Nebbett v. Cunningham

27 Miss. 292
CourtMississippi Supreme Court
DecidedApril 15, 1854
StatusPublished
Cited by1 cases

This text of 27 Miss. 292 (Nebbett v. Cunningham) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Mississippi Supreme Court primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Nebbett v. Cunningham, 27 Miss. 292 (Mich. 1854).

Opinion

Mr. Justice Handy

delivered the opinion of the court.

This is an appeal taken from an order of the superior court of chancery, overruling exceptions to the report of commissioners appointed by that court to sell certain mortgaged premises.

[294]*294In virtue of the decree of foreclosure rendered in the case, the commissioners made their report of sale to the December term, 1846, of that court. The present appellant filed exceptions thereto, on the ground that the bond taken for the purchase-money was not in compliance with the law, in several respects, and that, the residue of the purchase-money over and above the mortgage debt, the commissioners had improperly permitted to be retained by the purchaser, who claimed to be entitled to it. These exceptions were, for the most part, allowed ; and at the December term, 1847, it was ordered that the sale should be confirmed on the purchasers, the present appellee entering into bonds, payable in six months from the date of the sale, to D. W. Connelly, survivor, &c., (who was one of the complainants and mortgagees in the mortgage suit,) for the amount of the purchase-money to be divided into two sums, one bond for the amount of the mortgage decree, interest, and costs, and the other for the residue; to be executed within thirty days after notice, and on failure to do so, that the sale be set aside and a new sale made, &c.

Afterwards, but at what term it does not distinctly appear, the commissioners made their report, stating that they had taken the bonds, with good and sufficient security, and within the time, as prescribed by the last order above stated, and they returned with their report the bonds taken, which are in form as follows: —

$7,986. Washington County, Miss., December 4th, 1846.

Six months after date, we or either of us, promise to pay D. W. Connelly, surviving, &c., seven thousand nine hundred and eighty-six dollars, for value received. Witness our hands and seals.

“J., P. CuNNINSHAM, [SEAL.]

Thomas J. Likins, [seal.]

by J. P. Cunningham,

W. Hampton, Jr., [seal].”

The other bond was of the same date and tenor, differing only in its amount, which was for $6,014.

To this report the appellant, who was entered of record by [295]*295order of the court as the assignee of the mortgage debt, filed sundry exceptions, which are in substance as follows : —

1. That the bonds returned are not made payable to the parties entitled under the decree.

2. That the bond for the mortgage debt, interest, and costs, is not for a sum sufficient to cover the amount.

3. That the bonds do not draw interest from their date, nor stipulate for the interest at eight per cent., allowed in such cases.

4. That no authority is shown to sign the name of Thomas J. Likins to the bonds.

5. That the bonds were not returned into court until after they were due.

Exceptions were also taken to the manner of making the sale, and the power of the commissioners to make it, by reason of the irregularity of their appointment. These exceptions were overruled, and thereupon this appeal was taken.

We will first notice the objections made to the sale and the power of the commissioners.

It appears that no exception on these grounds was taken to the first report, and the appellant being the assignee of the decree at the time the sale was made, it must have been made with his acquiescence or at his instance. He cannot afterwards be permitted to deny that the commissioners were duly authorized to make the sale. As to the alleged irregularity in its being made at an illegal hour, no such exception was taken to the report of the sale, but the objection is for the first time presented to the second report which was not a report of the sale, but in relation to the bonds taken under it. All the objections raised to the first report had then been disposed of. It was too late, then, in taking exceptions to the second report, to go back to irregularities alleged to exist in the first report which had been pretermitted or acquiesced in. New exceptions under such circumstances should not be entertained, except in a case of gross irregularity causing a manifest injury or strong probability of it to the party aggrieved by it. No such case is shown here.

[296]*296The matters arising on the exceptions to the second report will now be considered.

The first objection is, that the bonds were not made payable to the parties entitled to the purchase-money.

It is insisted, in behalf of the appellee, that this exception cannot be sustained, because the bonds are taken in conformity to the order under which they were taken;-that this appeal is prosecuted on the order of the court overruling the exceptions to the report, and that nothing else can be noticed under it, and that the only question is, whether the bonds conform to the order directing them to be taken. "We think these positions well taken. The only matter complained of by the exceptions was the errors and irregularities of the commissioners in their proceedings under the order, and the appeal is taken to the action of the court upon that point alone. It is but an appeal from an interlocutory order, and the rule in such case is, that the appellate court will not look beyond the scope of the special matter embraced in the action of the inferior court, because nothing more is presented by the appeal. The rule is different in cases of writ of error or appeal from the final decree determining the merits of the cause. In such cases, the court will examine the whole record, and notice all interlocutory errors committed in the course of the proceedings to the prejudice of the party complaining, and render judgment accordingly. It is, therefore, not competent for the appellant to complain here of errors existing in the decree or order of the court under which these bonds were taken. He made no objection to that order, but appears to have acquiesced in it, and to have given the appellee notice of it, with a view to take the benefit of it. At all events, his exceptions and appeal present the sole question of the conformity of the bonds to the order of the court under which they were taken; and it is manifest that they are made payable to the party to whom they were required to be made by the order of the court.

But it does not appear that the manner in which these bonds were made payable, could operate to the injury of the appellant. Under the circumstances of the case, the use of the name [297]*297of Connelly, one of the complainants, and the only surviving one in the mortgage suit, was merely nominal, and in furtherance of the objects of the contest between these parties for the purchase-money. The court had control of the subject-matter, and power to direct the bonds so to be taken, under the circumstances of the case, as in its judgment would best secure the fund to abide the result of the litigation between the parties, giving an advantage neither to the one nor the other. By this, no injury could arise to the appellant on account of that portion of the fund of which he was assignee, for, as assignee of the decree, he was entitled to execution upon the bond given for that amount at.any time after its maturity. As to the residue, the bond taken, though nominally payable to Connelly, was under the control of the court.

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Bluebook (online)
27 Miss. 292, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/nebbett-v-cunningham-miss-1854.