Booth's Ex'r. v. Alfrey's Adm'r

5 Del. 129

• Court: Superior Court of Delaware
• Decided: July 5, 1848
• Status: Published

Opinion

By the Court:

The mere inadequacy of price is not a sufficient ground for setting aside a sale of land, hut the court will lay hold of any irregularity to set the sale aside in case of gross inadequacy.

There is enough in this case to warrant this; and the property did not sell for one-fourth its value. It is the impolicy of allowing a sheriff to sell to his son as a secret bidder.

It is conceded that the sheriff cannot sell land to himself; not because he is prohibited by any law, but from the danger of fraud. The buyer and the seller cannot be the same person; not because they have opposing interests, but because in case of a sheriff there is no mode of fixing the responsibility of the bidder as other bidders are fixed. If he makes a bid secretly for his son, and it turns out a bad purchase, there is nothing by which he can be made to return it sold. In the near between them the transaction into suspicion, and the danger- of abuse, which we do not impute in this case in fact, but as a matter of dangerous precedent which ought to be avoided.

Whiteley, for defendant. Gray and Bayard, for the purchaser.

Buie absolute.