Cherokee Fertilizer Co. v. Federal Land Bank

177 S.E. 570, 179 Ga. 712, 1934 Ga. LEXIS 383
Supreme Court of Georgia·Decided November 15, 1934·No. No. 10361·Published·Cited by 2 cases

Opinion

Bell, J.

On January 26, 1932, Cherokee Fertilizer Company recovered in Putnam county court a judgment against H. T. Marshall, with a special lien against a described tract of land, dating from July 21,1922, the debt having been secured by a deed executed by Marshall on that date to the Cherokee Fertilizer Company. An execution was issued upon this judgment, and was levied upon the property described therein. The Federal Land Bank of Columbia, South Carolina, filed a claim to the property and later filed an amendment alleging the facts upon which its claim of title was predicated. The plaintiff in fi. fa. demurred to this amendment, and its demurrer was overruled. The case, by consent, was tried before the judge without a jury, on an agreed statement; and the finding and judgment being in favor of the claimant, the plaintiff in fi. fa. excepted.

In our view of the case, the judgment should be affirmed, without reference to a number of questions discussed in the briefs of counsel, and we do not deem it necessary to discuss or state all of the questions which have been argued in the briefs. The claimant alleged and offered evidence to show the following facts: In the year 1919 the land in dispute was the property of H. T. Marshall. During that year he conveyed the land by a security deed to M. S. Shivers, who transferred and assigned the debt and security to John T. Dennis, who held the same in 1922. The debt and security later became the property of the Farmers & Merchants Bank. The debt was sued to execution, and a reconveyance was made for the purpose of levy and sale, after which the land was duly levied on and sold as the property of Marshall, the Farmers & Merchants Bank becoming the purchaser and receiving a sheriff’s deed. This sale and conveyance by the sheriff occurred in October, 1925. The conveyances and transfers referred to above were all properly executed and duly recorded. The execution under which the land was sold to the Farmers & Merchants Bank was also properly issued and recorded. After the judicial sale by which the bank became the purchaser and owner of the property, H. T- Marshall [714] applied to the Federal Land Bank of Columbia for a loan with which to repurchase the land, and obtained a loan of $1300. “The Farmers & Merchants Bank having agreed to accept the net proceeds of said loan, and executed a deed to said Marshall, and to take a second security deed for the remainder of the purchase-money, simultaneously and as parts of the same transaction, on the 8th day of April, 1926, the Farmers & Merchants Bank delivered to said H. T. Marshall a warranty deed conveying said land to him, which deed was recorded April 10, 1926, in book L, page 481, and said Marshall executed a warranty deed to secure the said loan in favor of the Federal Land Bank of Columbia, which was recorded in book K, page 647, on April 10, 1926. Of the proceeds of the said loan, after paying for stock and expenses, the Farmers & Merchants Bank received $1167. . . The deed taken by plaintiff in fi. fa. specifically recited that it was subject and inferior to a deed to secure debt in favor of John T. Dennis, by which was meant the deed transferred by M. S. Shivers to said Dennis.”

As indicated above, the bank acquired title to the property by what amounted to a foreclosure of the security deed made by Marshall to Shivers in 1919. The fertilizer company contended that although the lien of its execution was based upon a security deed executed to it by Marshall in 1922, which was subsequent in date to the security deed to Shivers under which the bank finally acquired title, the execution nevertheless became a first lien upon the property instantly upon the reacquirement of it by Marshall through the conveyance to him by the bank, and that the Federal Land Bank took its security upon the property subject to the lien of the execution and with no right of subrogation. It appeared from the evidence that the security deed from Marshall to the fertilizer company recited: “There is a prior lien upon the above-described land in favor of J. T. Dennis, for the principal sum of $1000.” At the date of this deed Dennis was the holder of the title and rights conveyed by the prior security deed to Shivers, and this was evidently the matter referred to in the quoted recital.

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Cherokee Fertilizer Co. v. Federal Land Bank, 177 S.E. 570, 179 Ga. 712, 1934 Ga. LEXIS 383 (Ga. 1934).

177 S.E. 570 (Cherokee Fertilizer Co. v. Federal Land Bank) — published by Counsel Stack Legal Research, free access to 12M+ legal documents.

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