Wilson v. Deweese
Wilson v. Deweese
Opinion of the Court
The allegation in a complaint that the father of the plaintiffs “purchased the said land (that in controversy) and paid for the same and was entitled to the grant from the State of North Carolina on the payment of the grant fees for the same,” where such lands were located within the boundary known as the “Cherokee Lands,” is a sufficient declaration that the charges of the State, under the law applicable to that body of land, had been paid to the proper officer, and that nothing remained to be done in order to perfect the title but to procure a grant from the Secretary of State upon exhibiting the proper certificates of survey and paying the commissions allowed that officer for issuing it. The charges for the land having been paid in full, the interest of Joseph Wilson was no longer in the nature of an inchoate equity, but was like that of a vendee holding a bond for title or contract for purchase of land, ■and who has paid the whole of the stipulated price. Hinsdale v. Thornton, 75 N. C., 381. Both the interest of the vendee and of the proposed purchaser, who has paid the price agreed upon between himself and the agents of the
If Joseph Wilson had.paid the notes given for the purchase at one of the sales of Cherokee land, as we may infer from the language employed in the complaint, his administrators might treat the interest as a part of his real estate and procure a decree for a sale of it to make assets. They might assign it to the purchaser at the sale made under such decree, and on the failure of such purchaser to pay the price lor which he gave his note the interest might, like that of a vendee who has paid all of the purchase-money and upon the same principle, have been sold under execution to satisfy the judgment for the unpaid price. But the allegation that “in the administration of the estate of said deceased they sold the said lands and assigned the certificates of survey” is nota sufficient averment that the sale -was made under lawful authority or by virtue of a decree of a competent court, which alone would authorize the intermeddling of administrators with the real estate of a decedent. The statutes which permit personal representatives to sell land under a license to make assets are in
For the reasons given we think that the Court erred in sustaining the demurrer. The judgment must bo reversed. The demurrer should have been overruled and the defendants allowed to answer over upon such terms as the Court saw fit to prescribe. Reversed.
Reference
- Full Case Name
- T. N. WILSON v. D. W. DEWEESE
- Status
- Published
- Syllabus
- Equity in Land Subject to Execution — Administrator’s Sale of Land. 1. An allegation in a complaint tliat one purchased the land in controversy and paid for the same and was entitled to a grant from the State on the payment of the grant fees (where such land is a part of the “Cherokee Lands”) is a.sufficient declaration that the charges have been paid to the proper officer and that nothing remains to he done hut to procure a grant from the Secretary of State in the usual way. 2. One who has purchased lands within the “Cherokee Land” boundary, and has paid for them and is entitled to a grant on payment of the grant fees, has a vested equitable estate therein which is subject to . execution. ' 3. An allegation that “ the administrators, in the administration of the estate of deceased, sold certain lands and assigned the certificate of survey,” is not a sufficient averment of a sale under lawful authority, but in an action to recover such lands such insufficiency is cured by the allegation that the administrator obtained judgment on the notes given for the purchase of such lands and had the same sold under execution, for, in such case, the law presumes that the Court acted properly in rendering the judgment and will not permit it, or the sale made under it, to be attacked in an indirect and collateral way.