Judicial Code as amended by Act of September 6, 1916, c. 448, 39 Stat. 726, if the validity of an authority exercised under the United States is drawn in question and the decision is against its validity, review is by writ of error. If only a title claimed under an exercise of such an authority is in dispute, then certiorari is the proper writ. The authority of the United States marshal to make sales upon judgments in the United States courts and to give title thereby is not drawn in question in this case. What is denied here is the regularity of the marshal's attempted exercise of his conceded authority and the validity of the resulting title. Hence, the only way of reviewing this cause is by certiorari. Dana v. Dana, 250 U. S. 220; Philadelphia & Reading Coal & Iron Co. v. Gilbert, 245 U. S. 162; Avery v. Popper, 179 U. S. 305, 314. The writ of error is dismissed, the petition for certiorari is granted, and we now proceed to dispose of the case on the latter writ.
The validity of the judgment upon which the execution issued is conceded. The questions to be decided arise on the levy and sale. On the first day of June, 1897, a fieri facias issued. This writ the marshal executed and made the following return on it:
"Executed the within writ this the 13th day of Aug. 1897, by levying on and taking into my possession one Certificate of stock, the property of said defendant in the Louisville, New Orleans and Texas R. R. Number 147—for 250 shares, issued to the town or city of Clarksdale, Miss. Further executed on this the 6th day of Dec. 1897, at 12 o'clock meridian by selling said certificate of stock No. 147 after due advertisement by posting notices in three public places for the period of 10 days as provided by law, to the highest and best bidder for cash, before the Western door of the United States Court House, and post office building in the town of Oxford, Miss., at which sale the Pacific Improvement Company
