Fite v. Wood

250 S.W.2d 543, 194 Tenn. 308, 30 Beeler 308, 1952 Tenn. LEXIS 430
CourtTennessee Supreme Court
DecidedJuly 11, 1952
StatusPublished
Cited by3 cases

This text of 250 S.W.2d 543 (Fite v. Wood) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Tennessee Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Fite v. Wood, 250 S.W.2d 543, 194 Tenn. 308, 30 Beeler 308, 1952 Tenn. LEXIS 430 (Tenn. 1952).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Burnett

delivered the opinion of the Court.

The questions for decision are (1) whether the rule of res adjudicata is applicable in this case, and if not, [310]*310(2) whether “a judgment creditor can redeem land sold under judgment execution after the judgment debtor’s statutory right of redemption has been exercised by” the judgment debtor’s assignee.

Herman Rhodes obtained in Chancery a money judgment against Grady Jennings. An execution issued' and was levied by the sheriff on the undivided interest of judgment debtor Jennings in certain land. At the sale under this levy judgment creditor Rhodes became the purchaser at a sum in excess of his judgment. He satisfied his judgment and paid the balance of the purchase price into Court; No deed was made by the sheriff to this judgment creditor purchaser. ¡So, there remained in the judgment debtor, Jennings, the right of redemption, Code, Section 7738, plus the bare legal title, with equitable title, subject to this right of redemption, in Rhodes, the purchaser at the execution sale. Fite v. Jennings, 193 Tenn. 250, 246 S. W. (2d) 1, 3.

Fite, the appellant here, had also obtained in chancery a money judgment against Jennings. That judgment was obtained after Rhodes had obtained his aforesaid judgment.

Five days after Rhodes had purchased the property at the sheriff’s sale, the judgment debtor, Jennings, executed a deed conveying his interest in the land to Mrs. Wood, the appellee here. This sale was without fraud and for a valuable consideration. Therefore, as between the judgment debtor, Jennings, and Mrs. Wood, the effect of this deed was to vest in Mrs. Wood the bare legal title to this land plus Jennings’ statutory right of redemption. As to that right Mrs. Wood by this deed became the as-signee of the judgment debtor, Jennings. :S'he recorded that deed the same day, and exercised judgment debtor’s [311]*311right of redemption, which had been assigned to her, as aforesaid, by paying Bhodes, the purchaser at the execution sale, the amount with interest and expenses which he, Bhodes, as purchaser, had paid for the land at that sale.

About five weeks later Fite, appellant here, filed his hill, (Fite v. Jennings, supra), alleging that the aforesaid conveyance by judgment debtor, Jennings, to Mrs. Wood was fraudulent, as a matter of law, and void. No fraud in fact was alleged. The relief sought was a decree declaring void, as against him, Fite, the aforesaid conveyance from judgment debtor, Jennings, to Mrs. Wood. This relief was predicated upon the insistence that Fite’s judgment, ipso facto, created a lien in favor of Fite on Jennings’ interest in the land, that interest being, as above stated, the hare legal title, plus the statutory right of redemption given him by Code Section 7738, and that this lien (so Fite insisted) was impressed upon this land at the time Mrs. Wood, as Jennings’ assignee, redeemed from Bhodes, the purchaser at the execution sale.

Jennings and Mrs. Wood demurred to this bill, thereby presenting for determination Fite’s aforesaid insistence. The Chancellor sustained the demurrer, thereby rejecting Fite’s insistence that he had a lien on Jennings’ interest in this land at the time of Jennings’ conveyance to Mrs. Wood, or at the time Mrs. Wood redeemed that interest from Bhodes.

On Fite’s appeal this Court affirmed the Chancellor in Fite v. J ennings, supra, announced on February 9, 1952. In that opinion, after holding, for the reason stated in the opinion, that Fite’s judgment was not a lien on Jennings’ interest in this land at the time of Jennings’ conveyance and assignment to Mrs. Wood, or at the time Mrs. Wood redeemed from Bhodes, this opinion then further said [312]*312that Mrs. Wood “ apparently proceeded Tinder Code Section 7740” as a bona fide creditor to redeem this land, and that “ 'the Fites can still redeem from Mrs. Wood in the manner as provided by statute’.” The Chancellor had likewise made that statement in his opinion sustaining the aforesaid demurrer.

In making the statement that Mrs. Wood “apparently proceeded under Code Section 7740i” as a bona fide creditor to redeem this land, and in making the statement that “ 'the Fites can still redeem from Mrs. Wood in the manner as provided by statute’ ”, we made statements that were irrelevant to the sole question involved in suit. That sole question was whether Fite’s judgment wa's a lien on Jennings’ interest in that land at the time of Jennings’ conveyance to Mrs. Wood, or at the time Mrs. Wood redeemed from the execution purchaser, Rhodes. Clearly, therefore, each of these statements was dictum.

Moreover, the conclusions we reached in the aforesaid dictum were erroneous. Mrs. Wood was not proceeding as a creditor in redeeming this land from Rhodes. She was proceeding as the assignee of the judgment debtor, Jennings, to exercise the right of redemption given to Jennings as such debtor by Code Section 7738. That she was so proceeding is manifested upon the face of the opinion.

Shortly after the announcement of our opinion Mr. Fite tendered to Mrs. Wood the amount with interest which she had paid to Rhodes in redeeming this land. Mrs. Wood refused to accept the money. Thereupon Fite filed his bill in the case now under consideration, and paid this money into Court. He likewise increased the bid by adding the amount of his judgment and satisfying that judgment. All this was made known by the allega[313]*313tions of 'his hill in this second snit. In that hill he likewise asserted that the aforesaid dictum in our opinion established it as a fact that he had the legal right to redeem from Mrs. Wood in the manner attempted. However, this bill did not call it dictum.

' The relief prayed by Fite’s bill in the present suit is (1) that Mrs. Wood be required to deliver him a deed showing that he had redeemed from her Jennings’ interest in this land, or that the sheriff be directed to convey that interest to him as a redeeming creditor, and (2) that the deed from Jennings to Mrs. Wood be removed as'a cloud on his title, and (3) that he be declared the absolute owner of this land unless it is redeemed by a bona fide creditor within two years from April 29, 1950.

Mrs. Wood demurred to the bill. Consistent with the insistences made by that demurrer, the Chancellor held (1) that each of the heretofore quoted statements in the former, opinion of this Court, and in his opinion in that case, was dictum; hence, that Fite’s insistence as to res adjudicata is not tenable, and (2) that “where a judgment debtor or his assignee has redeemed a creditor cannot redeem from such redemptioner”.

Fite has again appealed, thereby presenting for determination here the two above stated questions.

It has hereinbefore been determined that each of the statements in our former opinion now relied on by Fite to sustain his plea of res adjudicata is dictum. So the question is whether by reason of such dictum the determinative question involved in this suit is res adjudicata. It was not an issue in the previous suit.

In point is the holding in Staten v. State, 191 Tenn. 157, 159, 232 S. W. (2d) 18, 19, viz.:

[314]*314“Courts sometimes go beyond the point necessary for a decision in a lawsuit and make expressions on certain tilings there involved which are not necessary for a determination of the lawsuit. Such statements by a court are known as dictum.

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Bluebook (online)
250 S.W.2d 543, 194 Tenn. 308, 30 Beeler 308, 1952 Tenn. LEXIS 430, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/fite-v-wood-tenn-1952.