Illinois Steel Co. v. Szutenbach

We can not regard a judgment which is regular upon its face and would afford ample protection to a sheriff or other officer acting thereunder, as a nullity, whatever fraud may have been practiced in the obtaining of the same, or whatever falsehood the record may actually speak as to the methods pursued in obtaining, or the persons by whom the verdict and judgment were rendered. A void thing, or that which is a nullity, is no thing, and will afford protection to no one acting thereunder. The question with which we have to deal is, not what the force and effect of this judgment was as it once…