Green v. Rule
Green v. Rule
Opinion of the Court
delivered the opinion of the court.
The appellee Mrs. Lida Rule, and others, filed their bill against R. R. Green and others to enforce an equitable vendor’s lien for the purchase money of certain land sold by appellees to appellants. From a decree overruling a demurrer to the bill, this appeal is taken.
The bill charges that complainants conveyed the property to R. R. Green in consideration of two notes, each for the sum of one thousand, seven hundred and fifty-seven dollars and forty-two cents executed by one J. W. Riddell. The vendee warranted the payment of the notes to the vendor. The notes proved to be worthless, and the purchase price of the land remained unpaid.
The bill further charges there was an agreement and understanding between the vendor and vendee that a lien upon the land was retained for the purchase money, notwithstanding the purchase money was represented by the said two notes executed by the outside party, J. W. Riddell; that the subsequent incumbrance to one of the appellants was taken with notice of the fact that the vendor’s lien for the purchase money existed and was retained upon the land.
The question presented for our decision is whether or not an implied lien can be, and was, retained under the terms of the deed here involved. The appellant urges the view that the Riddell notes assigned and warranted by the grantee, appellant, was an independent and distinct obligation accepted as a security, or as a payment, for the purchase money, and that therefore there was no implied vendor’s lien, or that it was thereby waived.
The opposite contention of appellees is that: First, the notes assigned as a consideration in the deed repre
After careful consideration of the question presented and an extensive review of the authorities on the point, we think there was an equitable or implied lien upon the land in favor of the vendor, appellee, for the purchase money. The notes assigned by the vendee, appellant, the payment of which was warranted by him, represented the purchase price of the land, and when the notes proved worthless the purchase money remained unpaid, and the vendor’s lien, if not waived, still existed to secure its payment. Pitts v. Parker, 44 Miss. 247. And if the lien was not waived on account of the acceptance of the notes executed by the outside third party, as was done in the case before us, then the lien is valid and enforceable against the land.
Our court has held the acceptance of an independent and separate security by the vendor for the balance of the purchase money is, prima facie, a waiver of the- vendor’s lien. But it is unnecessary for us to decide in this case whether or not the guaranteed notes of the third party transferred here was an independent and outside security for the purchase money, because if it be conceded that the notes assigned to the vendor by the vendee was an independent obligation which would presumptively waive the purchase-money lien, still the law is that the intent of the parties as to whether the lien was waived may be shown by parol testimony; and since the bill charges it was agreed between the seller and purchaser that
Therefore the decree of the chancellor overruling the demurrer to the hill was correct, and is affirmed, the cause remanded, and the appellant allowed thirty days in which to plead further after mandate reaches lower court.
Affirmed and remanded.
Case-law data current through December 31, 2025. Source: CourtListener bulk data.