Duke v. Beeson

79 Ind. 24
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedNovember 15, 1881
DocketNo. 8901
StatusPublished
Cited by11 cases

This text of 79 Ind. 24 (Duke v. Beeson) 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
Duke v. Beeson, 79 Ind. 24 (Ind. 1881).

Opinion

Howk, J.

— This suit was commenced by the appellee against the appellant to compel him, as the sheriff of Howard county, by mandate, to perform certain alleged official duties, which, the appellee averred, he had refused to perform. The appellant Duke filed his demurrer to the appellee’s complaint for such mandate, upon the ground that it did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. Before any action was had on this demurrer, on the verified petition of Moses Rosenthal, Charles J. Kraus and Joseph Rosenthal, partners under the firm name of Rosenthal, Kraus & Co., they were admitted as defendants in appellee’s action. Thereupon they also demurred to appellee’s complaint, for the alleged insufficiency of the facts therein to constitute a cause of action. Before the' court ruled upon either of the demurrers to the complaint, all1 the appellants filed what is called their cross complaint against the appellee. Thereafter the appellants’ demurrers to appellee’s complaint were overruled by the court, and to these rulings they excepted. The appellee then demurred to appellants’ so called cross complaint for the want of sufficient facts therein, as alleged, to constitute a cause of action, which demurrer was sustained by the court, and to this decision the [26]*26appellants excepted. They declined to amend their cross complaint or to plead further; and thereupon the court rendered judgment against them, for the appellee, for a peremptory mandate, as prayed for in his complaint.

From this judgment the appellants, the defendants below, have appealed to this court and have here assigned, as errors, ithe following decisions of the circuit court:

1. In overruling their demurrers to appellee’s complaint; and

2. In sustaining appellee’s demurrer to their cross complaint.

In his complaint the appellee alleged in substance, that, at the March term, 1879, of the Howard Circuit Court, Sarah Markland and others, by the consideration of said court, recovered a decree for the foreclosure of a certain mortgage executed by one Nathaniel J. Owings on certain real estate, particularly described, in Howard county; that afterward a copy of said decree was duly issued to the appellant Duke, as the .sheriff of said county; that, by virtue of said writ, the said Duke, as such sheriff, after due advertisement, on April 7th, 1879, offered and sold the said real estate, at public auction, to one Amos A. Covalt, for the sum of $2,205.95, that being the highest and best bid made therefor; that such sale satisfied so much of said mortgage debt as was then due and the costs then accrued, but that a large part of the mortgage debt, ■to wit, more than $2,600 thereof which was not then due, remained unsatisfied after said sale; that afterward, on August 23d, 1879, the said Sarah Markland and others assigned and transferred to the appellee, Beeson, all the instalments of said mortgage and decree thereafter to become due, which remained unsatisfied after the said sale, stating the amount of each instalment and the time it would become due; that each and all of the said instalments were a lien on said real estate from the date of said mortgage, to wit, October 1st, 1875, and were the first and oldest lien on said real estate, subject only to .the certificate of sale issued by the sheriff, under said [27]*27writ, to said Covalt; that afterward, on February 5th, 1880, one James E. Elliott, as assignee of Walker, Welsh & Co., then and there a junior judgment creditor of said Nathaniel J. Owings, having two judgments against said Owings which became liens on said real estate on October 3d, 1877, but junior to the said liens of the appellee, redeemed said real estate from the said sheriff’s sale thereof, on April 7th, 1879, by paying to the clerk of said court, for the use of the purchaser at said sale, the sum of $2,394.22, the principal and interest of the purchase-money; that afterward, on February 19th, 1880, the .appellants Rosenthal, Kraus & Co., to obtain the benefit of the redemption so made by said Elliott, paid to the clerk for the use of said Elliott the said sum of $2,394.22 and its accrued interest, and also the amount of Elliott’s said judgments, making in all $3,797 by them paid to obtain the benefit of said redemption; that the said Rosenthal, Kraus & Co. were then and there judgment creditors of said Owings, their lien bearing date October 4th, 1877, and being junior not’ •only to appellee’s claims, but also to the judgments of said Elliott, as assignee.

And the appellee averred, that afterward the said Rosenthal, Kraus & Co. sued out an execution on their judgment for the amount thereof, the execution further reciting the several amounts paid for redemption and for obtaining the benefit of such redemption, as above stated; that, by virtue of such execution, the appellant Duke, as such sheriff, duly advertised that he would sell said real estate, at public auction, on the 10th day of April, 1880; that, prior to and at the time •of such sale, the appellee had in the hands of said sheriff a certified copy of the decree of foreclosure of said mortgage; that on said 10th day of April, 1880, the said Duke, as such .sheriff, offered and sold the said real estate, at public auction, to the appellee, Beeson, for the sum of $4,000, that being the highest and best bid made therefor; that, in payment of his said bid, the appellee then and there tendered to the appellant Duke, as such sheriff, the sum of $2,650 in legal tender [28]*28notes of the United States, that being the full amount of the original redemption money for said real estate, together with all accrued interest and costs, and including all claims then in said sheriff’s hands, that were senior to or equal with the lien of the appellee’s claims; and appellee further offered to receipt to said sheriff, on his said writ, for the sum of $1,359.-65, and then and there tendered to said sheriff such receipt in payment of the residue of his bid of $4,000, to be applied on the appellee’s writ then in said sheriff’s hands, and then and there the oldest lien on said real estate, and demanded a deed for said real estate. But the appellee averred that the appellant Duke, as such sheriff, wrongfully refused to execute to appellee a certificate of. sale or deed for said real estate, as by law required.

Wherefore the appellee asked that a mandate be issued against said sheriff commanding him on the payment of said $2,650, and the receipting for sifch sum of $1,359.65, to execute to appellee a conveyance of such real estate, in manner and form as required by law, and for other proper relief.

It is manifest, we think, from the allegations of appellee’s complaint, that the question of its sufficiency depends for its proper decision upon the construction which must be given to the provisions of an act, approved March 31st, 1879, entitled An act providing for the redemption of real property or any interest therein sold on execution or decree of sale, and providing for deeds of conveyance in such cases.” Acts of 1879, p. 176. This act contained an emergency clause or section, and, therefore, it took effect and became a law from and after the date of its approval. It was the law of this State at the time of the first sale of the real estate of Nathaniel J. Owings, as alleged in appellee’s complaint, and it remained in full force during all the proceedings stated in the complaint, and until the redemption act of April 11th, 1881, took effect, on the 19th day of September, 1881. In section 13 of this latter act (section 778, E. S. 1881), it is expressly declared that

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Bluebook (online)
79 Ind. 24, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/duke-v-beeson-ind-1881.