Gibson v. Lambeth

357 S.E.2d 404, 86 N.C. App. 264, 1987 N.C. App. LEXIS 2706
CourtCourt of Appeals of North Carolina
DecidedJuly 7, 1987
DocketNo. 8726SC39
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 357 S.E.2d 404 (Gibson v. Lambeth) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Court of Appeals of North Carolina primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Gibson v. Lambeth, 357 S.E.2d 404, 86 N.C. App. 264, 1987 N.C. App. LEXIS 2706 (N.C. Ct. App. 1987).

Opinion

JOHNSON, Judge.

Plaintiffs Assignment of Error raises the issue of whether the trial court erred by concluding as a matter of law that no issue exists as to any material fact to support plaintiffs motion for summary judgment, and that defendant is entitled to summary judgment. We find no merit to plaintiffs Assignment of Error.

The trial judge’s role in ruling on a motion for summary judgment is to determine, based on the parties’ pleadings and affidavits, whether any material issues of fact exist that require trial. If the only issues to be decided are issues of law, then summary judgment is proper. Wachovia Mortgage Co. v. Autry-Barker-Spurrier Real Estate, Inc., 39 N.C. App. 1, 3-4, 249 S.E. 2d 727, 729 (1978), aff’d, 297 N.C. 696, 256 S.E. 2d 688 (1979). The burden is on the movant to show the lack of any triable issue of fact. [268]*268North Carolina National Bank v. Gillespie, 291 N.C. 303, 230 S.E. 2d 375 (1976). We find that the trial court properly granted summary judgment in defendant’s favor.

Plaintiffs complaint alleged, inter alia, that defendant was negligent in failing to comply with the court order to sell the property subject to “any unpaid deeds of trust” predating defendant Association’s lien filed 20 January 1981 and by not searching the title to the condominium. That search, argues plaintiff, would have revealed that Virginia Mortgage Corporation’s lien was filed prior to North Carolina Federal’s lien. Plaintiff further alleged that defendant Lambeth misrepresented to plaintiff that the property would be subject only to the North Carolina Federal lien, that such misrepresentation induced plaintiff to purchase the condominium to his detriment, and that such misrepresentation was grossly negligent.

Plaintiff argues that the rule of caveat emptor, whereby the purchaser buys property at his own risk, does not apply to a court ordered commissioner’s sale. He argues that a commissioner’s sale is distinguishable from an execution sale, to which caveat emptor applies. If, as plaintiff urges, caveat emptor does not apply to the case sub judice, then he is entitled to an order to rescind the contract and receive his purchase price. We must decide whether caveat emptor applies and, if so, what are the consequences.

In Shields v. Allen, 77 N.C. 375 (1877), cited by plaintiff as controlling, the North Carolina Supreme Court stated the following:

The plaintiff, however, contends that the purchaser took the risk of getting a title, and must pay his bid, although it happens that he gets no title, just as a purchaser at an execution sale must.
There is no doubt but that such is the law of execution sales. It is equally clear that when a court orders a sale of a particular piece of land for partition or any other purpose, it offers to sell a good title, and will not compel a purchaser to complete his purchase by payment of the price if it appears that a good title cannot be made, except when the sale is expressly or by implication stated to be merely of the estate of [269]*269a person named, as on the foreclosure of a mortgage, or of some other certain and definite estate or right.
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Shields, supra, at 376-78. (Emphasis in original.)

There is little question in the case sub judice that the trial court ordered the sale of property and not merely of the estate of a named person. Therefore, under Shields, supra, it would seem [270]*270that the court in the case sub judice offered to sell good title, and should not compel plaintiff to complete the purchase where good title was not conveyed.

However, the North Carolina Supreme Court in Ellis v. Adderton, 88 N.C. 472 (1883), limited the holding in Shields, supra, to innocent purchasers, and questioned the distinction between court ordered sales of land and of an estate in land:

In Shields v. Allen, 77 N.C. 375, it is declared that when a commissioner acting under a judicial order sells the land and the purchaser acquires no title; he may have the contract rescinded, and any money he may have paid restored, because of his confidence in the results of a supposed judicial inquiry and determination; but that it is otherwise when the sale is of the estate of the persons named, and then the purchaser takes at his own risk.
Assuming the propriety of this nice distinction between a sale of land and estate in the land in their consequences, questionable at least, the ruling in the case has reference to an innocent purchaser, who bids for and buys the land under the impression that he thereby will acquire the title, a mistake into which he is led without the means of prompt correction. But it cannot be applicable to a case where the purchaser is in possession of full information of the facts, and is in express terms told that he will get only the interest. . . [in the property for sale] and voluntarily, with this knowledge, bids, enters into the contract, and executes his several notes for the different sums of purchase money.

Ellis, supra, at 476 (emphasis supplied).

The facts in the case sub judice are in line with the limitation placed on Shields, supra, by Ellis, supra• plaintiff in this case was on notice, before and during the sale, that the condominium was being sold subject to the North Carolina Federal deed of trust and “any unpaid deeds of trust”; plaintiff was familiar with sales of real property and the need to search titles, but failed to inquire of defendant commissioner as to whether title to the condominium had been searched; despite this knowledge, plaintiff voluntarily entered into the contract to purchase. Considering the holding in Shields, supra, in light of the limitation placed on it by Ellis, [271]*271supra, we now hold that plaintiff was not an innocent purchaser of the kind contemplated in Shields and Ellis, and was therefore subject to caveat emptor, and is bound by the purchase as entered into.

Plaintiff next argues that defendant is liable to plaintiff for recklessly misrepresenting the number of liens against the condominium, inducing plaintiffs reliance to his detriment. We find no merit to defendant’s argument.

Plaintiff claims essentially that defendant’s representation that the condominium was subject to only one deed of trust, although admittedly made without actual knowledge of “falsity,” was made with reckless disregard for the truth. He cites Brickell v. Collins, 44 N.C. App. 707, 262 S.E. 2d 387, disc. rev. denied, 300 N.C. 194, 269 S.E. 2d 622 (1980), as controlling. Plaintiffs reliance on Brickell, supra, is misplaced. That case dealt with a claim of fraud on the part of a vendor of real property. Plaintiff in the case sub judice concedes in his brief that defendant Lambeth did not have any actual knowledge that his representations about the sale of the condominium were false. False representation or concealment of a material fact is an essential element in a claim for fraud. Brickell, supra, at 710, 262 S.E. 2d at 389. Plaintiff quotes the following language from Brickell supra:

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Cite This Page — Counsel Stack

Bluebook (online)
357 S.E.2d 404, 86 N.C. App. 264, 1987 N.C. App. LEXIS 2706, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/gibson-v-lambeth-ncctapp-1987.