Brown v. McCullough
Brown v. McCullough
Opinion of the Court
Opinion by
The opinion of the learned president judge of the court below, which will be found in the report of this case, fully sustains appellee’s- right to subrogation. The appellee agreed at the argument that the decree should be modified so as to subordinate his claim to the lien of the Manayunk National Bank. It is within appellee’s
The complaint that the defendants, cotenants, had a set-off or claim against James A. McCullough, which
Where the joint judgment or lien is de terris, concerning which the right to be subrogated exists, this right would not include the right to have a personal judgment or decree against those who are bound to contribute through the remedy of subrogation. Taxes and municipal claims are liens against specific land. Where one of several cotenants pays them, his equity of contribution would be limited to the land involved. He would be entitled to a decree directing the sum due from his cotenants to be paid from these lands, and would be entitled to be subrogated to just such rights which the lien creditors possessed and no more. The first paragraph of the decree is clearly an order directing the defendants to personally pay the sum therein mentioned, due as contribution. This part of the decree was beyond the power of the court to make.
The decree will be modified by limiting the collection of the amounts therein named to the land described in the decree. This is practically the effect of the second paragraph of the decree. The decree to be further modified by postponing the tax and municipal liens of
Reference
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- Syllabus
- Equity — Subrogation—Taxes and municipal liens — Sale of undivided interest in land — Contribution. 1. Where there is a sale of an undivided one-third interest in land and taxes and municipal liens which are charged against the whole interest in the land are paid out of the proceeds of a one-third interest, the judgment creditor whose fund is diminished by such payment of taxes and municipal liens out of the fund, is subrogated to the right of the owner of the one-third interest to contribution for taxes and municipal liens as against the owners of the other two-thirds. Equity — Want of party — Waiver of relief. 2. At the hearing of an equity case the plaintiff may obviate an objection for want of a particular party by waiving the relief he is entitled to against that party. Equity — Subrogation—Laches. 3. While a person entitled to subrogation may by delay lose his right to enforce it against an intervening party, he does not by such laches alone lose it against the other original parties from whom he could enforce contribution. 4. Where land subject to taxes and municipal liens is owned by three persons in eommon, and one of the owners while he is indebted to the other two, sells the land, and afterwards the interest thus sold is again sold on execution and the proceeds used to pay off liens against all the interests in the land, the right to subrogation will not be defeated because the original cotenant was indebted to the other cotenants. 5. Where one of several cotenants pays taxes and municipal liens on the land his equity of contribution will be limited to the land involved, and he will not be entitled to a personal judgment or decree' against those who are bound to contribute through the remedy of subrogation.