Thornton v. Fairfax

70 Va. 669
Supreme Court of Virginia·Decided January 17, 1878·Published·Cited by 1 cases

Opinion

Anderson, J.,

delivered the opinion of the court.

Joseph Dickinson Thorp, at the June term, 1870, of the circuit court of Fairfax county, filed his petition in a cause depending in said court, wherein Reginald Fairfax was plaintiff and Benjamin Thornton and others were defendants, claiming to have acquired certain liens upon the lands of Benjamin Thornton, which had been affirmed by a decree in said cause, and for the satisfaction of which, together with other liens thereon, the said lands were decreed to be sold. At the sale Joseph Thornton became the purchaser at the price of $47,474.70, and complied with the terms of the sale by making the cash payment and executing bonds for the deferred payments. The decree for the sale was pronounced at the June term, 1866, and the sale was made on the 17th clay of July following, which was confirmed by a subsequent decree of the comí, and the purchaser required to pay his bonds for the deferred payments as they fell due to the receiver of the court. The petitioner asks that the receiver be required to report what amount of the purchase money, if any, had been paid to him, that the same [677] be applied to the satisfaction of the lien which he had acquired and which had been passed upon by the court, that a resale of the lands for so much of the purchase money as remained unpaid be directed, and that other commissioners be appointed to make the sale in the place of two of them, who had died since the sale.

It was competent for the petitioner, though not a party to the suit, but who had acquired, subsequent to the bringing of the suit, the liens of those, who were parties, to ask the court by petition, or by motion to require a report from the receiver, showing the amount of the purchase money, if any, that was in bis hands, and to apply it in satisfaction of the liens, according to their priorities, as had been adjudicated, and to direct a resale of the land for the balance of the purchase money due pursuant to the decree of sale. It was only asking the court to execute its decree. 27or was it necessary that he should have proceeded by bill for that purpose, or to have made the purchaser a party defendant to his petition, or to have required him to answer. He was a qinsi party to the suit, and subject to the jurisdiction of the court, (Clarkson v. Read & als., 15 Gratt. 288), and must be held to have known the terms of the decree unde]’ which he purchased, which required a resale of the land if the purchase money was not paid. The validity and priority of the liens had already been • adjudicated, and Thorp only asked that the decree should be carried into execution, and sot out in his petition only what was necessary to show that he had an interest which entitled him to move in the matter.

It was of no interest to the purchaser as such, whether the petitioner or the parties litigant were entitled to the liens, and there was no contest between them. The question whether the lands should be resold was unaffected by the question, if there had been such, whether [678] the liens belonged to'the parties litigant, or to Joseph Thorp, who claimed to have acquired them. If the proceeding of Thorp was to assert a claim against parties to the

suit, wlfose interests he claimed to have acquired subseduent the institution of the suit, and which claim was disputed by them, then it would have been proper for him to have asserted his claim by supplemental bill, or by an original bill in the nature of a supplemental bill. But they did not contest his right, and the matters relied upon by Joseph Thornton in resisting the resale were extraneous to the issues of the pending suit, and were matters which it devolved on him to show.

But before there could be a decree of resale it was proper and necessary that the purchaser should have notice of the proceeding. The practice which has received the santion of this court is to proceed by the service of a rule on the purchaser to show cause why the lands should not be resold. And upon the filing of Thorp’s petition and the report of the receiver, showing that the purchase money had not all been made, the court might have directed the rule. That does not appear to have been done, but the purchaser had notice of the proceeding, and came forward to show cause in his own chosen way. There was no need, therefore, for a rule. He appeared by counsel; he claimed to be the holder of the securities himself, and the right to set them oil against his bonds for the balance of purchase money, and contested the petitioner’s right to them. He took depositions and cross-examined the petitioner’s witnesses; he appeared before the master, by counsel, and excepted to his report; he appeared in court, by counsel, in support of his exception, and had the report recommitted. In a word, by his counsel in court and out of court, in every way he thought advisable, he asserted his claim and resisted Thorp’s. He might have moved the court [679] for leave to answer Thorp’s petition, if he desired to do so; or he might have filed a supplemental bill, or an original bill in the nature of a supplemental bill, and put the matters in issue on which he relied and which rested with him, and made Thorp and Rittenhouse, Fant & Co., and others defendants, and compelled them to answer on oath, and in that mode contested Thorp’s claim and asserted his own, if he wished to have the benefit of his •own answer or of theirs. But he preferred to assert his •claim and to show cause against a resale in a different mode. He made no objection to the mode by which the •court proceeded, but acquiesced in it and adopted it as the mode of asserting Jiis claim and resisting a resale, and he is estopped now to object to it.

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Thornton v. Fairfax, 70 Va. 669 (Va. 1878).

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