Condon v. Gray
Condon v. Gray
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the Court:
In the case of Condon vs. Gray, a question of practice is raised on the right of appeal from an order of the Court below.
This was a bill filed for a sale of real estate to pay certain legacies. The property was sold, the sale reported and Jeremiah Dwyer, one of the parties to • the suit, who was in
The purchaser then applied to the Court for an order upon the wife to deliver possession; and, after some proceedings unnecessary to mention, she filed her answer showing cause, and there was an absolute order upon her to deliver possession. From that order she appeals to this Court; and the purchaser moves to dismiss the appeal on the ground that it was not an appealable order.
We may, perhaps, be assisted in reaching a conclusion in the matter by considering first what would have been the attitude and rights of Jeremiah Dwyer himself if he had survived. When a chancery sale is confirmed and the terms are complied with, the purchaser has a right, as of course, to an order against the party in possession, if he is a party to the suit, or is holding under a party to the suit, to deliver possession to him. That order is ordinarily in the nisi form, because it might turn out that the defendant was holding under some title not adjudicated by the decree, as a lease originating before the institution of the suit or something of that kind; but, in the absence of that showing, the purchaser is entitled, as of course, to an absolute order for possession. That order is in the pature of an order for. the execution of the decree.
In the case McKomb vs. Kankey, found in the notes to
But this case is peculiar. Here the order ratifying the sale was appealed from by the party in possession of the property. He did not execute a supersedeas bond, but simply a bond for costs. Now, it cannot be allowed that after appealing from the order ratifying the sale, he can also appeal from the order for possession, passed to carry out that first order upon exactly the same ground on which he
In this case the party in possession, who was a party to the suit, had full opportunity of showing some grounds against the making of the order for possession below. He had ten days during his life-time — in fact, twenty days, I may say — if I have the dates right; but he failed to show any cause at all why the conditional order nisi should not be made absolute. Since his death his widow has not shown any new matter on which he might have called for a new adjudication by the court below. She has shown cause which is personal to herself entirely, but none which would have been personal to Dwyer if he had lived; so that, as far as the case appears, there is nothing new since the order ratifying the sale which could be shown by him as cause against the final order for possession. Therefore, it appears upon the record that if Dwyer had lived, there must have been a final and unappealable order for possession as against him. Unless something new has been shown we
Is the state of the case changed by his death ? In other words, does his death put his family in any better position than he occupied himself? It seems to us it does not. Mrs. Dwyer might have shown, if the facts were so, that Dwyer’s interest in this property had been settled for her separate use and had not been adjudged to be sold by the decree. In that case, she would have been entitled to call on the Court below to decide upon her claim for possession, and if the decision had been adverse to her, she would have had the right to appeal. But she does not show any title whatever in herself. She admits that she is acting simply under her husband. The final order against her for possession is just the order that must have been rendered against her husband if he had lived; and, he having already appealed from the order ratifying the sale, and she having shown no new ground for further appeal, we do not think that final order for possession was an appealable order.
The appeal is, therefore, dismissed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- AGNES K. CONDON v. WM. A. GRAY
- Status
- Published