Dillon v. Davis

3 Tenn. Ch. R. 386
CourtCourt of Appeals of Tennessee
DecidedApril 15, 1877
StatusPublished

This text of 3 Tenn. Ch. R. 386 (Dillon v. Davis) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of Tennessee primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Dillon v. Davis, 3 Tenn. Ch. R. 386 (Tenn. Ct. App. 1877).

Opinion

The Chancellor:

This case comes before me on a demurrer to a bill of review filed, by the complainant, to review a decree of this court sustaining a demurrer to an amended and supplemental bill, and dismissing such bill-[387]*387’The error relied on is, that although the demurrer was ■properly sustained, the decree should not have dismissed the whole bill as to one of the defendants, Burrell Bender, against whom relief was sought independent of the matter assigned in demurrfer.

The facts necessary to enable us to understand the point involved are these : On March 4, 1867, the defendant John It. Davis sold and conveyed to the complainant, C.,R. Dillon, a tract of laud for $10,000, half of which was paid in ■cash, and notes given at one and two years for the residue. Previous to this sale, the defendant A. J. White had recovered a judgment at law against John R. Davis, which was, on appeal, affirmed in the Supreme Court in January, 1867, and the land was levied upon by an execution issued on this judgment, and sold thereunder in November, 1867, to White, at $416, being the amount then due upon his judgment. On March 26, 1868, complainant took from the said Davis an assignment of his equity of redemption. On April 7, 1868, the defendant Burrell Bender, claiming to be a judgment-creditor of John R. Davis, undertook to redeem from A. J. White the land thus sold and bought by ■him, paying him the amount of his bid, and advancing $703 ■on the judgment held by him against Davis.

On October 1, 1868, the original bill in this cause was •filed against John R. Davis, Samuel W. Davis, B. J. Far-rar, Burrell Bender, and A. J. White. One object of the ■bill was to reach, for the complainant’s indemnity against ■the encumbrances created by the White judgment and sale "thereunder, and by the redemption of Bender, the interest •of John R. Davis in the last note given by the complainant for the purchase-money of the land, and in other property, which note and property, it was alleged, were assigned to Farrar to secure a partnership debt of John R. Davis, •Samuel W. Davis, and Farrar in a cotton speculation. Another object was to remove, as a cloud upon complainant’s title, the proceedings of the defendant White in sell[388]*388ing the land, and of the defendant Bender in redeeming it as above set out. But the bill, in the latter regard, was-defective in failing to give the dates of the White judgment originally and as affirmed, and seems to have been based upon the erroneous idea that the judgment of affirmance-was after the complainant’s purchase, and that the lien did not relate to the date of the original judgment. The bill relied, as against the redemption of Bender, upon the-ground that there was no right of redemption in Davis at the time, and that the proceedings in redemption were, so-far as complainant was concerned, of no effect, and void. The prayer of the bill is that, on final hearing, ‘ ‘ the proceedings of said White and Bender in the redemption of the land” be declared of no effect, and removed as a cloud upon the title of complainant; but, if the court should, hold White’s judgment to have been a lien upon the land, then that complainant be allowed to redeem by the payment-of his bid, and the money is tendered accordingly. And' if the court should hold that Bender had the light to redeem, then the complainant be allowed to redeem from-him.

On October 14, 1868, the complainant filed an amended bill to bring before the court, as defendants, D. G. Shepard and John H. Farrar as the assignees of complainant’s last note for the land and the other property sought to be reached by the original bill. On the same day, answers were filed by White, J. B. Davis, S. W. Davis, and B. J. Farrar. On May 19, 1870, D. G. Shepard and J. H. Farrar answered. On April 5, 1869, Bender filed his-answer. In this answer Bender avers that he was a judgment-creditor of John R. Davis, and relies on his redemption of April 7, 1868, by virtue thereof, and insists upon the validity of his title to the land acquired thereby, should the complainant allow the time to elapse within which he is entitled to redeem. The entire litigation, as between complainant and Bender, is narrowed down, upon this state of [389]*389•the pleadings, to the validity of Bender’s title under the proceedings in redemption, supposing the sale under the White judgment to have been good, and the title thus acquired superior to that of the complainant, about which there could probably be no serious doubt.

In this stage of the litigation, the complainant, under the advice of counsel, concluded to buy Bender’s interest, both in the land and in the judgments of White and Bender, and all rights acquired by the proceedings in redemption. Ac•cordingly, he, on November 23, 1869, paid to Bender •$1,229.26, and took his receipt therefor, in which it is recited by Bender to be ‘ ‘ in full for all my interest in and to the tract of land sold as the property of John R. Davis •on November 30, 1867, under execution from the Supreme 'Court in favor of A. J. White, and by me redeemed on April 7, 1868, and an advance of $703 made' by me on the same, •and in full for the transfer of all my right and interest in 'the two judgments, said Dillon being the assignee of Davis by deed.” . “This arrangement,” the receipt continues, •“is intended as a full satisfaction of my claim in the premises, and in full redemption of said land, reference being made to the execution-docket and other proceedings in said ■Supreme Court for a more particular description of said land ■and judgments.” Under his original bill, the complainant had paid into court $441.50, being the amount of White’s bid on the land at the execution sale, with interest, and this ■money had been loaned to the defendant Bender. The receipt recites that Bender’s note for this money is to be ■delivered up to him as part of the $1,229.26; that Dillon had accounted, in the payment, for interest on the White judgment from the date of Bender’s redemption to the receipt of said $441.50, and adds: “But if the chancellor .should decide that said Dillon is not liable for interest during the time said sum of $441.50 was on deposit in the Chancery Court at Lebanon, I am to refund the excess of interest.”

Prima facie, the settlement embodied in this receipt is [390]*390an adjustment of all the matters of litigation between the-parties, except only the small item of interest and the costs ;; and either party would have had the right to bring the new facts to the attention of the court by a supplemental bill. A payment, with full knowledge of the facts, in compromise of a pending litigation is binding, and the court will not inquire into the question of right between the parties, for the very object of the settlement was to avoid the risk of such an inquiry. 1 Story’s Eq. Jur., see. 131, and cases-cited ; Hubbard v. Martin, 8 Yerg. 498.

After this, on April 19, 1870, the complainant files an amended and supplemental bill against John R. Davis,, Burrell Bender, Samuel W. Davis, John H. Farrar, D. Gr. Shepard, and John C. Hubbard, administrator of Bernice-Bender, deceased. This bill, after reciting the previous bills, sets out some additional matters in relation to the note- and property assigned to D. Gr. Shepard, and calls upon him and John H. Farrar to answer as to these matters.

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
3 Tenn. Ch. R. 386, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/dillon-v-davis-tennctapp-1877.