Hardy v. Herriott

39 P. 958, 11 Wash. 460, 1895 Wash. LEXIS 328
CourtWashington Supreme Court
DecidedMarch 22, 1895
DocketNo. 1644
StatusPublished
Cited by16 cases

This text of 39 P. 958 (Hardy v. Herriott) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Washington Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Hardy v. Herriott, 39 P. 958, 11 Wash. 460, 1895 Wash. LEXIS 328 (Wash. 1895).

Opinion

The opinion of the court was delivered by

Gordon, J.

This suit was brought by the appellant

to redeem certain real property sold under a fore[461]*461closure of mortgage. To the complaint respondent filed a general demurrer which the lower court sustained, and appellant electing to stand on his complaint, judgment of dismissal was entered; whereupon the cause was appealed to this court.

But a single question is necessary to he considered by us in the determination of the case. It is whether a purchaser at sheriff’s sale who takes possession of the mortgaged premises and leases them to another can be required to account, at the suit of the mortgagor to redeem, for the rents and profits arising from the use and occupation of such premises subsequent to the sale and prior to redemption.

Sec. 519, Code Proe., is as follows:

“The. purchaser from the day of sale until a resale or redemption, and the redemptioner'from the day of his redemption until another redemption, shall be entitled to the possession of the property purchased or redeemed, unless the same be in the possession of a tenant holding under an unexpired lease, and in such case shall be entitled to receive from such tenant the rents or the value of the use and occupation thereof during the same period.” •

This court held, in the case of Debenture Corporation v. Warren, 9 Wash. 312 (37 Pac. 451), that this section applied'to sales made upon the foreclosure of a mortgage and entitled the purchaser to possession, and that it was not repealed by the passage of the act of February 3, 1886 (now § 513). We think that the conclusion reached in that case relieves the present question of much difficulty. It also furnishes the answer to one of the principal contentions of the appellant in the present case. We might, however, add in passing that a like conclusion as to the effect-of statutes similar to ours (§519), was reached by the supreme court of California in McDevitt v. Sullivan, 8 Cal. 593; Knight v. [462]*462Truett, 18 Cal. 113; also in Clement v. Shipley, 2 N. D. 430 (51 N. W. 414) in which last case it is said:

“ There should be, and we are clear there is, no distinction expressed or intended by the law between a purchase at an execution sale and a purchase at a mortgage sale. To both the law extends this right to recover the rents the same as the former owner.”

It follows that in this state the title of the mortgagor upon foreclosure sale, like the title of the judgment debtor upon execution sale, becomes extinguished and all that remains to him is the right to redeem, which is wholly statutory. Independent of the statute, the mortgagor or judgment debtor would have no right to redeem from the sale. Rorer, Judicial Sales (2 ed.) §1148; Freeman, Executions, (2 ed.), §314; Stoddard v. Forbes, 13 Iowa, 296; Weiner v. Heintz, 17 Ill. 259; 3 Pomeroy, Equity Jurisprudence, §1228; Spoor v. Phillips, 27 Ala. 193.

In Eiceman v. Finch, 79 Ind. 511, the court say:

“It needs no citation of authority to support” the proposition that the equitable right to redeem is barred by the decree and sale. . . . There are two rights of redemption; the general equitable right and the statutory right. The former is forever barred by the decree and sale; the latter does not spring into existence until the sale takes place. This statutory right comes into existence with the sale; it continues for one year and then expires.”

The purchaser at such sale acquires the full legal title, carrying with it possession and the right to the rents and profits. The statute which saves to the debtor or mortgagor the right to redeem prescribes the time within and the terms upon which he may do so; and upon compliance with its provisions he becomes reinvested with the title. A purchaser at an execution sale acquires all the estate and interest of the defendant [463]*463in execution; he succeeds to the title of the defendant in execution. All that remains in the debtor is the mere personal right secured by statute to repurchase the land within the time allowed by statute, and thus become restored to the estate he had in it at the time of the sale. This statutory right to redeem from the sale is essentially different from an equity of redemption. It is merely a privilege which the statute affords the debtor to be exercised in the manner pointed out by the statute, and, unlike an equity of redemption, it is not an estate in lands subject to levy and sale upon execution. Parmer v. Parmer, 74 Ala. 285.

“ It is an undisputed rule of the common law that a buyer of land buys all that is growing upon it or issuing out of it belonging to the seller, unless specially excepted; and this includes all rent in money or in kind which is in the course of accruing by the enjoyment of the land,” and this rule is applicable to sheriff’s sales. Borrell v. Dewart, 37 Pa. St. 134.

The purchaser becomes the absolute owner of the land, and, entering into possession, is entitled to the rents and profits, and the former owner has nothing but the naked right of redemption, which is irretrievably lost if it be not asserted in the time and manner prescribed by law. Spoor v. Phillips, 27 Ala. 193; Kannon v. Pillow, 7 Humph. 281.

The law in Alabama was amended in 1850, and the liability of the purchaser to account for rents and profits arises after tender is made and he is put in default. Spoor v. Phillips, supra, Weathers v. Spears, 27 Ala. 455; Parmer v. Parmer, supra.

In Knight v. Truett, supra, a purchaser at sheriff’s sale of premises in a foreclosure suit was permitted, after redemption had occurred, to recover from the tenant in possession the rents accruing during the redemp[464]*464tion period, and in Harris v. Reynolds, 13 Cal. 515, an action by the purchaser to recover rents and profits against the judgment debtor, who had remained in possession, was upheld. The court in.that case say:

“A privilege of redemption is given to the judgment debtor; but it is uncertain whether he will.exercise it. Time is not given for the purpose of enabling the debtor to make a profit out of the estate, but for the purpose of enabling him to raise the money to redeem. There is no presumption that the property sells for less than its present value; and there is no compulsion upon the part of the debtor to redeem, if he is able, and if he does not, the purchaser runs the risk of the title, the depreciation or destruction of the property, and, in fact', all the risk attending the ownership of property. As the law holds him to the responsibilities of owner, it entitles 'him to the benefits of owner, so far as the right to the profits is concerned.”

At the. time when these California cases w.ere decided their statute was almost identical with our § 519, but in 1880 the legislature of California amended the statute by adding the following:

“But.

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Bluebook (online)
39 P. 958, 11 Wash. 460, 1895 Wash. LEXIS 328, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/hardy-v-herriott-wash-1895.