived in this court, (d)

A subpoena scire facias may be obtained by petition, and must be
served like a subpoena to answer. On its appearing by the return,
that the process has been made known, and the party regularly
summoned, if no cause be shewn to the contrary, nor any plea in

(a) Dunn ». Alien, 1 Vern. 283, & 426; Owen v, Curzon, 2 Yern. 237; Clare v,
Wordell, 2 Vern. 548; Minshull v. Lord Mohun, 2 Vern. 672.—(b) Mitf. Plea. 70.
(c) Hollingsworth v. McDonald, 2 H. & J. 237.—(d) Croster v. Wister, 2 Rep. Chan.
67; Wharam v. Broughton, 1 Ves. 181; White v. Hayward, 2 Ves. 461; Fallows v.
Williamson, 11 Ves. 307.

69