Parker v. Rodman

84 Ind. 256
CourtIndiana Supreme Court
DecidedMay 15, 1882
DocketNo. 8582
StatusPublished
Cited by2 cases

This text of 84 Ind. 256 (Parker v. Rodman) 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
Parker v. Rodman, 84 Ind. 256 (Ind. 1882).

Opinion

Howk, J.

This was a claim by the appellee against the ■estate of Walker B. Rodman, deceased, and the personal rep[257]*257resentatives of said decedent. The cause, having been put at issue, was tried by the court, and a finding was made for the appellee in the sum of $2,990; and the appellants’ motion for a new trial having been overruled, and their exception saved to this ruling, the court rendered judgment in appellee’s favor and against said decedent’s estate for the amount of its finding and costs.

The following errors are assigned by the appellants in this >court:

1. The court erred in overruling their demurrer to appellee’s claim or complaint;

2. The court erred in overruling their motion for a new .trial; and,

3. That the appellee’s claim or complaint does not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action.

• The first and third of these alleged errors may properly be considered together, as they each call in question the sufficiency of the facts stated in appellee’s claim or complaint, to constitute a cause of action. In her verified claim or complaint, the appellee alleged in substance, that, oh the 16th day of May, 1867, Walker B. Rodman, then in full life, but ■ since deceased, and Lucinda, his wife, executed a mortgage to one Thomas J. Rodman to secure two notes of that date for $10,000 each, a copy of which was therewith filed; whereby the said Walker B. Rodman and his wife mortgaged and warranted a large number of parcels of land, particularly described, in Jackson county, Indiana; that, after the execu-r tion of said mortgage, all the parties thereto died, and thereafter, in the suit of the administrators of the mortgagee, Thomas J. Rodman, deceased, against the heirs at law of the .mortgagors, Walker B. and Lucinda Rodman, both deceased, in the Jackson Circuit Court, at its April term, 1873, the mortgage was foreclosed, and the mortgaged lands were. ordered to be sold; that, accordingly, the mortgaged lands were sold by the sheriff of Jackson county, under said judgment [258]*258and order of sale, on June 28tli, 1873, and the appellee became the purchaser thereof at said sale for $23,000, and all said lands were duly conveyed to her by said sheriff; that the said Walker B. and Lucinda Rodman warranted the title to-all the lands described in said mortgage, to be perfect in said mortgagors, and free from incumbrance; that they, the mortgagors, at the time they so warranted the title to all said lands, were not the owners of, and had no title whatever to, and were not then or afterwards seized of, three of the said parcels of land, which three parcels were particularly described in said complaint; and that the appellee was kept out of the possession of said three parcels of lapd by other-persons than the defendants in said foreclosure suit, to wit,. John H. Baltman and -Julian, who were seized of said three parcels and held the same under a paramount title to that of said mortgagors. Wherefore the appellee demanded judgment for the amount she paid for said three parcels of land, to which Walker B. Rodman had no title, to wit, the sum of five thousand dollars, which, she said, she; paid therefor, and for other proper relief.

It appears from the allegations of the complaint, and from the copy of the mortgage therewith filed, that Walker B. Rodman and his wife mortgaged and warranted to Thomas J.. Rodman divers tracts of land, in Jackson county, said to-contain in the aggregate 832.35 acres, to secure the payment of two notes of $10,000 each. Upon the foreclosure of the jnortgage, and the sale by the sheriff of the mortgaged lands-as an entirety, the appellee became the purchaser thereof for the sum of twenty-three thousand dollars. After the sheriff had executed to appellee, in confirmation of said sale, a. proper deed of conveyance of all the said tracts of land, it was discovered that, as to three of the said tracts, each containing forty acres of land, neither the said Walker B. Rod-man nor his wife, Lucinda Rodman, had any title whatever thereto, or to either of said three tracts, at the time of their execution of said warranty mortgage, or at any time after-[259]*259wards. But it was averred that, at the time the said warranty mortgage was executed and afterwards, the three forty-acre tracts of land were owned and held by titles paramount to the title of the mortgagors, two of them by John H. Bait-man and the other by George W. Julian; so that the appellee had been kept out of the possession of said three tracts of land, and each of them.

As nothing is alleged to the contrary, it may be assumed that the appellee, by her said purchase.under said foreclosure sale, acquired a valid title to all the residue of the mortgaged lands, containing in the aggregate 712.35 acres.

Upon the foregoing facts, conceded to be true by the' demurrer to the complaint, the questions for decision seem to us to be these: Is the estate of Walker B. Rodman, deceased, liable to the appellee, as the purchaser of the decedent’s real estate at sheriff’s sale? If the estate is liable, upon what theory and to what extent is it liable ? What is the true measure of the appellee’s damages ? Is the estate of the mortgagor of lands liable to the purchaser thereof other than the mortgagee, by reason of any breach of any of the covenants contained in the mortgage ? If not thus liable, is the estate of the owner of lands liable to the purchaser thereof, at sheriif’s sale, if, from any cause, the title of such purchaser has failed as to part of the lands purchased ? These be troublesome questions, which lie at the base of the appellee’s supposed cause of action, and upon their answer, as it seems to us, the proper decision of this case is largely dependent.

In Weaver v. Guyer, 59 Ind. 195, in the opinion of the court, it was said by Worden, J. :• “The general doctrine in this State is, that there is no warranty in judicial sales.- The plaintiff, by his 'purchase, acquired whatever right the defendant had in the property purchased ; nothing more nor less. He got no warranty, either of title or against encumbrances. If he had purchased the land from the defendant and taken a quitclaim deed therefor, in the absence of fraud, he could not have recovered back, or defended against the collection of, the pur[260]*260chase-money, on the ground of failure of title. See cases cited In Brunner v. Brennan, 49 Ind. 98; also Weakley v. Conradt, 56 Ind. 430; Neal v. Gillaspy, 56 Ind. 451. In Rorer Judicial Sales, sec. 476, it is said that ‘the rule of caveat emptor applies in all its rigor to judicial sales ’ of real property.”

In a number of cases in this court, it has been held that where the real estate sold at sheriff’s sale is purchased by a '..'third person, and there is a total failure of title, the purchaser may recover the amount of his bid from the judgment defendant as for money paid to his use. Muir v. Craig, 3 Blackf. 293 (25 Am. Dec. 111); Dunn v. Frazier, 8 Blackf. 432; Taylor v. Conner, 7 Ind. 115; Preston v. Harrison, 9 Ind. 1; Pennington v. Clifton, 10 Ind. 172; Seller v. Lingerman, 24 Ind. 264; Hawkins v. Miller, 26 Ind. 173; Julian v. Beal, 26 Ind. 220; Westerfield v. Williams, 59 Ind. 221; Coan v. Grimes, 63 Ind. 21.

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Bluebook (online)
84 Ind. 256, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/parker-v-rodman-ind-1882.