Brown v. Hunter
Brown v. Hunter
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The present suit is the outgrowth of the various actions between the Bassick Mining Company and its creditors. In 1885 one Sehoolfield commenced a suit against the company to enforce a lien against the property of the corporation, and therein one James W. Kurtz was appointed receiver of all its estate and property. Divers other persons became parties, claiming liens on various grounds, and the action proceeded to judgment, decree and sale. After the sale, and the distribution of the funds, the receiver rendered his accounts to the court, was allowed his compensation and discharged
Since the decree or judgment in favor of Kurtz was without validity, there remains but practically two questions to be settled in this case. The complaint was demurred to on the ground that it did not state facts sufficient to constitute a cause of action. The defects, if any, were in its averments as to the invalidity of the judgment. It was not open to the objection. Greater fullness of statement would probably have tended to clearness and certainty, but its averments were not lacking in what was essential to the statement of a cause of action, and under it the plaintiff could have made proof of everything necessary to show that the judgment was without legal force.
The other inquiry concerns the right of the plaintiff
There is a well recognized difference between the rights of a purchaser at an execution sale where the' process is voidable, and where some interest which the defendant has passes to the purchaser, and those wherein it is made under a void judgment whereby the purchaser acquires nothing by his bid. Under these latter circumstances it is very generally held that the sale transfers no right. Barrett v. Churchill, 18 B. Monroe, 387; Thrift v. Frittz, 7 Brad. 55 ; Boykin, Exr., et al. v. Cook, 61 Ala. 472; Burns v. Ledbetter, 56 Tex. 282.
The purchaser under these circumstances, according to the authorities, can pursue either one of the two remedies which are necessary to preserve his rights. He may resist the payment of the purchase money if it has not been paid, or he may recover it as upon a contract without consideration if* he has parted with the price.
The redemptioner seems to occupy precisely the same situation. The attempted redemption from a void sale brings no right to him who exercises the privilege. The creditor under the void judgment is certainly not entitled to the money, for he acquired nothing by his purchase, and there is nothing which can be transferred derivatively from him to the redemptioner. The redemptioner should therefore be
In sustaining the demurrer to the complaint the court erred, and the judgment is accordingly reversed.
Reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.