Patterson v. Latrobe

Miller, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. We éntertain no doubt as to the power of a Court of equity, upon a proper case being made by the alleged ¹⁹⁵ purchasers, to rescind an order ratifying a sale reported by its trustee. Whether the appellants are entitled to that relief in the present case, depends first upon the question whether they ever became purchasers, in fact or not, and that question must be determined by the evidence in the record. The record as supplemented by agreement of counsel, shows, that upon a bill filed in the Circuit Court of Baltimore City in 1866, for the sale, for purpose of partition, of certain land in Queen Anne’s County, a decree for a sale was passed, and J. A. Preston, Esq., was appointed trustee to make the same.

The parties who were entitled to the land by descent, and to the proceeds of sale, were three brothers, John H. Patterson, Frederick E. Patterson and James Orville Patterson, and the children of a deceased brother, Alfred Patterson, all of whom were parties to the proceedings which resulted in the decree. The trustee advertised the property on two or more occasions without effect, and finally offered it at the Exchange on the 10th of November, J 868, and on the 13th of that month he reported to the Court, that he had sold the property at public action at the Exchange “to Frederick E. Patterson, James Orville Patterson and John H. Patterson, for the sum of $5000, the said parties being the highest bidders therefor.” The sale thus reported was duly ratified by an order of Court, and an account was stated by the auditor distributing the net proceeds to the parties interested, which was also finally ratified on the 26th of December, 1868, and the trustee was directed to apply the proceeds of sale accordingly. The alleged purchasers, however, never paid any part of the purchase money, and no effort was made by the trustee to collect it from them. As soon as they learned they had been reported as purchasers, they at once disavowed the purchase, insisted they never became and never intended to become the purchasers of the property, and on the 7th of August, 1876, ¹⁹⁶ filed their petition praying that the order of ratification be rescinded and the reported sale rejected.

The testimony taken under this petition and the answers thereto is quite voluminous, and we have examined it with care. It has convinced us that the appellants never did purchase this property, and that the trustee reported them as purchasers under a mistaken or erroneous impression upon the subject. In his own testimony he is not positive, but says he understood the property was purchased by them, and when the bid of $5000, at which it was struck off was made, he is not certain whether it was made by Mr. Harris or Mr. Frederick Patterson, but when it was made he understood the property was purchased by these three parties, and he believed he had authority to report them as purchasers, and would not have done so unless he had so believed. But the decided weight of evidence, and the circumstances of the case, show that this bid was made by Mr. Harris at the instance and instruction of Mr. Frederick Patterson, and with the consent of the trustee, to prevent the property from being sold at a less sum, (the expectation being that more would be bid) and not for the purpose of binding these