Walker v. Braden
Walker v. Braden
Opinion of the Court
The opinion of the court was delivered by
This case has once before been in this court. (Walker v. Braden, 34 Kas. 660.) It appears that the defendant in error, W. H. Braden, as sheriff of Crawford county, had three executions in his hands, issued from the district court of said county against the property of McFarland & Moore, under which executions he levied upon certain personal property known as the “Anchor Mill,” seizing the same as the property of McFarland & Moore. The executions, with interest and costs, amounted in the aggregate to $596.42. The property levied upon was worth $1,500. The plaintiff in error, A. B. Walker, had a valid chattel mortgage upon the property for the sum of $1,200, and interest. The sheriff, Braden, sold the property at public sale, and Walker bid upon it and purchased the same for $1,600. Afterward, Walker refused to pay the amount of his bid, and the sheriff, Braden, sued him therefor in said district court and obtained a judgment for the same, which judgment was afterward affirmed by the supreme court. But the supreme court, however, in affirming the judgment, used the following among other language :
“The debt for which the property was sold is only $535.42, and if the mortgage of the plaintiff in error is valid and subsisting, he may by appropriate action reach the surplus fund derived from the sale of the property and have it applied upon his debt, and thus be partially relieved, from the effect of his blunder and the hardship of which he complains.” (34 Kas. 669, 670.)
After such affirmauce, Walker paid and satisfied the aforesaid executions and the judgments upon which they were issued, which in the aggregate, with interest and costs, then amounted to the sum of $664.52, leaving a surplus of $935.48 on Walker’s bid, and he then instituted this proceeding in
We think the court below erred. “When there are surplus moneys arising from the sale of lands on execution, those having liens upon the lands sold have the same liens upon the surplus moneys which they had upon the lands previous to such sale.” (Crocker, on Sheriffs, § 507. See also Mitchell v. Milhoan, 11 Kas. 617; Butler v. Craig, 29 id. 205, 206, 207, and cases there cited; Averill v. Loucks, 6 Barb. 470; Van Nest v. Yeomans, 1 Wend. 88.) This same rule applies, we think, to personal property.
Ordinarily when a sheriff sells property on execution, he should, after satisfying the execution, with interest and costs, pay any surplus of the proceeds of the sale remaining in his hands to the defendant in the execution, or to his legal representatives. Whether he might in any case, upon his own volition and choice, pay such surplus to some other person who might have the paramount right thereto, we need not now determine; but we do determine that where some other person than the defendant in the execution, or his legal representative, has the paramount right thereto, the court from which the execution was issued may, in any proper proceeding instituted before it for that purpose, with all the interested parties
The judgment of the court below will be reversed.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.