Atkinson v. Beall
Atkinson v. Beall
Opinion of the Court
Jenkins, J., delivering the opinion.’
It is manifest that the complainant has no legal estate in the premises, the subject of litigation. The conveyance was directly to herself, she being at the time a feme covert, and there is nothing in the deed indicating an intention to create a separate estate in her. Nor is there any evidence that at the time of this conveyance her husband assented to it. The consequence is, that upon the conveyance to her, the marital rights of the husband attached to the premises, and immediately, thereupon, the joint possession of the husband and wife supervened. But, in legal contemplation, the fact patent to the world was his possession. The equity relied upon by her to defeat the title of the defendant, Beall, derived under a sheriff’s sale, to satisfy a judgment against the husband, is a parol agreement between herself and husband, contemporaneous with the marriage, touching a chose in action, then and previously possessed by her, the fruit of which was the consideration paid for the land in dispute, and a notice given by her to Beall, before the sheriff’s sale, “ that she had a separate estate in the land.”
It may be conceded, for the argument, that the facts disclosed in the bill establish an equity in the wife available against the husband, or any one acquiring title directly from him, with full knowledge of those facts. But Beall did not purchase directly from him, nor' does it appear that he had full knowledge of the facts. Her statement to him that she had a separate estate in the land was but an assertion of a right, and it was positively weakened by the only fact which she brought to his knowledge, viz: the conveyance to herself, which she deemed sufficient. That, unqualified by the assent of the husband, or the antecedent circumstances, would have been unavailable even against him. How, then, could that conveyance, per se, affect Beall ?
But would Beall’s title have been affected by full notice of all the facts alleged in the bill ? In Shepherd vs. Burkhalter, 13 Ga., 443, and Smith vs. Jordan, 25 Ga., 687, it was held that the lien of a mortgage, not legally recorded,
I put out of view the allegations of error in the sheriff’s levy and advertisement, quoad the description of the property. If there be fatal error in these, it is available at law to any litigant against whom the defendant in error may set up title. It has no connection with the peculiar equity of the plaintiff in error, and cannot be invoked to strengthen it.
Let the judgment be affirmed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- Elizabeth F. Atkinson, by her next friend, Henry R. Thomas, in error v. Otho P. Beall and Isaac E. Bower, in error
- Cited By
- 1 case
- Status
- Published