Moore v. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co.
Moore v. Hartford Accident & Indemnity Co.
Opinion of the Court
The plaintiff in error contends that the defendant’s surety is liable in damages because the Clerk of Carroll Superior Court violated the following Code provision: Code § 24-2715(8): “The Clerk of the Superior Court shall provide at the expense of each county, a duplex index book wherein shall be indexed the names of grantor and grantee of every instrument recorded in his office, the character of the instrument, date of the instrument, book where recorded and the date of the record.” Assuming but not deciding that a breach of said Code section would render the clerk and the surety on his bond liable, we do not think that under the facts alleged in the petition the clerk violated the duties imposed by this Code section. The law does not define what a grantor is. We have found no cases defining what a grantor is with reference to the indexing of records. The common acceptance and meaning of the word grantor is that he is one who transfers title to another regardless of whose title is being transferred. The clerks of the superior courts in Georgia are not required to be lawyers nor expert title examiners and we think that it would be unwise and unjust to require of the clerks of the superior courts the duty to ascertain the technical aspects of title examination, the indexing of deeds and the effect of indexing on a search for deeds or other conveyances before recording and indexing deeds. The deed in this case from the receiver purported to pass the title to the grantee and while this is not determinative, the petition does not show that the title to the property conveyed by the receiver was not in the receiver under the order of the court in the receivership proceeding if it be conceded that technically
There is another reason why the court was correct in sustaining the general demurrer to the petition. Code § 39-1307 provides: “The purchaser shall look for himself as to the title and soundness of all property sold under judicial process. Actual fraud or misrepresentation by the officer or his agent may bind him personally. No covenant of warranty shall bind him individually, unless made with the intention and for a valuable consideration.” This rule of caveat emptor applies to administrator sales. See, Jones v. Warnock, 67 Ga. 484(2) ; Keen v. McAfee, 116 Ga. 728, 731 (42 S. E. 1022); Holmes v. Holmes, 140 Ga. 217 (78 S. E. 903); Peek v. Peek, 166 Ga. 166 (142 S. E. 553); Kurfees v. Davis, 178 Ga. 429 (173 S. E. 157, 160); Brady v. Smotherman, 51 Ga. App. 480 (180 S. E. 862); Kirkland v. Wade, 61 Ga. 478 (68 A.L.R. 672); Wells v. Harper, 81 Ga. 194 (6 S. E. 913, 12 Am. St. Rep. 310) Mercer v. Sager, 129 Ga. 123 (58 S. E. 1037); Thrift Bros. v. Baker, 144 Ga. 508 (87 S. E. 676). Code § 113-1714 provides: “An administrator may not sell property held adversely to the estate by a third person; he shall first recover possession.” The petition in this case does not show that the administrator was in possession of the property sold to the plaintiff. While the petition does show that the plaintiff surrendered possession of the property after the judgment rendered against him in the United States District Court, it does not necessarily show that the
Judgment affirmed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.