Valentine v. Seiss

Briscoe, J., delivered the opinion of the Court. The appeal is taken in this case from a decree setting aside the sale of land made by a trustee, appointed by the Circuit Court for Frederick county, and from an order dismissing a supplemental bill filed in the same case. An agreed statement of facts is incorporated in the record, and forms a part of the testimony of the case. It appears that on the 10th of June, 1889, Frederick C. O. Seiss, Barbara Ann Y. Heagey, and Mary A. E. Dotterer were owners in fee and tenants in common of certain lands situate in Frederick county, Maryland.

On the 10th of June, 1889, Mary A. E. Dotterer, widow, by a deed or release conveyed to Daniel L. Seiss, Jr., all her right, title, and interest in said land, in consideration of the sum of one thousand dollars, which was paid, and the purchaser put into possession. The deed is signed by the grantor in the presence of a witness, but is not acknowledged before an officer authorized to take acknowledgment of deeds, and was not recorded until the 14th day of March, 1893. Sometime in July, 1890, the appellant obtained a judgment against Mary A. E. Dotterer for the sum of $95.79 on a claim contracted subsequent to the date of the alleged conveyance to Seiss, which judgment was duly recorded among the magistrates’ judgments in the clerk’s office of the Circuit court for Frederick county. Shortly afterwards, on the 29th of June, 1892, a fieri facias was issued on this judgment, and the interest of Mary A. E. Dotterer was sold at sheriff’s sale to the appellant, Valentine, and con ¹⁸⁹ veyed to him by a duly executed and recorded deed, dated the 12th of August, 1892.

Subsequently, on the 31st of August, 1892, a bill was filed by the plaintiff for a sale of the whole property, and a decree was obtained against the defendants for its sale, on the ground that it was not susceptible of partition without loss and injury to the parties interested. And on the 21st of April, 1893, the property was purchased at this sale by the appellant in the case. There are three objections filed to the ratification of the sale: First. Because the plaintiff acquired no title to the land under the sheriff’s sale and deed.

Second. Because Mrs. Dotterer liad no interest in the land at the time of the rendition of the judgment against her, she having sold her interest to Daniel L. Seiss, Jr. Third. Because of inadequacy of price. There was a supplemental bill filed on the 26th of June, 1893, by the appellant against the defendants in the original bill and Daniel L. Seiss, Jr., asking to have the conveyance from Mrs. Dotterer to Daniel Seiss, Jr., vacated and annulled as a cloud upon his title; and it is alleged in this bill that the purchaser had nb notice or knowledge of the paper purporting to be a deed, until after the property had been purchased at the trustee’s sale.

It was ordered that all further proceedings in the case be postponed until a decree was obtained on said supplemental bill. And this appeal is from the order vacating the sale made by the trustee, and dismissing the supplemental bill. The main question, then, upon this state of case, is, what interest or title to this land did the purchaser take at the sheriff’s sale on August 12th, 1892? And this depends upon the validity of the contract of sale of the 10th of June, 1889.

The general principle that a contract which creates a specific lien on real property has a superior equity to the general lien of a subsequent judgment, has long ¹⁹⁰ since been settled by a number of decisions and by this Court. In the case of Hampson vs. Edelin, 2 Harris & J., 64, it was held, “that a contract for the purchase of land bona fide made for a valuable consideration, vests the equitable interest in the vendee from the time of the execution of the contract, although the money is not paid at that time. A judgment obtained by a third person against the vendor, mesne the mailing the contract and payment of the money, cannot defeat the equitable interest thus acquired, nor is it a lien on the land