Dickerson v. McNulty

129 S.E. 242, 142 Va. 559, 1925 Va. LEXIS 359
CourtSupreme Court of Virginia
DecidedSeptember 17, 1925
StatusPublished
Cited by5 cases

This text of 129 S.E. 242 (Dickerson v. McNulty) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Virginia primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dickerson v. McNulty, 129 S.E. 242, 142 Va. 559, 1925 Va. LEXIS 359 (Va. 1925).

Opinion

Burks, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

This was a suit for specific performance of a contract •of sale of real estate brought by the appellant against the appellee, C. S. McNulty. There was a demurrer to the bill on the ground that the property had not been ¡advertised for the time required by the deed of trust under which the sale was made. The trial court sustained the demurrer and dismissed the bill.

The deed of trust under which the appellee acted, and which is exhibited with his bill, provided “that in case of ¡sale, the same shall be made after first advertising the time, place and terms for ten days in some newspaper published in the city of Roanoke, Virginia.” The advertisement was made on October 28th, 29th, 30th and :31st, and November 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th, 1923, •of a sale to be made on November 6, 1923. On the day ■fixed for the sale, it was postponed at the instance of McNulty till November 14, 1923, and the advertisement reappeared in the newspaper the next day, with [562]*562this ote6rffl®ainíd»aí®3feiffeíítW>afÓ50ití th^i^f .«^«TMsMsále is-tístó^^íBtótéanffipW witoto? ^^eMM® u, aaqdi itr sáfese baa is int so boob n, wats si bloa-sd o# .xáiagfnq mí# sso 3,»8§¡yM#mfe>3ífi m%mm mm*® ad»» was' matléi íainjhthqwl<a¡íéo¡ menítmlrexl ada¡té^saiH{á>-t tte sptooperty aáñ1i iWNHy EfflS^'ftiá' r$ient. brought by the trus¿M^ bill on the ground above stated. The appellant i©iíf||qt¿#^%|p^8í)^^mg^r-tised for the length of time required by the deed of trust under f%S&nMp-Nulty is estopped from making the objection because ©dWlnjEto »WS#SMBW5f if^lM^^íWdíQ fe h»]>5tíiífefife tract is to be p¡arJqrmedmr;MSÍBMfeit^%MáTS8\fW8ítóS,f nSÍteiMeB tóSífe^k jd-fBSS etef^.btddMefe^Bl^§#£ -Y&frrnimü , 1 “Wherj dóft §^MS .85261 8 ledmevoM no ©hsm &d of ©Lea s. iít ffexwfcrt u °é#e ^£on3:8^[BB9y«Wfe.ifilit WM?f ífi&L which such notice is given tor such, act is done,rmay.be counted as a part or th-l>ltme^B ixeii ©rii leqsqa'wen efli in beiaeqqaei inem [563]*563for ^the' sale¡and .we líüOw.xofi .oib- rule ofúouStiUbtionlby-;vhich b oth.;dayg’ are. tb\b;e, eountedl .Vlfc&idééd ofíárus® only authprihedea sale ^aflprbfeM adveltphng’yfi® .le® daysitSimtus^the a^yíerlisemenfcw^sntdJiraim./'íelÉÉ d%e before -ítli-e -salé took; place.;. It diduot require that t-he tip tipo Ishonld be iianblisbpd. ¡ temuonsdctitryel 'days,! but that tlie sale should onLy be arado :‘hiter «first advertising fte¡;timdypl^ee?andí.éerwsílforííeri:*xiáys.ófeR was^thakhheriadyert'isemehfe should Aphckurientl fon. ten 4ays before the;salee;-x- ím;.í h> yiab- ehl at ir «lerhí ¡hura ,t tilín yiew.-of. ourfo^®hafos'?abo!m:éitédlT¡we deeindt ¡atoa peeessary to. comment upon' numerous cases from: other jurisdictions cited by. counsel. ,;..The current loft iadthora ity, however, accords with-our cases, r "be b> v>.b v/anne c Í5]' In l9 R. C; ¡Li rpage bfol1, itú-s saád:» ^Theigenerdh rule in regard to computing the time: dining which notices of sale under a power .in a mortgage or trust deed run or should run is that, the day of performance is to be included, and the day from which the notico begins to run is to be excluded, -o Thus it has been held that á>-salid under a deed of trust requmug the land to be sold after an advertisement of ten days, is-void where the first'puba lication is.made on.the eighth, of a inoath and the saledsl held oil' the eighteenth of the .same month,- as the day upon which the advertisement is first.-published ¡is1 to be; excluded;, in- computing- the: tim e when the publication should-begim” -u-by. t; led tLra:u.qj:,«x/ :->J y-sei e-hu ail i [6:[;it- is., the cduty:?of, a trustee: i-nimdeed «¡to isecure debts,,- in.« executing, the. trust, ktot¡conf®!rm>;.substántiállyi iníaH.raaterihl -particulars to tbelstipuíatíohsrabth® depdi under «which.íh^raptsi ahídtheftimeíofeadveE'tíéing^iond pf? .thp.mbst'. essential!; p&Cthes®ístipulátiffiig!I TSiferslIswí ject has bps® s^ildyidPhSidbrpd ahd&Üscussed;l*ih.rBcehtí eases that;itwouldibe-ai-¡worfkoof>-siip.ererogationtd’ repe[at thjj disbuseippab 3*afont Ttfs^aMmo/ri^iSS.t'Wi' 52£¡p «.bifeviir need evrai bliio-w el-iv-j [564]*564S. E. 230; Preston v. Johnson, 105 Va. 238, 53 S. E. 1. See also Shillaber v. Robinson, 97 U. S. 68, 24 L. Ed. 967, and note to Tyler v. Herring, 19 Am. St. Rep. 266.

Appellant, however, insists that the adjournment or postponement of the sale from November 6th to November 14th, and the publication thereof cured the defect of notice, if there was any. The right to postpone a sale which has been once duly advertised cannot be denied, and sometimes the circumstances are such that it is the duty of the trustee to postpone the sale (Rohrer v. Strickland, 116 Va. 755, 82 S. E. 711), but a notice which is insufficient in the first instance cannot be patched up in this way. In order to fill out the time a new day of sale has to be fixed, and where, as in the instant case, the new date is less than ten days from the first date, neither date has been advertised for the length of time required by the deed, and the object and the purpose of the deed in requiring an advertisement of ten days is defeated. A sale which cannot be made on the day appointed because the notice thereof has not been given for the length of time required by the deed under which it is authorized, cannot be postponed to a later date without giving notice of the new date for the length of time required by the deed. It is in effect a proceeding de novo.

If the original notice of the sale- conforms to the deed, the sale may be postponed, but whether the postponement must be for the same length of time as the original notice is a question upon which the authorities are in hopeless conflict, but which we are not called upon to decide, as the original notice, in the instant ease, was insufficient. 19 R. C. L. page 605; 19 Am. St. Rep. 291;. 92 Am. St. Rep. 590; L. R. A. 1915B, page 643.

If the trustee had sold on November 6th, the first day fixed for the sale, after only nine days notice, the sale would have been invalid.

[565]*565In Shillaber v. Robinson, 97 U. S. 68, 77, 24 L. Ed. 967, Mr. Justice Miller, speaking for a unanimous court, said: “If the instrument under which Noble acted is a mortgage with power of sale, it is beyond dispute that the sale is void, because it was not made in conformity with the terms on which alone he was authorized to sell. That the sale, under such circumstances was void, is too well established to admit of controversy. We refer especially to the recent case in this court of Bigler v. Waller, 14 Wall. 302 [20 L. Ed. 891].”

In that case the advertisement was for only six weeks, while the statute required twelve weeks.

When the trustee, at the instance of McNulty, postponed the sale from November 6th to November 14th, the trustee did not alter his position for the worse, for he had no power to sell on November 6th. Hence, there was no estoppel against McNulty as claimed by the trustee. Nor could the powers of the trustee be enlarged by the request of McNulty.

The parties interested had the right to waive the ten days’ notice required by the deed and permit a sale on shorter notice, but they never did so.

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Bluebook (online)
129 S.E. 242, 142 Va. 559, 1925 Va. LEXIS 359, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dickerson-v-mcnulty-va-1925.