Pollard v. Cocke

19 Ala. 188
CourtSupreme Court of Alabama
DecidedJanuary 15, 1851
StatusPublished
Cited by33 cases

This text of 19 Ala. 188 (Pollard v. Cocke) is published on Counsel Stack Legal Research, covering Supreme Court of Alabama primary law. Counsel Stack provides free access to over 12 million legal documents including statutes, case law, regulations, and constitutions.

Bluebook
Pollard v. Cocke, 19 Ala. 188 (Ala. 1851).

Opinion

CHILTON, J.

This was an action of ejectment brought by the defendant in error against the plaintiff, to recover certain real estate, situate in Tallapoosa county. The presiding judge charged the jury, that if they believed the evidence, they should -find for the plaintiff in the court below ; so that the legal sufficiency of the proof, conceding its correctness, to entitle the plaintiff below to maintain the action, and whether if such title be shown, it is paramount to that of the defendant, are questions for our revision.

The case was tried upon an agreed state of facts substantially as follows : That the land in dispute is situated in Talla-poosa county, and was patented to one Joseph G. Lindsey, and was in Pollard’s possession at the institution of this suit. The plaintiff below showed title as follows: “1. A judgment for $1620 against said Joseph G. Lindsey, rendered by the Circuit Court of the United States for the Southern District of Alabama, in favor of the Bank of Augusta, on'.the 23d day of December, 1840. 2. An alias fieri fiadas issued on the said judgment, the 28th December, 1846, which was levied on said land by the marshal of the Southern and Middle Districts of the State of Alabama, and a sale by said marshal, made on the first Monday in April, 1847, at the court house door in Tallapoosa county, of said land to the lessor of the plaintiff, due advertisement having been made. 3. A deed from said marshal executed to said Cocke on the day of said sale, (5th April, 1847,) which was recorded in the county of Tallapoosa on the 28th day of June, 1847.”

This being the evidence of the plaintiff’s title, let us examine first the question, whether it authorized hi-m to ask the instruction from the court, that if the jury believed the evidence, he was entitled to recover.

1. It is insisted that the facts agreed upon do not show, that [193]*193Lindsey had title to the land at the time the judgment was rendered, or at any time between that and the sale to the lessor of the plaintiff ; but does not the attitude which the parties respectively occupy as respects the title of Lindsey, dispense with proof, other than the agreement discloses 1 It appears that Pollard, the defendant below, claims to have derived his title through Lindsey, by sales made by the marshal anterior to the purchase by Cocke.—In Riddle v. Murphy, 7 Serg. & Rawle, 235, it was said by Gibson J. “ both parties claim under the same title, (derived from one Cornelius Murphy) it is too clear therefore for argument, that the plaintiffs were not bound to trace back their title beyond Cornelius Murphy. If there was a title adverse to his, cither in the 'commonwealth, or a third person, it lay on the defendant to show it.” — So also in Doe ex dem. Huntington v. Pritchard, 11 S. & Mar. 327, it was held that in an action of ejectment, where both parties claim under purchases at sheriff’s sale against the same defendant, it is not necessary that the plaintiff should make out his title to be good -as against the world; if the defendant set up no title, except ■:that of the judgment debtor, the plaintiff is not required to 'prove the nature or quality of the judgment debtor’s title. He is entitled to recover, if he can establish that title in himself. These authorities may suffice to show, that as Pollard is in possession of the land, claiming to have derived title from Lindsey, anterior to the sale by the marshal to Cocke, this amounts to a concession of such title. “ If one man,” says Judge Washington, “ came into possession of land by permission of another, he thereby admits the title of that other.”—Lessee of Cooper v. Galbraith, 3 Wash. C. C. 549. Much more should he bo considered as admitting the title when ho claims .to hold from him as pa-tentee by sales made by the marshal, who could only sell a legal title by our law, of date anterior to the purchase by the plaintiff.

2. But the counsel for the defendant in error contends that the sale is void, because it appears to have been made under an alias execution, and that it does not appear when the former writ of fieri facias issued; non constat, it may have issued after a year and a day. Grant this, and the conclusion is erroneous; for this would be to impeach the sheriff’s or marshal’s deed collaterally for irregularities, the process not being void, but voida[194]*194ble. This court has repeatedly decided that a sheriffs. d§.ed' cannot be collaterally impeached for any irregularities in his proceedings, or in the process under which he sold the land, and that all that is necessary to support the title of the purchaser is a judgment, execution thereon, levy and the sheriff’s deed.—Ware v. Bradford, 2 Ala. 676; Love v. Powell, 5 ib. 58; Smith v. Houston, 16 ib. 111— see also Chambers v. Stone & Pope, 9 ib. 260. The only question which can arise in this connection respects the lien of the judgment.

In Sellers & Cook v. Hayes, 11 Ala. 749, we held that where the bill of exceptions showed that the land was sold under a pluries execution, we were bound to presume that other executions were issued, and that in the absence of objections taken in the court below, that they were regularly issued, so as to prevent the judgment from becoming dormant. In the case before us, the record recites that the land in controversy was sold under an alias execution, and it does not appear that any objection was made in the court below, as to the regularity of such alias. It is then obvious, the two cases are entirely analogous. The case of Sellers & Cook v. Hayes, we think, correctly states the law. The term alias necessarily imports that a prior..execution issued. To determine the time of its issue, we are driven to presumption. The defendant says, it was not issued within a year and a day, but after that time, when according to the statute the judgment will .be presumed to be satisfied. On the other hand, the plaintiff says, the issue of the execution being the official act of a public officer, cannot be presumed irregular, upon the maxim,, that all acts are presumed to be rightly done. The law is, that when acts are of an official nature, a presumption arises in favor ■of their due execution. — Broom’s Legal Maxims, 427-8, and cases cited; 2 Phil. Ev., (C. & H. Notes,). 296-7, and the numerous cases there cited. Where such presumption arises, the party asserting such irregularity must prove it, as he could have done in this case, had such been the fact.

3. Having disposed of the preliminary questions raised to the sufficiency of the evidence to establish such a title as would, maintain the action of the plaintiff, let us next consider the defendant’s title, and ascertain whether it is paramount to that of the plaintiff. He showed a deed from Lindsey to one Huggins,. dated in February, 1840, but which was never recorded in the [195]*195county of Tallapoosa until after the purchase was made by Cocke, but a copy of which was placed upon the record of deeds in Macon county, which copy Cocke saw before his purchase; also, a sheriff’s deed to Pollard, who purchased under an execution against Huggins upon a judgment rendered in 1842, at a sale of said land in September, 1847. This was one chain of title. Pollard also showed a judgment rendered in *the Circuit Coiu-t of the United States for the Southern District of Alabama, against said Lindsey, rendered in April, 1839; an alias

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Bluebook (online)
19 Ala. 188, Counsel Stack Legal Research, https://law.counselstack.com/opinion/pollard-v-cocke-ala-1851.