Baer v. Alco Land and Timber Company, Inc.

285 So. 2d 913, 291 Ala. 640, 1973 Ala. LEXIS 1165
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedNovember 21, 1973
DocketSC 235
StatusPublished
Cited by9 cases

This text of 285 So. 2d 913 (Baer v. Alco Land and Timber Company, Inc.) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Baer v. Alco Land and Timber Company, Inc., 285 So. 2d 913, 291 Ala. 640, 1973 Ala. LEXIS 1165 (Ala. 1973).

Opinion

*642 HARWOOD, Justice.

On 3 August 1972, in Aleo Land and Timber Co. v. Baer, 289 Ala. 567, 269 So. 2d 99, this court reversed a decree of the lower court which had granted appellant Baer the right to redeem land sold at a judicial sale. The basis of the reversal was that Baer’s bill to redeem had been filed too late in that more than a year had elapsed since confirmation of the sale which this court determined had taken place on 11 March 1970. The cause was remanded with the following instructions:

“This cause is reversed and remanded with instructions to the Circuit Court of Baldwin County, in Equity to ascertain, first, the amount required to be paid to the Register by the appellant to make proper restitution and thereafter order, adjudge and decree that, upon the payment of such amount by the appellant to the Register of that court within such reasonable time as that court may direct, legal title to said real estate be divested out of the appellee or any successor, transferee, or assign thereof and into appellant; that the Register of said court execute and deliver a deed conveying said real estate to the appellant. Said court is further directed to make such other orders and decrees as are necessary to effectuate a status quo of the parties as such existed prior to the institution of the redemption action.”

On 28 December 1972, the Chancellor entered a decree ascertaining the amounts required to be paid'by Aleo to the Register-Commissioner to make proper restitution, and further divested the legal title to the land in question out of Baer and into Aleo. It is from this decree of 28 December 1972, that this appeal has been perfected.

The appellant has made six assignments of error which read:

“1. The trial court erred in holding that Appellant is not entitled to interest on the purchase bid by Appellee at the judicial sale of Appellant’s Baldwin County realty, held to have been confirmed on March 11, 1970, from March 11,1970 to July 31, 1970.
“2. The trial court erred in holding that Appellant was entitled to interest on *643 the price paid by Appellee only from Dec. 3, 1971 to Dec. 18, 1972.
“3. The trial court erred in holding that the statutory right of redemption available to Appellant to regain his Baldwin County realty was for only one year from the date of the confirmation of the judicial sale.
“4. The trial court erred in failing to hold that the statutory right of redemption to Appellant in this case was two years.
“5. The trial court erred in holding that Appellant’s effort to exercise his statutory right of redemption in this proceeding was too late.
“6. The trial court erred in failing to hold that Appellant’s effort to exercise his statutory right of redemption in this proceeding was timely.”

Assignments of error 3, 4, 5, and 6, are closely related and all pertain to the time within which Baer should have instituted his redemption proceedings.

In his decree from which this appeal was taken, the Chancellor decreed:

“That the complainant [Baer] does not now have, and did not have on July 30, 1971 (the date on which this suit was filed) the right to redeem the real estate which is the subject matter of this proceeding from the judicial sale from which he sought to redeem said property.”

In brief counsel for appellant have smitten hip and thigh every point decided by this court in its opinion in Aleo Land and Timber Co. v. Baer, supra, which decision was handed down on 3 August 1972.

Counsel have again argued vigorously and at length every point involved in the opinion of 3 August 1972, asserting it is their right to have the opinion of 3 August 1972 again examined by virtue of the provisions of Section 28, Title 13, Code of Alabama 1940, which provides:

“The supreme court, in deciding each case when there is a conflict between its existing opinion and any former ruling in the case, must be governed by what, in its opinion at that time is law, without any regard to such former ruling on the law by it * *

As to the scope of the review to be had under the above statute, it was stated in National Commercial Bank v. McDonnell, 92 Ala. 387, 9 So. 149:

“It is true that, under section 683 of the Code [the progenitor of Section 28, Title 13, supra] this court, in deciding each case, when there is a conflict between its existing opinion and any former ruling in the case, must be governed by what, in its opinion at that time, is law, without any regard to such former ruling. The statute has operation only when the necessity and duty to reconsider the former ruling are devolved on the court by proper assignments of error.— Stoudenmire v. De Bardelaben, 85 Ala. 85, 4 So. 723. There being no assignments of error going to the rulings of the chancellor on the demurrers, we are not required by the statute to open and reconsider the questions «decided on the former appeal.” (Emphasis ours.)

We note here that in City of Fairhope v. Town of Daphne, 286 Ala. 470, 241 So.2d 887, a case cited and relied on by the appellants, one of the assignments of error specifically asserted error in the former opinion.

Assignments of error 3, 4, 5, and 6, can be deemed to apply only to that portion of the decree here appealed from which has been set out above, i. e., that the appellant Baer did not have on the date on which the suit was filed a right to redeem the real estate from the judicial sale. Actually, the Chancellor was only carrying out in this portion of his decree the direction and mandate of this court as contained in the opinion of 3 August 1972. Since the Chancellor was conforming to the mandate of this court in decreeing that *644 Baer did not have a right to redeem as of the date he filed suit, we will treat assignments of error 3, 4, 5, and 6, as though they charged error in the opinion of 3 August 1972, wherein it was held that Baer had not timely instituted his redemption proceedings. We therefore will review our former opinion of 3 August 1972 in this aspect only.

In the opinion of 3 August 1972, it was held that the judicial sale of the land was confirmed on 11 March 1970. The correctness of this conclusion in our opinion of 3 August 1972 is not the subject of any valid assignment of error in the present appeal, and we pretermit consideration of appellant’s argument in brief attacking the correctness of this conclusion.

Section 727, Title 7, Code of Alabama 1940, as amended by Act No. 1107, approved 12 September 1969, (see 1969 Acts of Alabama, p. 2042), provides:

“Where real estate * * * is sold * * * by virtue of any decree in the circuit court * * * the same may be redeemed by the debtor * * * from the purchaser * * * within one year thereafter.” (Emphasis ours.)

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Bluebook (online)
285 So. 2d 913, 291 Ala. 640, 1973 Ala. LEXIS 1165, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/baer-v-alco-land-and-timber-company-inc-ala-1973.