Brown v. Cody

18 N.E. 9, 115 Ind. 484, 1888 Ind. LEXIS 374
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedSeptember 21, 1888
DocketNo. 13,266
StatusPublished
Cited by17 cases

This text of 18 N.E. 9 (Brown v. Cody) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Indiana Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Brown v. Cody, 18 N.E. 9, 115 Ind. 484, 1888 Ind. LEXIS 374 (Ind. 1888).

Opinion

Elliott, J.

On the 29th day of August, 1882, Morris Cody commenced this action to quiet title to a parcel of land. On the 6th day of March, 1883, and during the January [485]*485term, the court entered a decree quieting the title of Morris Cody to part of the land claimed by him, and quieting title in the appellant in part of the land. No further steps were taken until October 2d, 1883, when Morris Cody filed a bond and obtained a new trial as of right. On the 16th day of November the appellant appeared and moved to set aside the .order granting a new trial. The appellant at that time offered to show in support of his motion that, on the 7th day of June, 1883, after the expiration of the term of court at which the judgment was rendered, and before notice of any intention on the part of Morris Cody to apply for a new trial as of right, and while he was still prosecuting an appeal which he had prayed, the appellant sold the part of the land to which his title had been quieted to John Dirkson. Appellant also showed in support of his motion that, on the 22d day of July, 1882, all the interest of Morris Cody in the land was sold upon a judgment against him to Stephen A. Drew; that Drew, prior to the commencement of the action, had assigned the sheriff’s certificate to Bridget Cody. ■ The court overruled the motion of appellant. On the 15th day of March, 1884, Bridget Cody, the appellee, filed an affidavit showing title under the sheriff’s sale, and was substituted as plaintiff.

The first point argued by counsel is, that the trial court was bound to set aside the order granting a new trial, because no notice was given by Morris Cody. This point is settled against the appellant by Stanley v. Holliday, 113 Ind. 525. That case gives a construction to section 1065 of the code directly against appellant’s contention. Under the rule there declared, the order granting a now trial was valid, and it would have been error to vacate it upon the ground that notice had not been given.

The title of Morris Cody could not be tried or determined upon a motion to vacate the order awarding a new trial. He was entitled to a new trial as of right upon complying with the statute, and the appellant could not make any issue that [486]*486would bring his title into controversy by a motion to set aside the order awarding a new trial. The statute does not contemplate the formation of any issue involving title upon a motion for a new trial as of right, nor does it contemplate the formation of any such issue upon a motion to vacate an order that has been made.

Morris Cody was the owner of the legal title to the land when he brought the action. The sale on the judgment against him did not make the purchaser the owner of the land; He had, therefore, a right to bring the action, although the claim of Drew, the purchaser at the sheriff’s sale could not be cut off, but the claim of others might be. During the year allowed for redemption the purchaser at a sheriff’s sale has, as said in Bodine v. Moore, 18 N. Y. 347, “ no claim or right, except to be repaid the amount of his bid with the rate of interest prescribed in the statute.” State, ex rel., v. Sherill, 34 Ind. 57; Neff v. Hagaman, 78 Ind. 57 (63); Felton v. Smith, 84 Ind. 485.

When Bridget Cody obtained a deed the title vested in her, and related back to the date of the judgment. Neff v. Hagaman, supra ; Felton v. Smith, supra; Elliott v. Cale, 80 Ind. 285. It was proper, therefore, to substitute Bridget Cody as the plaintiff.

The question in this case is not when the rights of Mrs. Cody, as the wife of Morris Cody, vested, but the question is, when did the rights of Morris Cody, as owner, terminate under the sheriff’s sale ?

It is clear, under the authorities cited, that his rights as owner did not terminate until the sheriff ’s sale was consummated by the execution of a deed. Until that time he was the owner, as against the purchaser, subject, of course, to the purchaser’s lien on the land. We have here nothing to do with Mrs. Cody’s marital rights, but what we are concerned with is Morris Cody’s right to bring the action originally, and Mrs. Cody’s succession to the title under the sheriff’s sale.

Mrs. Cody does not, as counsel assume, prosecute this ac[487]*487tion as wife, widow or heir, but as the successor of the original owner. Her rights arise out of the consummated sheriff’s sale, and until her title became consummated, Morris Cody was the proper plaintiff, but when it became perfect, then •she, as his successor in the title, had a right to be substituted ras plaintiff, and as such to prosecute the action. She was not bound to begin a new action, but was entitled to be substituted in lieu of her grantor, out of whom the title had passed.

Morris Cody having given the bond and obtained a new trial, his successor, Mrs. Cody, was not bound to give a new bond or lose the rights which had been vested in him by the judgment awarding a new trial. The law having befen once complied with and a new trial adjudged, the rights of the parties were fixed,- and the substitution of a plaintiff did not vacate or vitiate the former judgment. That judgment was not a conditional one, but it was absolute. It was not simply a personal privilege granted Morris Cody, but a judgment that there should be a new trial of the cause. As the judgment directed a new trial of the cause, it was not annulled or impaired by the fact that Mrs. Cody was substituted as plaintiff.

The case of Hasselman v. Lowe, 70 Ind. 414, has no application to this case, for in that case the irregularities in the sheriff’s sale were held (whether correctly or not we do not now inquire), to invalidate it, and it was decided that the assignee of the judgment debtor who bought the land was not such a purchaser as was entitled to protection. Here, there is no infirmity in the sale, and conceding, but not deciding, that Hasselman v. Lowe, supra, is sound, it has no bearing upon this ease.

The theory of appellant that any one might safely buy before the award of a new trial, is unsound. Morris Cody had a right to a new trial, and his adversary, by making a sale of the part of the land awarded him, could not take that right away from Cody.

[488]*488If Mrs. Cody became the assignee of Drew, the purchaser at the sheriff’s sale, she acquired a good title. Drew had a\ right to sell and she to buy, and if the former purchased in; good faith at the sheriff’s sale, he had a title which he might, sell, even though Mrs. Cody might, had she been the original purchaser, not have been able to acquire a title because of' notice of prior equities. The general rule is, that one who-has notice of a prior equity will acquire the same title as that of his vendor, where the vendor is a purchaser in good faith. This is a familiar rule of equity and has often been enforced by this court. Evans v. Nealis, 69 Ind. 148; Sharpe v. Davis. 76 Ind. 17; Trentman v. Eldridge, 98 Ind. 525. Mrs. Cody, therefore, has the same title that her vendor Drew had, and that relates back to the judgment.

If Drew had a title under his purchase at the sheriff’s sale, he had a right to sell, and it was his title, in all its force, that was acquired by Mrs. Cody.

Free access — add to your briefcase to read the full text and ask questions with AI

Related

Consolidation Coal Co. v. Mutchman
565 N.E.2d 1074 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1991)
Attica Building & Loan Ass'n v. Colvert
23 N.E.2d 483 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1939)
Bank of Meno v. Coulter
1923 OK 1144 (Supreme Court of Oklahoma, 1923)
Gorham v. Gorham
103 N.E. 16 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1913)
Young v. Waggoner
98 N.E. 145 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1912)
Mitchell v. Koch
95 N.E. 231 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1911)
Tyler v. Davis
37 Ind. App. 557 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1906)
Government Building & Loan Institution v. Richards
68 N.E. 1039 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1903)
Fromm v. Lawrence
62 N.E. 1017 (Indiana Court of Appeals, 1902)
Miller v. Vollmer
53 N.E. 949 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1899)
Cotterell v. Koon
51 N.E. 235 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1898)
Buck v. Foster
46 N.E. 920 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1897)
Klinger v. Lemler
34 N.E. 698 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1893)
Griswold v. Ward
27 N.E. 751 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1891)
Robertson v. Van Cleave
26 N.E. 899 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1891)
Shirk v. Thomas
22 N.E. 976 (Indiana Supreme Court, 1889)

Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
18 N.E. 9, 115 Ind. 484, 1888 Ind. LEXIS 374, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/brown-v-cody-ind-1888.